They call themselves the world's leading vegan deathcore band, and To The Grave don't say it quietly. Since forming in Sydney in 2010, the five-piece have turned some of the most punishing deathcore around into a blunt-force vehicle for animal liberation and environmental activism. On October 2nd, they'll release their fifth album. "Liberation Front" is their first record on BLKIIBLK Records. It's built to hit as hard lyrically as it does sonically, and it makes you take a long, hard look into yourself and think about what the heck is wrong with the world. I caught bassist Matt Clarke on one of his rare days off in the middle of the band's tour 'cross Australia. We talked about confrontation as a strategy, touring in hostile rooms, the shrimp industry, a stage banner that reads "KILL YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL ABUSER", and why, for To The Grave, none of this is metaphor.

If you don't want to wait until October 2nd, I've got some good news: You can already hear four songs from "Liberation Front." First up, on June 10th, 2026, came the lead single "Eyestalk Ablations," named after a shrimp-industry practice where animals' eyes are cut off to make them breed faster. July 8th brought "Nail Mary," which digs into how religion and god are used to justify cruelty to animals and to claim dominion over them.

To The Grave followed up with their third single, "Torture Porn," on August 5th. According to frontman Dane Evans, it's maybe the band's most uncompromising "fight riff" song yet, and a clear message to anyone who has a problem with To The Grave. In early September, the fourth single, "Life Among The Septics," dropped right in time for the start of the band's Australian "Nail Australia To The Walls" tour. I've embedded the songs for you below the interview, but for now, enjoy the read.

Anne: Hi! How are you doing? How is your day so far? It's so great to finally get to know you!

Matt: I'm doing great, thank you! We've got a day off today in the middle of our Australian tour, so I'm chatting to you while spending some time with my cats.

Anne: "Liberation Front" is your fifth album but your first for BLKIIBLK and, in your own words, keeps the directness of "Everyone's a Murderer" while pulling more from your earlier records back in. What changed in the writing or recording to land that balance?

Matt: This was a deliberate decision going into the writing for LF. We wanted to bring in some more of the technical parts of the music from the older records while maintaining the movement that we'd built in with EAM. We wanted everything to have as much impact as possible this time - if it was a heavy part, it had to be the heaviest we could do; fast had to be faster than we've done before; same with anything slow or catchy. It all had to be dialled up to 100 per cent.

"Action and change, not just making noise about the abuse animals are facing"

To The Grave – "Liberation Front"

Anne: Dane reckoned the whole point of the band is that "99 per cent of people are fucked." After all these years of screaming it, do you still believe there are at least some people we can reach? Or is that not really the point anymore?

Matt: We absolutely still believe that the message can still reach people. That's the whole point and always has been: action and change, not just making noise about the abuse animals are facing.

Anne: You've said:

Did playing live basically write this record for you?

Matt: It showed us what not to do! That was what inspired the more direct sound on Director's Cuts, and Everyone's A Murderer compared to "Epilogue". Lots of "Epilogue" is fun to listen to, but performing it live, no one was moving. Not us performing it or people in the crowd. So we paid attention on the next albums to what was connecting with the audience live, and tried to connect those vibes with some more technical music elements. We've been playing a couple of the songs on this Australian tour, and they're definitely earning their place in the set.

Anne: "Nail Mary" goes straight for religion being used to justify cruelty to animals. How do you have a go at that without writing off every religious person who might actually be on your side?

Matt: If we worried too much about potentially alienating people who might be offended by our message, I think we'd lose the confrontational aspect that really makes people pay attention to what we're saying. There's no safe or pleasant way to describe what is happening to animals every day; if people are offended, then that's for them to look at and to consider their contributions to the harm that is happening.

"Literally every other show is a hostile environment"

Anne: To The Grave's whole thing is being a vehicle for activism, but you've said you like parking that vehicle in uncomfortable spots rather than just playing vegan fests. What's the most awkward or hostile room you've dragged this message into?

Matt: It's very easy to play to "the home team". Vegan Campout was very overwhelming for us, being in that environment with all those similarly compassionate people, but it was more a relief and one "for us" at the end of that European / UK tour. A chance to relax and enjoy the safe environment, not that our set was softer that day or anything.

Literally every other show is a hostile environment. I can count on one hand the number of vegans in other bands we've toured with (except for our militant friends in Bloodmouth, who we've taken out on this Australian tour). The whole point is to confront people with the suffering animals are experiencing and to challenge them to think about their contributions to that, and hopefully get them to change.

American audiences are maybe the most standoffish about the message, but that's also where we have our largest fanbase, so it's not too much worse.

Anne: "Eyestalk Ablations" is named after cutting the eyes off shrimp to breed them faster. I'm sure a lot of people have never even heard of that. How much of the job is shocking, and how much is just getting people to look at stuff they'd rather not know about?

Matt: Those two things go together. We want to shock people and bring their attention to these practices so they understand how barbaric some of it is. We can catch people's attention by using obscure terms that are used to hide this cruelty; it's the same with going back to using real slaughterhouse photos for the album art. It's all really horrific and upsetting, and it's really happening. It's deliberately shocking and confrontational so it lasts in people's minds.

Anne: That one-take video with the shotgun nearly had the cops rock up. Looking back, was the near-miss worth it, and where's the line for you between a stunt and the point actually landing?

Matt: At the time, that was a little concerning. Guns are very tightly controlled here, so we could have had some issues if the cops had arrived on the shoot. But we were filming at a hired location, so we had permission to be there; it would've just needed some quick talking to smooth things over. And maybe there would've been fines involved. Looking back, I'm a little disappointed we didn't have them turn up; that would've been cool behind-the-scenes footage, hopefully of me and the director talking to the cops!

Anne: Song titles like "Calf Slicer," "Limb from Lamb" and "Torture Porn" are deliberately full-on. How do you work out how far you can push the gore before the message gets lost in it?

Matt: That's a bit like what I was saying about the shocking imagery and terminology; pushing things to the extreme is the point of the message. We're not talking about pleasant things in our songs, so it will always be full-on by the nature of the issues we're talking about. Also, we're in a genre that is built on graphic imagery; we're just taking that and applying it to a real-world problem that matters, not just graphic gore for its own sake.

Anne: You've called yourselves the world's leading vegan deathcore band. Is that tag a bit of a rev-up, a responsibility, or sometimes just a box that gets in the way of the music?

Matt: There's definitely a bit of bravado and posturing with that tag. It's another way of making people talk about the band and the message. I don't think it's wrong either - there's plenty of other vegan bands and musicians, lots of them much more successful than us, but not many are using their music solely as a vehicle to speak for the animals.

"Nearly every show we'll have people come up to talk to us who have gone vegan because of the message of the band"

Anne: Like for many vegan bands, plenty of your crowd turn up for the breakdowns, not the politics. What happens when a punter who came for the heaviness cops the animal rights message on the way out?

Matt: They cop the animal rights message from the second we go on stage. Even a little before - the new stage banner just says KILL YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL ABUSER with a tiny TTG logo on it. So as soon as that goes up, people watching know what we're about and know that we're not fucking around with the message.

Anne: Have there been any moments where someone's told you they went vegan or rethought things because of the band? Anything that's really stuck with you?

Matt: This actually happens a lot. Nearly every show we'll have people come up to talk to us who have gone vegan because of the message of the band. That's great; that's why we do it. Every person that makes that change means a little less demand for cruelty and murder, and few less animals killed pointlessly.

We've all been there too; no one in the band grew up vegan, so we've all got our guilt to carry, but it means that, when talking to people, we can really connect with them. We've all made the choice to change, so we can speak to how challenging that can seem at first.

Anne: Your current tour lineups are the heaviest you've ever put together. You've said these songs are about liberation "by any means necessary," and you don't pull any punches about meat-eaters on record. So how does that square with sharing a van and a green room every night with bands who aren't vegan?

Matt: It's definitely a challenge. Lots of the bands we've toured with are lovely people to hang with, and you're spending a month or more on every tour together, so you connect and make friends. I'm still disappointed by their choices, if I'm honest, and I'm sure they'd rather not have to address these issues we bring up. But that's for them to work out for themselves.

In practical terms, we tend to keep to ourselves during meals where we can; if we get our own green room and rider, we try to make sure the venues don't bring in any animal products. And we always try to bring in any other vegans on the tours and make them feel welcome hanging with us. We trade recommendations for cool spots to eat all over where we can.

Anne: Deathcore runs on rage and catharsis. Do you reckon extreme music is a more honest outlet for anger at injustice than softer stuff? Does activism just hit different things in this genre?

Matt: Extreme music kinda thrives on being an outlet for aggression. I think these genres attract people that are angry, whether that's just about the general state of society or specific issues as we address. So you've got this tradition of anger built into the genre and a lot of political and social awareness built in to deathcore; it's probably the biggest positive that has leaked into the genre from hardcore.

Anne: If someone spins "Liberation Front" and changes one single thing in their life after, what would you want it to be?

Matt: Go vegan. Stop paying for animals to be murdered. It's that simple.

"'Until every cage is empty' isn't just a bumper sticker, ya know?"

Anne: Beyond the record: What does real progress for animals actually look like to you over the next few years, and what's a band like To The Grave meant to do in that?

Matt: We're seeing slow trends with more vegan options available now more than ever, more focus on animal welfare and stopping unnecessary cruelty. It's a slow change, but it is changing. It's exciting to keep pushing awareness about it and confronting people about it. That won't stop. "Until every cage is empty" isn't just a bumper sticker, ya know?

Anne: Your branding uses the balaclava that a lot of liberation fronts wore to hide who they were, but you've chosen to put your real names and faces right out front. Why go public whilst others covered up?

Matt: Showing our faces kinda predates the use of the balaclava in the branding, so it's an interesting question. I think that us being identifiable and accessible helps people connect to what we're saying. We're so present at our shows; we want to talk to the fans any chance we get, and I think that helps humanise the message and make it more digestible, but also maybe harder to ignore?

It's not just some faceless guy screaming at people; it's Dane. It's not a random crew member selling you a shirt after the set and telling you to rethink what's on your plate; it's Nic and me. People at the shows have to deal with us, and the message on a personal level, and that makes it have some impact.

Anne: Dane said

When you're writing, are you thinking like songwriters or more like people building something to hit other people with?

Matt: It's a balance. The message is always present in our process, so it's definitely a consideration. We have a lot of back and forth about sections needing to support or fit a particular thing Dane wants to say or how he wants to deliver something. Sometimes the lyrics are already there, and we work around them, and just as often we have the riffs and musical structure and need to work a vocal phrasing around that.

Anne: You've got a real knack for titles that flip everyday phrases back on people: "Pest Control," "Manhunt," "Gristle Blower." Where does that wordplay come from, and how much does a good title actually do the heavy lifting for the message?

Matt: It's my favourite thing he does. It comes from listening to a lot of rap and hip hop and being obsessed with how words look and sound and fit together. Dane and I both obsess over this, down to even how the song titles look next to each other when we're deciding the track order.

A catchy title or lyric definitely draws people in. Seeing a title like "Lips & Assholes" is kinda hard to ignore.

"There's definitely a degree of misanthropy that edges into your thinking when you're involved in animal liberation"

Anne: Your lyrics get described as "outwardly anti-human." Is that genuinely how you see it, or is it more a device to make people sit in the discomfort for a bit?

Matt: It's both. There's definitely a degree of misanthropy that edges into your thinking when you're involved in animal liberation; it's just horrific the things people do to defenceless animals. It's hard not to judge all of us for contributing to that. But it also goes along with the anger of the music, and using that discomfort as a way to confront people with their own choices.

Anne: Matt, you reckon this record's more diverse but also darker: "To The Grave without overthinking or apology." What did dropping the second-guessing free you up to do this time?

Matt: I threw that out there without really thinking about it, which is funny. But after sitting with it for a bit, I think the lack of "apology" is the important bit. We've combined the directions from the previous 3 records; some people like just one of those, so they might be hoping for a particularly singular direction. That just isn't us; we're always pushing away from repeating ourselves too much or getting boxed into a sound too much. I guess this time we just felt more free to combine those elements instead.

Anne: You came back off a near three-year hiatus in 2019 and shot up the scene alongside the likes of Thy Art Is Murder and The Red Shore. What clicked on the return that hadn't before the break?

Matt: I wasn't in the band during that hiatus, but I was around. I think the biggest thing to come out of that period was the luxury of time. There were no expectations; everyone kinda expected that the band was dead. Sometimes time can be a problem too; working fast has its own advantages. You have to be decisive instead of just sitting with things. I hope we get more time for the next record; I think we've earned it with the pace we've worked at the last few years.

Anne: What's up next?

Matt: We've got a few dates left on this Australian headline tour, then we go straight into the North American co-headline tour with Crown Magnetar for the rest of September and October. Liberation Front drops on October 2nd; I'm really excited for everyone to hear the whole record.

Then hopefully a little time off.

Anne: Thank you very much for answering my questions! It was a pleasure! All the best for your tour!

Matt: Thank you! Was great talking to you!

To The Grave – "Life Among The Septics"

To The Grave – "Nail Mary"

To The Grave – "Eyestalk Ablations"

To The Grave – "Torture Porn"