Did Thy Art is Murder Rip-Off Most Precious Blood?
Thy Art is Murder is the latest metal band to be barred from Disney venues. This should upset me, but it doesn’t, ’cause a) I can’t believe people are still even bothering to try and book metal shows at Disney venues given how many bands have been barred — at this point, you have to wonder if they’re not just deliberately courting controversy, and b) distancing themselves from a band as horrible as Thy Art is Murder is probably the smartest thing Disney has done since they purchased Lucasfilm.
ANYWAY, I mention this so that the following Twitter exchange between Lambgoat, Most Precious Blood, and Thy Art is murder will all make sense:
Here are the album covers in question, so you can judge for yourself (click to enlarge):
It seems pretty clear that someone ripped-off Most Precious Blood… but in Thy Art is Murder’s defense (eew gross), it may not have been them: it’s entirely possible they hired a graphic artist who pitched them on this design, and they bought it without realizing said designer was aping someone else. I’ve seen that kind of thing happen before.
ALTHOUGH, now that I think of it, it does seem unlikely that Thy Art is Murder would know about the connection between Most Precious Blood and Indecision, but not know about the Our Lady of Annihilation album cover, as they claim…. especially if we take MPB at their word and Thy Art is Murder did, indeed, “follow them to every show” when they were in Australia. I mean, it’s possible Thy Art is Murder just did some quick homework on the net and came up with the Indecision crack, bbbbuuuuuutttttt…
Regardless of who is actually responsible for the, er, “homage,” Most Precious Blood can take comfort knowing that their album cover isn’t just the original — it actually is superior. For one thing, it references an actual religious image with which most of us are already familiar, whereas the Holy War cover looks like it was greatly influenced by Assassin’s Creed. And for another thing, while the Annihilation cover trusts itself to be provocative simply by adding the dynamite belt (you may not even have noticed the New York City skyline at the bottom of the frame), the Thy Art is Murder cover is really, really trying to be provocative by adding a child covered in blood. It’s like the difference between a confident adult calling “bullshit” and a petulant teenager being all “Hey look at me I’m so dangerous aren’t I?”
Also, this probably goes without saying, but: Most Precious Blood can also take comfort knowing that they made not just the far superior album cover, but the far superior album as well. Which is what really counts, right?
