REVIEW: To the Grave – Director’s Cuts [2023]

Artist: To the Grave
Album: Director’s Cuts

For years, heavy music has been one of Australia’s principle exports—in fact, many of the most influential releases of the last decade (or two) are those from bands hailing from the “down under.” Here comes an unpopular opinion though; I wouldn’t have considered To the Grave to be among them—until recently. While they’ve long been active in Australia’s bustling deathcore scene, and a rising star internationally as well, I’ve generally always considered them to be just a little bit off what they’ve been aiming for. While Expect Resistance hinted at deep-seated promise within the band, Global Warning—their breakout full-length release—was met largely with acclaim, though overall hindered by lack-luster production. The record’s deluxe re-release, Epilogue, corrected this, and set the band’s trajectory back on target, so to speak.
This brings us to Director’s Cuts—where, for the first time, To the Grave have absolutely knocked it out of the park on their first try. In so many words, Director’s Cuts sets the bar for deathcore in 2023, and it does so at a lofty height. Combining a comprehensively grisly vocal approach with blistering percussion and a dynamic spectrum of songs that ranges from brooding to brutalizing, To the Grave leave the listener wanting for nothing when it comes to the all-out assault they wage on any set of eardrums within their record’s blast radius.
On Epilogue, we began to see To the Grave hint to the listener that they were more than just a solid deathcore act—this idea reaches critical mass on Director’s Cuts, wherein the band build a strong skeleton from their backbone of bludgeoning, berserk deathcore. Where “Warning Shot,” a ruthless introductory track instantaneously establishes their proclivity towards all things crushing, “Red Dot Sight,” the band’s leading single alongside “Full Sequence” see To the Grave taking their trademarked brand of bloodlust tinted aggression and juxtapose it against a harsh, soaring melody—something that catches the listener off guard well after the first spin through the song has come and gone. Throughout Director’s Cuts, To the Grave continue to dabble outside the confines of traditional deathcore, with “Found Footage” serving as another such example, blending dissonant, beefy chugs with a lo-fi atmosphere in manner that sets a tone akin to whatever exists in $uicideBoy$’ nightmares. At other times, the band are exactly what the listener bargained for in the best way possible. “Axe of Kindness” is one such example; a riveting, remorseless slab of crushing deathcore. “Reversing the Bear Trap” is another stellar slice of the group’s standard fare (which is anything but standard), combining lacerating blast beats and visceral, gut-wrenching grooves. “Rise, Die” sees the band hitting their stride as a deathcore act growing more comfortable with their metallic side, building the song slowly from solemn singing and dreary notes into a brutalizing, boisterous hunk of blackened perfection. Here, every element of the song becomes a towering inferno built from sputtering embers, with mach-speed percussion that dives into a breakdown beefy enough to shrink the spine of Atlas himself. All of this—which is to say all of Director’s Cuts—accomplishes this without any of the production hiccups that plagued Global Warning’s initial release, as To the Grave earnestly lead the pack when it comes to a tactful balance of grit and polish.
Where To the Grave have been routinely underestimated, however, is their vocal element. Always a powerhouse when it comes to primal gutturals and piercing shrieks, Director’s Cuts nails that element of the band’s dynamic in spades. Just as was true with their instrumentation, To the Grave take the listener on a tour of style and influence throughout Director’s Cuts, with “Axe of Kindness” and “Manhunt” serving as an archetype for the devastating array of screams, shouts and bellows that run rampant throughout the release. Other songs—“Found Footage” for example—take a different route, blending elements of hip-hop and rap into the vocal delivery while describing what seems to be a hit gone wrong, To the Grave take a lofty leap out of their comfort zone to deliver a truly unsettling experience to the listener. Other songs, like “Rise, Die” and its eerie introduction or the soaring chorus of “Red Dot Sight,” see the band branching outside of the traditional and expected deathcore vocal delivery, with strained singing that adds melody and diversity without sounding in the least bit…well, soft.
To the Grave have made a believer out of me. While Epilogue had won over my heart and attention soundly enough, Director’s Cuts feels like the band’s first true triumph. While my own personal jury is still out on a couple things—primarily whether or not “Found Footage” really works, it doesn’t disrupt the record’s flow, though it’s overall become the album’s only skip-worthy track. Otherwise? Every second is solid gold, as To the Grave set a sky-high bar for deathcore in a year that has to—or, well, had to—live up to huge expectations set by 2022. Director’s Cuts is meaty in all the right ways, and satisfies better than a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder (or Royale, I suppose) with Cheese ever could.

9.5/10
For Fans Of: Distant, The Gloom in the Corner, Oceano, Lorna Shore, Worm Shepherd, Carnifex
By: Connor Welsh