To the Grave are not ****ing around anymore; not that they ever really were. Lyrically, musically, and visually,1 Everyone’s A Murderer is the Sydney outfit’s most brutal, no-holds-barred audial assault to date. Vocalist Dane Evans states that the intention was to be the voice of activists in the fight for animal liberation; “There’s no words, no lyrics and no music that can describe the violence or bring back the lives stolen by human hands so this is for them.” Everyone’s A Murderer isn’t angry, it’s apoplectic. So brimming with bile and blood you can practically taste it in every neck-snapping groove and juddering, pong-snare breakdown. If you thought you had To the Grave pegged after Director’s Cuts, you’d be wrong. “Dead Wrong,” in fact, as that monster of a closer itself epitomizes. Most of the melodies have faded; gone are the more metalcore-influenced sung choruses, and much of the modern-sounding deathcore polish has evaporated. This more stripped-back approach works wonders for the record’s brutality, in message and medium. Fast riffs are meaner and slow ones uglier, with jerky squeals chucked in a rhythmic, thrilling angles. Vocals are more frequently on the low end of a growl, and when they dip back into a whispered (“TerrorMilitary”) or squealed style (“Vegan Day of Violence”) they’re the vilest and most vicious they’ve been. The drums are blessed with a gloriously thick, clanging tone that culminates in some lethal charges (“Set Yourself on Fire (In Public)”) and primal headbanging moments (“DxE or Die,”2 “Eight Four One Six,” “Dead Wrong”). This is everything To the Grave need to hammer their point home and use the remaining nails to pin your ears back and make you listen. Deathcore has historically had a reputation for misplaced macho swagger, and To the Grave, here as ever, turn this on its head, jabbing a finger at the ordinary people supporting inherently violent industries, to which the theatrical guts, gore, and vengeance of To the Grave’s music can hardly hold a candle.3 Not only sporting some of the best track titles this year—”Set Yourself on Fire (In Public),” “Vegan Day of Violence,” come on—these songs are effortlessly invigorating and expertly executed.4 The way lyrics are delivered to the bang of beatdown percussion, and grit of ten-tonne riffs, is incredibly satisfying, whether gutturally drawled (“Dead Wrong”), venomously spat (“A Body for a Body”) or on one guest feature, belted out in song (“Eight Four One Six”). To the Grave have not lost their propensity for groove, and the rougher, rawer sound only makes these rhythms chunkier, more murderous, and much, much catchier—see “DxE or Die,” “Burn Your Local Butcher,” and “Dead Wrong” in particular. And it’s not all ignorant stomping either. Mixed into the massacre is technicality that makes for some truly gnarly moments of rabid flailing and aggression (“Set Yourself on Fire (In Public),” “Vegan Day of Violence,” “Made in Aus”). While mainly a perfection of pitilessness, Everyone’s A Murderer grants the listener a little mercy. Instrumental “Gaschamber P.T.” divides the album into two with an ominous ambience that grows uplifting as it closes with an empowering message. The crushing grisliness of “Eight Four One Six”5 is split open by the guest cleans from Sophie Wilcher,6 culminating in a gritty, but sort of beautiful duet that again, amplifies the voices of the activists and the reason To the Grave are doing this at all. The Venn diagram of vegans and deathcore enthusiasts may be small, so I understand if not everyone can share my joy. But if you occupy either side, even tangentially, you’d be a fool to miss this. Actually, **** that; just listen to it anyway. With this blaring in your headphones, watch if you don’t march up to your nearest farm and set every captive animal free. Tracks to Check Out: ”Set Yourself on Fire (In Public),” “A Body for a Body,” “Made in Aus,” “Dead Wrong”