To The Grave Deliver Brutality with a Message at a Packed Camden Underworld [Show Review]

One week removed from watching them open for Gutrectomy at the Camden Assembly and three weeks since they packed out the Sophie Lancaster tent at Bloodstock, Hertfordshire quintet Dead Flesh bring their brand of high-energy deathcore to the Camden Underworld. A milestone that’s not lost on the band, who note during the performance how big a deal it is for them to be playing in this now legendary London venue.

Dead Flesh may have all the deathcore boxes ticked as far as the brutal vocals, the unrelenting blast beats and wave after wave of blisteringly heavy riffs, but live there is a really noticeable bounce and groove to their savagery, they turn up the “Core” almost. The energy of their performance is absolutely infectious, and they crush their time up there. Dead Flesh is a band on the rise, and I hope a full-length record is on the horizon.

Beyond Extinction is an English death metal quartet that looks and plays angry. Imagine if the soundtrack to one of the Kidulthood movies was heavy music, Beyond Extinction would be curating the entire album. The fully red-lit stage for the entire performance, the hooded lead singer and the anxiety-inducing build-ups give them a really frightening, dangerous edge. They play at a deliberately slow, menacing pace for the most part, with disjointed riffs and powerful, explosive breakdowns.

Even when they take off at a faster pace musically in songs like “Where They Gather”, it feels like the vocals are really in control of the pace and sentiment of the song. It is a relentlessly intimidating set that feels like a huge punch to the gut. They appear to have amassed a real following on their journey, given the turnout to watch them this evening, and I look forward to seeing and hearing them grow.

Osiah are by far the most musically progressive band on tonight’s bill. Four studio albums deep and multiple personnel changes later, it feels like this is the band they were always destined to be. Osiah’s power is in their ability to incorporate and meld so many different elements into their sound. Vocals that at times sound like concrete being dragged on concrete float into high-range pig squeals and gravely lows effortlessly. Suffocation-style blast beats make up the backbone of their sound, whilst they rely more on a barrage of technically complex riffs than they do traditional build-ups to a breakdown, it’s a real sensory assault.

Highlight of the set for me comes in the form of “Street Justice” from the 2016 album Terror Firma. Starting any song with police and air raid sirens should get every metal fan’s juices going, and the soul-crushing riffs and technical wizardry that follow are absolutely outrageous. A forty-minute unrelenting skull stomping from Sunderland’s finest.

Australian powerhouse To The Grave are far more likely to throw a piece of Tofu on the barbie than a shrimp, and will most definitely put you in your place if you were to try. Like bands before them, such as Earth Crisis and Cattle Decapitation, To The Grave have a really strong anti-animal cruelty and pro-veganism identity. This is far from being a gimmick to sell records, it’s the band’s entire purpose.

Every song lyric, album cover and merch item is adorned with a militantly “Anti-” message or graphic image, which is really endearing to see a band with a legitimate agenda. Knowing who you are as a band and having the songs to back that up are two very different things.

Luckily for everybody in attendance, To The Grave have both in droves. Hitting the stage in a butcher’s apron and pig mask for the first two tracks (“DNA and “Burn Your Local Butcher”), vocalist Dane Evans has a really captivating, high-energy live presence. “Miserable Summer” and “Dxe or Die” showcase the band’s ability to move a room, with earth-shattering riffs and crushing breakdowns, they sound enormous in such a small venue. They have the ability to paint a really bleak atmosphere live, built on the oppressive nature of their music and message of misanthropy and a want for human extinction, it feels palpable tonight.

This is a violent message being delivered through brutal music, and by the time “Shock Tactics 1000v” finishes out the show to a huge ovation, it’s clear that To The Grave are definitely on the right path.