Humans are said to be the pinnacle species on our planet: we share a common language, advanced technology, and industry. We attempt to make everyday life easier for one another and band together to form memorable cultures, beliefs, and societies. However, at what cost? We are not only the most advanced species on the planet, but also the most cruel and hateful. Since the dawn of our creation, we have been drawn to inflicting pain upon each other and our environment—bloodshed and war, terraforming Mother Earth, and pulling her roots with machinery and shovels—and the animals. Slaughterhouses, where the mass butchering and torture of sentient creatures on land and sea occurs, serve to fill our stomachs, express luxury cuisines, and most of all—to assert dominance. We are the pinnacle of pain, disciples of agony; we are nothing but hate. In all regards, we are parasites.
This is the ethos of one of Deathcore's most prominent bands in activism, veganism, and brutality: To The Grave. Hailing from Sydney, Australia, the five-piece outfit formed in 2010 has built their status through some of the most pummeling riffs, drumming, and ballistic vocal outrage I've ever seen in this damn genre (I get to listen to a lot in this occupation and have been a fan since 2019—these guys don't fuck around). Releasing their fifth full album and debut through BLKIIBLK, the band drops "Liberation Front," a 10-track beatdown of misanthropy and a call to action for their inflictions on our planet and the saving and survival of the creatures we share the same atmosphere with. The album is unrelenting, uncompromising, and is at your throat throughout its entirety. There is no budging that the message is to liberate animals from their torturers and butchers, and to salvage what's left of the planet we haven't already fucked up beyond repair. We easily justify our horrific acts on other creatures simply because "they're just animals." To The Grave argues, hatefully, No—we are the fucking animals.
"GOD HATES YOU ALL"
Opening the liberation, "MEAT THE HUMANS" sends us straight into our justly-earned slaughter. Panning beats and 80s horror-like synths breathe into the intro before quickly getting slammed by intricate drumming (Connor Kingdom) and severely drop-tuned guitar chugs (Jack Simioni, Nic Webb, Matt Clarke). This is only the start- the track becomes hellish: kicks firing on a cyclic, guitars hemorrhaging and punishing, and vocalist Dane Evans cracking the ground with layered gutturals and high screams. It's a wall of hate. The track lays itself within the wake of technical guitar sections picked between impressive quadruple-picked chugs; drums and kicks that feel like they constantly ramp up into higher gear; and vocals that will bleed into audible hardcore mids before terraforming into Evans’ signature hellbound gutturals. The rising, droning synths added make this opening track cinematic and doomed, and the added, distorted sample of Jack Nicholson's "I'm Going To Bash Your Fucking Brains In" from 1980's The Shining brings it into horrific territory.
No forgiveness is found in "NAIL MARY," previously released as a single; the track turns religious dogma into karmic punishment. Enthralled with nasty vocal blasphemy, thrashing tremolo guitars that only breathe between breakdowns, and some of the best showcasing of Kingdom's drumming on the album. The snare bombs and fills are crisp; he levitates the track between grooves and onslaught with cymbal and kick hammering- and not to mention the face I had hearing the fucking gravity blast midway through. The track is a stake to the heart of zealotry and was accompanied by a vengeful music video, showcasing a man nailing (literally) photos of crossed-out faces of men to a wall. As it progresses, we gather that the photos of these men are workers in a slaughterhouse, shown standing in front of the carcasses of dead animals on hooks and racks. The protagonist deems that if "thou shalt not kill" is to be ignored, then it will be ignored just the same for the butchers. If there is a God, then he is easily bendable.
On 'NAIL MARY', vocalist Dane Evans shares:
“'NAIL MARY' is about how people use religion and god to justify all kinds of atrocities and proclaim dominion over animals. We’re holding a torch (or chainsaw) to any kind of god or follower that demands ritual slaughter with this one and nailing them to the walls.”
"NAIL MARY" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"IN HELL WITH THE REST OF US"
Sensitivity Warning: The following track features unpleasant descriptions and a music video, showcasing various forms and video of real-life animal cruelty, including live video of animals being mutilated, bludgeoned, and gutted alive. Knowing this, I encourage you, the reader, to attempt to digest it, watch it, and become better aware of real-life cruelty towards creatures that are happening across the globe. Just because you close your eyes to the horrors doesn't mean they don't happen. Welcome to planet Earth, fuckers. Population: Us.
Further pressing our murderous faces into the mirror, "TORTURE PORN" is a deathcore-styled protest. High-droning synths and rapid-fire instrumentation channel into catchy grooves, while tearing highs throw misanthropic ideals at higher powers that attempt to shut down movements. The uniqueness in the Australian outfit is that the band, in music and in personal lives, actively fights for their beliefs. They attempt education and actions to support a cruelty-free world, and within those attempts, we were given one of, if not the, most horrific lyric music videos. The 3-and-a-half-minute video showcases live videos taken of law enforcement using force and excessive assault on protestors gathered to condemn the abuse, neglect, and torture of animals in captivity. To hone in on this message, the video is filled with a macabre display of various animals, including pigs, cows, sharks, and fish- all being mutilated, bludgeoned, and dismembered on boats and in slaughterhouses with blunt and sharp weapons. I grew up on horror movies filled with various displays of gore, but the music video is extremely unnerving because it is actually real, and that's the point. To become better aware of a situation, you must take yourself to its bleakest and most violent corner and simply watch. I encourage you to do the same.
"TORTURE PORN" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Ripping us into wrath-filled riffs, pinch harmonics, and rapid technical drum fills, "EYESTALK ABLATIONS" was one of the latest singles released prior to the album's release. Evans is one of Deathcore's best vocalists it has to offer (I have a top 3 list, and he's second), showcasing vocal gymnastics of various consistent, stamina-driven gutturals, lashing highs, and brees- and, most unique is around the 1.5-minute mark, he ramps up his voice to emulate what a fucking chainsaw sounds like when throttled. The vegan Deathcore band is sonically armed to the teeth in a vein of metal that few can actually match up to. For reference: the song title is a term used for the act of removing the eyestalks of female shrimp by burning, pinching, or cutting them. The eyestalks hold a gland that stops the shrimp from reproducing; once forcibly removed, shrimp therefore breed faster. Yes, they also feel the pain fully.
"EYESTALK ABLATIONS" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"THIS PLACE IS A GASCHAMBER"
The album is sonically geared towards anti-human ideals: the belief that we are merely leeches on our planet and its ecosystem, and we deserve total anguish. "LIFE AMONG THE SEPTICS" punishes our humanity, with Evans' mids acting as a form of strangulation- relentless, violent, and waiting for the light to go out. The guitars from Simoni, Webb, and Clarke are mixed so that chugs and breakdowns become a wall of onslaught, while higher-toned leads and technical playing come out crisp, audible, and with a certain bite. "CALF SLICER" amplifies these guitar tones with almost djenty low-tuned grooves that dance with slam-like, low-end dissonant chords. The added synths and choir-like effects open this track to the world before Evans' pig squeals and Kingdom's chinas just as quickly slam it back into its core. "LIMB FROM LAMB" is dooming and feels like it's slowly crawling its way out of the wasteland, with thrall-acquainted guitar bends and chugs stomping its way alongside drums. Anxious guitar leads build into a bleak-felt breakdown, where the drop and sampled screams of agony shook the very canals of my ears behind headphones- before it gets fucking slower.
"LIFE AMONG THE SEPTICS" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
"YOU KNOW THE DRILL" rips us back into fast-paced thrashing power chords and tremolo picking and double kicks, while Evans vocally pulls throats out: quickly malforming from disgusting lows, ripping highs, and eerie distorted speaking all in mere seconds throughout the track. Clarke's bass rumbles something unearthly, while Siminoi and Webb play one of the sickest pinch harmonic-infused breakdowns I've heard since Kublai Khan (this one is way better). Fading out with echoes and Evil Dead-sounding murmurs, we're led into "TERRORFIRE," our first clean, strung track of the album, with a sample of a man speaking in an interview about the atrocities of animal cruelty after discovering what occurs at slaughterhouses and seeing firsthand where his food actually came from. This is a statement track, somber in tone, and points out that what we call 'food' stops becoming 'food' when you see what we do to it while these creatures are still living. We must be the devil for animals.
Closing out To The Grave's call to open every cage, "THE WORLD IS A SLAUGHTERHOUSE" is cinematic and powerful. Grand open chords between rapid chugs and drum fills, and Evans favors high-pitched screams for its choruses and lashes in chainsaw vocal climbs. Guitar solos rip up and down the fretboard before the track cinematically drags its knuckles up before hastily stomping its way out.
"Liberation Front" is To The Grave's most justifiably hateful and most direct collection of tracks the band has produced over their 15+ year career. Being a fan since their first body of work, "Global Warning"- the Australian vegan outfit embodies themselves as the karmic revenge for animals and Mother Nature. They seek justice for the creatures tortured and mistreated in slaughterhouses, fishing boats, and farms globally, channeling that outrage into violent misanthropic ideals directed at the human race. The band gives a crash course in reality, which is unique in that, unlike other artists' messages, it's in the defense of others: sentient and pain-feeling creatures who have no way of protecting themselves and are merely victims of a more overwhelming and sinister species. They achieve this through unnatural vocal bludgeoning, viscerally technical and fast-paced riffs and breakdowns, a drummer who has to have a fucking bionic leg, the use of real-life spoken confessions, and unnerving album artwork and video clips showcasing the atrocities the human race inflicts upon the creatures we cohabit the Earth with. The album is intensely heavy and menacing, and it also educates listeners that Earth has become just another killing floor.
As Evans puts it:
“This is our way of establishing order. The band is built around our way of doing things, and to me this title is just waving that flag. These songs are about direct action, open rescue, abolition, and liberation by any means necessary.”
Catch To The Grave with Crown Magnetar on their current co-headline "The Sawed Off Suffering" tour here:
