Thy Art Is Murder has officially kicked-out their lead singer and frontman Chris McMahon following a “breakdown in his character.”
McMahon, who joined the deathcore group back in 2009, has recently been under fire after he posted anti-trans content on his social media. According to MetalSucks, McMahon posted a video — which is now unavailable — where a women told her child “you can be both” when responding that they identify as both a boy and a girl. He commented on the video noting that he disagreed with the child’s right and the woman in the video should be “burned to death.”
Following the comments, McMahon released an apology video from the band’s Instagram account, however, in a newly-released video, he said he was forced to make the apology video by the band. He said he “didn’t want to apologize as I didn’t have anything to apologize for.”
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Nonetheless, Thy Art Is Murder called the entire incident “the straw that broke the camel’s back” after “another symptom of the drawn our breakdown in his character and judgement.” The band released a statement on social media, noting that the “fallout has been immense” with McMahon and “we were lobbed with threats to destroy Thy Art Is Murder from the inside if we did not capitulate the various ideologies that [McMahon] holds.”
“Everyone has their own right to free speech and to seek their truth; they are also free to receive the consequences that come with it,” the band said.
To fans’ — and McMahon’s — surprise, McMahon’s vocals are not featured on their new record, Godlike, which just dropped on Friday. The band noted that the decision was made “to preserve the band’s integrity and direction.” McMahon, who found out the news on Instagram, said “it’s not the whole story” and circled back to his original comment, “burn everyone to death.”
Fans and artists in the scene commented on both sides of the spectrum. While some stood by McMahon for expressing his free speech, including Falling In Reverse’s Ronnie Radke, others backed the band for standing up to transphobia.
https://twitter.com/RonnieRadke/status/1705294932674539635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1705294932674539635%7Ctwgr%5Ef4798481b6e1c068af11e52172fadef433d76727%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Floudwire.com%2Fcj-mcmahon-comments-dismissal-from-thy-art-is-murder%2F
Officially wiped all of Thy Art Is Murder’s music from my phone. The pronoun people can have them.
— John Hohensee (@hohen_s2k) September 23, 2023
Thy Art Is Murder, a band who has written songs about committing genocide against whores, fired their vocalist because he said kids shouldn't be subjected to sexuality / gender politics and he is right.
CJ McMahon is based and I will never support Thy Art Is Murder again.
— King Night | Revelation of The Method – 4.20.24 (@KINGxNIGHT_) September 23, 2023
thy art is murder secretly re-recording the vocals on their album then giving that echo chamber bonehead the boot is such a power move
— francis (a honda civic in disguise) (@yungfranxis) September 22, 2023
lmaoooo thy art is murder got rid of CJ thanks to his transphobia, good for them 👏🏻
— matt 📚🍉 (@themattventure) September 22, 2023
Huge props to Thy Art Is Murder for doing the right thing. Fuck transphobia.
— Dustin B. | DusK 🎶 (@ItStartsAtDusK) September 23, 2023
Thy Art Is Murder is already moving on; they will introduce their new vocalist — who re-recorded vocals on the new album — ahead of their Godlike European Tour with WhiteChapel, Fit For An Autopsy, and Spite.
Find tickets to see Thy Art Is Murder on tour this fall via StubHub here.
