Thy Art is Murder have parted ways with Chris "CJ" McMahon

Australian deathcore heavyweights Thy Art is Murder announced today via the band's Instagram that vocalist Chris "CJ" McMahon was "no longer a part of Thy Art is Murder and does not feature on the record". This news broke on the same day that the band released their sixth full-length album, Godlike, via Human Warfare. 

This announcement comes on the heels of recent controversial social media posts made by McMahon back in August where he reposted a video from Matt Walsh depicting a mother questioning her child about their gender. McMahon commented that the mother in the reposted video "should be burned to death.". The post quickly garnered backlash, leading to McMahon deleting the post and claiming he would be "going off social media for good". A day later, the remaining members of Thy Art Is Murder took to Instagram to express their support for trans rights and condemn McMahon's comment. A few days later, McMahon would release his own statement seen below. 

"Hey guys, CJ here, just wanted to make this video to apologize to everybody that's been upset and offended by the video that I shared and commented horribly on Instagram a few days ago. My intentions weren't to be transphobic in any way, shape or form. And now it's gotten to the point that it really doesn't matter what my intentions were.

I apologize to the LGBTQ+ community and their allies and the people that support them. And I thought I did support them, but obviously my video that I shared and commented horribly on has proved otherwise. To my friends that I have that are trans, please don't take this as me being transphobic. My intentions were very different to be anything other than that.

And I apologize to my band that aren't standing with me and I don't blame them, so yeah, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry."

It was then on Sept 11th, that the band announced their new album's release date would be pushed back a week, releasing instead on Sept 22nd. At the time of the news, the band stated it was "production delays that have been affecting the entire industry for some time but despite our best efforts, we won't have vinyl, CD's and the remaining merch in time for the initial release date." But as of the statement today, that delay was likely due to the band re-recording the vocals on the new album with their as yet to be named new vocalist. 

McMahon joined the band in 2009 and appeared on all of their releases prior to Godlike. At this time, McMahon has yet to issue his own statement regarding his dismissal from the band.