“Subtle” is not a word that comes up very often when discussing deathcore. To a greater or lesser extent, roughly proportionate to the volume of brutality and rage it borrows from its respective parents and beyond, it’s a genre defined by its bluntness. It’s thus unsurprising, yet satisfying, to see To the Grave continue to use the medium to channel their unapologetic vitriol for humanity’s mass torturing and murdering of non-human animals. It’s unignorable, and has only gotten angrier and more violent. The artwork follows the same trajectory: after a gory but tongue-in-cheek break on Everyone’s A Murderer, Liberation Front picks right back up where Director’s Cuts left off—a slaughterhouse wheelbarrow of heads, real gore now front and centre and yet still a negligible fraction compared to what we don’t see. Their fifth LP, it’s To the Grave’s most misanthropic and appropriately visceral work to date, all grounded in the true horrors of human cruelty.

Liberation Front is punishing in every sense. To the Grave have accelerated their drift into the chonkier, uglier side of deathcore, and it makes for a natural conduit for their now depleted patience. The groove that once propped up anthemic choruses now more often feels like a beating than a bounce: clubbing you into submission with vile breakdowns, shaking you up with grindy blasts, slicing into you with particularly acerbic, rhythmically-delivered lyrics. The driving force of the music is its nihilistic rage, borne out in its crushing relentlessness of beating rhythms and refrains roared in your face. Humanity’s time is up, and the only redemption comes in a bloodbath; as opener “MEAT THE HUMANS” puts it, “Can’t make you care//can’t make you fucking get it.//But I can make sure you don’t make it.” Even the track titles being in all-caps, though a tad played-out, indicates the raw fury. The group have selected the bluntest, heaviest weapons to inflict as much damage as possible, doing away with any mincing of words¹ in favour of making mincemeat out of their listeners; the result is an unfiltered but thoroughly enjoyable bloodbath.

To the Grave have successfully distilled their righteous anger into aural form, and it sounds fantastic (and horrifying). Churning syncopation (“MEAT THE HUMANS,” “THE WORLD IS A SLAUGHTERHOUSE.”) and straightforwardly headbangable or otherwise madly infectious grooves (“NAIL MARY,” “YOU KNOW THE DRILL,” “LIFE AMONG THE SEPTICS”) make for more hooks than an industrial slaughterhouse, while sudden bursts of urgent melody inject you with a shot of adrenaline or dread at just the right moments (“CALF SLICER,” “LIMB FROM LAMB”). Possibly, all are happening at once, as in my personal favourite “YOU KNOW THE DRILL,” which went straight to my Heavy Moves Heavy and SOTY playlists without a second thought. Dane Evans’ vocals have made leaps and bounds even since EaM, and his fluctuations between gut-twisting gutturals and roars are themselves compelling enough, without the addition of blood-curdling shrieks (“EYESTALK ABLATIONS,” “CALF SLICER”, “LIMB FROM LAMB”) and group roars or screams to hammer home some stupidly catchy line (“MEAT THE HUMANS,” “NAIL MARY,” “TORTURE PORN,” “YOU KNOW THE DRILL”). And whilst being a fun listen, To the Grave keep the real horror underlying everything close to the surface—take the distorted scream at the end of “CALF SLICER” that takes the notion of “deathcore pig squeals” to a totally new level,² and the sample that dominates “TERRORFIRE.”

I love Liberation Front, but I’ll concede that a sympathy with the cause helps a lot. Being in the position I am, the music—lyrics included—is cathartic, and the unadulterated meanness and nihilism feel like a release. Mileage may vary, therefore, for non-vegans whose sensibilities might cause the above to sit awkwardly,³ even though I don’t fault To the Grave for loudly standing up for the animals and exorcising their demons. Ideological points aside, I can fault Liberation Front for its mix, which, while appropriately crushed for the slammier, more br00tal aspect of the sound, doesn’t allow one to properly appreciate those elements of atmosphere and melody, however brief. I’m also not sold by the sudden and short-lived veer into a hardcore shout on “THE WORLD IS A SLAUGHTERHOUSE.” Finally, the skew of melodicism towards the back end feels a bit odd, even if designed to illustrate the growing visibility of the pain and sorrow for the victims underneath the vitriol.

To the Grave haven’t broken uncharted musical ground, but their musical and conceptual no-holds-barred approach is insidiously easy to get behind. Liberation Front is a jolt of passion and inexorable punch, and it’s the furious voice of a chainsaw-wielding (anti-)hero that your gym session—and importantly the animals—definitely need.

Rating: Very Good
DR: Probably not very high | Format Reviewed: Stream from your local slaughterhouse
Label: BLKIIBLK
Websites: Official | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 2nd, 2026

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