To The Grave bring Deathcore Blitzkrieg to Camden’s Underworld

★★★★☆ (4/5)

TO THE GRAVE PERFORMING AT CAMDEN TOWN’S UNDERWORLD IN LONDON
PHOTO: CHARIS LYDIA BAGIOKI

The Underworld in Camden is not just a cult venue for the wretched and the wild – it is a venue where souls meet to celebrate the most extreme bands in the scene. Welcoming Australia’s To The Grave, the venue packed up early on Friday night at London’s most alternative neighbourhood with people who came to enjoy a deathcore inferno brought to London by Dead Flesh, Beyond Extinction and Osiah.

Dead Flesh, the five-piece hailing from Hertfordshire, raised deathcore from the dead. Fresh off Bloodstock Open Air, the band leapt on stage bringing visceral riffs and hellish brutal vocals to ‘dehumanise’ the audience (pun very much intended). With a circle moshpit taking up the whole floor of the venue, Dead Flesh were an incredible start to the night, filling the venue with sweat, guitar breakdowns, headbanging and a promise for more.

Next up were Beyond Extinction, taking over the crowd in a pit that resembled a war zone. The venue was almost black, offering only strobe glimpses of the band that blends a sonic and extreme sound to remind everyone of early Whitechapel. The sound was definitely more gritty and hardcore, making the atmosphere feel a bit heavier and more extreme. The audience started packing up the venue even more as their set progressed, with people now headbanging all the way back to the bar.

With the audience now thoroughly warmed, it was time for Osiah to take the reigns. The screams were deeper and more guttural, the guitars were punchy with even more breakdowns making people chug their elbows and body-slam, and the drums were electric. Osiah definitely owned the stage and set the record clear: UK’s deathcore is still alive and kicking. They were definitely channelling deathcore headliner energy in that set, and the crowd seemed to agree with the statement.

Finally, the night closed with To The Grave tearing the stage with zero compromise. They had razor-sharp guitars, whammy pig squeals (and a pig mask to go with it), death metal chainsaw tones and jagged cleans that turned the venue into a bloodbath. Every song was full of energy, the circle pit resembled a cyclone and the atmosphere in the room was relentless. From the first slam to the final chord, the crowd was fully complicit in the chaos – with pits, adrenaline and fury bursting from the stage onto the audience. This was deathcore on its own terms – uncompromising, crashing and visceral. If you were there, you were reborn through amps and riffs; if not – you missed the most violent communion of your life. Make sure to not miss it again.