To the Grave are an Australian deathcore band and this is their third album.
Quickly following on from 2023’s Director’s Cuts, To the Grave are back with the 35-minute Everyone’s a Murderer. I wasn’t expecting to hear more new material so soon from them, but I’m not complaining.
Everyone’s a Murderer has more of a stripped back approach than its predecessor, and focuses on tearing out huge breakdowns and thunderous rhythms. I’d argue it’s harsher and more brutal because of this. Everyone’s a Murderer has a greater influence from 00s deathcore than the more contemporary take on the style that Director’s Cut gave us, (although obviously there’s overlap between the two of them).
Each song has its own character within the overarching stylistic framework of the record. The album is an adrenaline rush of heavy groove, slamming heaviness, and brutal hooks. The songs are mercilessly unforgiving, and the dynamic songwriting keeps up the energy levels across every punishing song, (an exception is Gaschamber P.T., which offers a slow and doomy album midpoint).
Around the music’s deathcore heart lie fragments of a few different styles that get thrust into the limelight on occasion, including death metal muscle, hardcore intensity, face-ripping thrash, monstrous downtempo beatdowns, and more besides. The vocals, which were already good previously, have improved in range and delivery, and there are some guests along for the ride too.
Unusually for the style, there’s even a dark menacing atmosphere that covers the music like a charnel stench. Tension, threat, and violence lurk across every second of Everyone’s a Murderer. This is sometimes explicitly unleashed via lethal heaviness, while at other times is left to infect a different aspects of the music such as a tense lead, but is typically delivered as a holistic musical package, rather than separately. This is one of the reasons why To the Grave’s music is as effective as it is. It all successfully makes for a really strong collection of songs that you’d be hard put not to move to.
To the Grave course corrected their deathcore assault on Everyone’s a Murderer and they sound more focused and deadly than ever. This is definitely one for deathcore fans to check out.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 