If you just closed your eyes and listened to Thy Art Is Murder's sophomore album without ever looking at the cover, there's a better than average chance that you could guess that the album is titled Hate.

With punishing percussion, walls of crunching guitars, and guttural vocals, the savagery on display makes it hard to believe that the album could be a testament to anything but the most extreme of emotions.

Although deathcore definitely isn't every metal purist's cup of tea, Thy Art Is Murder have a sound that's mercifully free of a lot of the clichés that plague the genre, and their focus on pushing the limits of intensity rather than just seeing how many breakdowns they can fit into a song makes them a band to watch out for.