To The Grave – Everyone’s a Murderer
Release Date: 30th August 2024
Label: Unique Leader Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Deathcore
FFO: Whitechapel, Shadow of Intent, Enterprise Earth.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Deathcore is one of those genres that, no matter how many duds I hear, I will always have room for in my repertoire: why? Because even though the duds are more frequent than in times past, with bands striving for success by utilizing the exact same formula of ‘write a song around a killer breakdown and the vocalist making a snarling beast noise,’ the ones that don’t do this, and actually stand out, are simply stellar. To The Grave’s most recent release, Director’s Cuts, is one of the finest deathcore albums I’ve heard in years, painting them as one of the few deathcore bands from the past 10 years that can stand out from the pack. Hype was high for this new one Everyone’s a Murderer and, though it doesn’t remotely come close to their previous record, the album doesn’t fall prey to the genre’s pitfalls and still manages to hit with enough vigor and vitriol to make you want to come back for more.
One of the aspects of Director’s Cuts that I gravitated towards, in addition to the lack of breakdown necessity, was the use of shrieking vocals to break up the occasional monotony of a deathcore growl. It made the soundscapes that much more punishing and visceral, which is why it’s somewhat of a disappointment that they are used only sporadically on this new record. There are a great many vocal styles used on this new one, though, enough to keep listener’s engaged and almost never allowing for complacency: the gollum-esque shrieks on opener Set Yourself On Fire (In Public), the depths of brutal death metal on Burn Your Local Butcher, the pig squeals on Vegan Day of Violence and Made in Aus, all couple with the always energetic deathcore growls the band brings, along with some guest appearances, to make the vocals on this album one of the highlights, my aforementioned disappointment likely to be an uncommon gripe.
Musically, the band feels as though they’re always on a mission to obliterate everything in their path; earth-shattering breakdowns pepper the record, distorted, chugged riffs a constant presence, along with the unrelenting percussion, it’s simply a relentless bevy of chaos intent on world domination. Off kilter riffs, killer drum fills, stop-start beats, they all greet us early in the record on opener Set Yourself On Fire (In Public), a sign of the maelstrom to come. Groove laden, almost bouncy, riffs and pacing abound on A Body For A Body, Gojira-esque sliding scrapes and unrepentant thrash pierce through the chaos on Burn Your Local Butcher, while machine gun drumming and a shredding solo pair with a cacophony of distorted riffs to close out the record on Dead Wrong. The performances on this are executed with such precision and mastery that the multitude of transitions present on this record are often missed or caught well after the fact, as shifts from mid-tempo chugs to blast beats and tremolo riffs give way to headbanging, anthemic beats and obscenely heavy distortion. The drummer is the clear MVP of this album, what with the vortex of gatling gun drums, constantly shifting fills, technical cymbal work, nearly unrelenting double bass, and even the occasional blast beat, covering almost every second of this record. Seemingly no part of any song is without that mastery behind the kit, and it elevates every song to another level, which is needed on some of this album, as there are portions of this that desperately require elevation.
In spite of the great things the band does on this record, such as bringing in the clean singing brilliance of Sophie Wilcher on Eight Four One Six or throwing in the brief transitional track Gaschamber P.T. smack-dab in the middle of the album, there are moments on this record that will make listeners question if they’re listening to the same band, and those moments are lyrically based. Ordinarily, lyrics in deathcore songs don’t typically matter, at least to this listener, because it’s rare that I can understand them beyond a few words here or there. So, the lyrical content is rarely, if ever, something to focus on. With this record, however, there are some unfortunately cringe worthy moments; shouts of ‘this is To The Grave’, ‘fuck all you people,’ and ‘To The Grave motherfucker’ all stand out for all the wrong reasons on DxE Or Die, quite literally raising gooseflesh from secondhand embarrassment, only to be outdone by a Lamb of God impression as they rip ‘this is a motherfucking invitation’ straight from the song Redneck. Meanwhile, the band seems all too keen to keep utilizing the shouting ‘yeah!’ on Eight Four One Six, outdone only by the awful gang vocals later in the track, exclaiming ‘over your dead body,’ in an overly machismo way. Though it may not seem like a lot, and it might not be to many listeners, the few moments where I can clearly understand the vocals yield almost nothing positive, mostly inherently negative, greatly derailing the flow of some of these songs to where there isn’t enough time to recover.
Having said that piece, however, there is no doubt in my mind that this is still likely to be one of the best deathcore releases of the year; the layered vocals are just as vitriolic as ever, especially with those throat shredding shrieks, while the winding riffs, triplet kicks, blistering pace, and merciless power from the band does what a lot of deathcore bands can’t: they create massively heavy soundscapes without relying on arbitrarily fast beats that are meant only to lead into an inevitable breakdown. There are a lot of things to be really pleased with on this record, as previously mentioned, but it doesn’t take away from the unfortunate fact that this is simply an inferior record to Director’s Cuts. Still, when the bar is set that high, it’s somewhat difficult to get back to that point, and the band should not be faulted for not elevating themselves to such heights, because they still managed to release a deathcore album that is genuinely enjoyable for the vast majority and only has minor faults overall.
(4 / 5)
