To The Grave: From Violence To Activism
Having formed back in 2010, but considering 2015 the ‘start’ of the band, TO THE GRAVE released their debut album, Global Warning, in 2019 to critical acclaim putting their names on the map of not only Australian deathcore, but deathcore around the world. They’re now back with their fourth studio album Everyone’s A Murderer and we had a chance to sit down with vocalist Dane Evans, bassist Matt Clarke & new six string addition Nic Webb.
After spending the majority of 2024 writing the new album, they can’t wait to get out on the road with it. “The timing of it is really good, as excited as I am for it to come out, we immediately get to play a shit load of it live,” explains Dane behind a beaming grin. “At this point it’s just dates on a calendar until it comes out, but when it does drop I’m so stoked for everyone to hear it,” smiles Matt. Nic on the other hand is like a child at Christmas. “This is my first TO THE GRAVE album so I’m giddy as hell, I can’t wait to get on the stage with this album.”
TO THE GRAVE have released a two singles from the album so far, Dead Wrong (featuring Michael Kearney) and Burn Your Local Butcher with two distinct sounding songs. Burn Your Local Butcher being straight up deathcore, while Dead Wrong takes more of a death metal route. “It’s definitely got all of the original sound we fell in love with as kids in terms of deathcore,” explains Dane. “But we’ve put more modern sounding death metal elements in there as well. With the guest spots we have on the album we wanted to make sure it was people who shared our values, not just within the music, but in life as well.”
It wasn’t an intentional move for the band as they really only found out themselves after they dropped Dead Wrong. “I was surprised seeing the reactions when it came out,” Nic explains. “People were commenting on the music video taken aback themselves like, what the hell this is straight up death metal, and I thought to myself, wow yeah it is,” he laughs. The band also wanted to bring Everyone’s A Murderer back to basics to engage more with the crowds rather than be separate. “I know we’ve done some technical stuff I the past, and it’s gone down well,” Dane adds. “But it kind of takes away from the audience interaction. We’d see people watching us for a few songs and then lose their shit, but we wrote this record for the sole purpose of being more intense to play live to get more pits,” he giggles.
It’s no secret that TO THE GRAVE are all vegans and animal activists, with their song titles and lyrical content being as harsh as possible in order for people who turn a blind eye to take notice. “We all give a shit about human rights and animal rights,” Dane firmly states. “We’re just extending that to the ones that are currently awaiting their murder in farms and slaughterhouses.” Matt then adds, “it was just natural with the songs. I mean Dane writes all the lyrics but it’s what we all care about so it was in our heads from the start that this is where’d we’d go with it.”
The last few months of 2024 going well into 2025 is a busy time for TO THE GRAVE as they’re packed with a relentless touring schedule. A day before the album comes out and the day of release, they have shows in Melbourne & Sydney respectively before their US tour as direct supports to OCEANO before heading to Europe and the UK for The Faces Of Death tour. “It’s my first tour with TO THE GRAVE so I can’t tell you how excited I am for it,” Nic says with a smile poured across his face. “It’s going to be such a fun few months with the band. I’m trying to play it off but I’m just so giddy for it all.”
“While I love playing in the US and Europe, I cannot wait for the LORNA SHORE tour,” adds Matt. “Not only because they’re a sick band, but it’s finally given us an excuse to play Perth, and I’m so excited for it. I mean we’ve played Poland before we played Perth!”
As the album’s release date edges closer, the band recall when they heard their album after everything had been completed. “It wasn’t until we heard the final product that we didn’t know how heavy it actually was!” Matt states with a chuckle. “We listened to Dead Wrong and everyone just looked at each other with the same expression.” Whether or not the band knows how big it actually sounds, they have created something magical from back to front with Everyone’s A Murderer. The cover art is apart of it as the violence depicted felt like a necessary addition to really dig their message in. “I fucking love that album cover so much,” Dane tells us. “We wanted an image that tells you a story and makes a statement, and we’ve got it. I could talk about it all day. I just cannot wait for it to come out so everyone can hear how harrowing it really is.”
As album number four draws closer, TO THE GRAVE are set explode with popularity and an already rabid fan base behind them, you’ll see their name everywhere across the next year as they slaughter the crowds and bands they’re playing with alongside them.
Everyone’s A Murderer is out now via Unique Leader Records.
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