Jerry Grimefeld says Thy Art Is Murder are flying him to New Jersey to record vocals, weeks after his surprise debut in Romania.
Thy Art Is Murder have never said what happened to Tyler Miller. They are, however, about to put his replacement on tape.
In a video the Australian band posted to social media today, August 8, new vocalist Jerry Grimefeld said he is being flown to New Jersey to record vocals. No album, timeline or producer was named, and it is not clear when the clip was filmed, since the band still has European tour dates left to play.
The destination is the part worth noting. Thy Art Is Murder have worked repeatedly with Will Putney, the Grammy-winning producer whose Graphic Nature Audio studio sits in Belleville, New Jersey, and who has handled the bulk of their catalogue including 2023’s Godlike. His involvement has not been confirmed, but the geography has fans assuming it.
Grimefeld took the microphone without any prior announcement on July 29, when the band opened a European run at Rockstadt Extreme Festival in Ghimbav, Romania, with Miller nowhere in sight. At the time it was an open question whether the arrangement was a stopgap. The band has since introduced Grimefeld as their vocalist through an Instagram post, and booking studio time with him settles the matter more firmly than any announcement.
Miller‘s exit, meanwhile, remains unexplained. Neither he nor the band has addressed it publicly in the five weeks since the Romania show, and the first public sign of trouble was fans noticing the two had unfollowed each other online.
Grimefeld, also known as Jerry Chard, works as a rapper in his own right and previously spent time in Honest Crooks and Vengeance. He had already deputised for the band at a handful of shows earlier this year before the Romania set began a full tour.
If the sessions produce a record, it will be the band’s third vocalist in three years and the second time they have handed the microphone over mid-cycle. Miller, previously of Aversions Crown, joined at short notice in 2023 after the band cut ties with CJ McMahon over comments he made online that were widely read as transphobic. Godlike had already been finished with McMahon‘s vocals, and Miller re-recorded them. Early CD and vinyl copies still carry the original performance, while streaming and later pressings carry the replacement.
Thy Art Is Murder formed in 2006 in Blacktown, in Western Sydney, and only guitarist Sean Delander remains from the original lineup.
