DEATHGRAVE have premiered "Hell Is Evil", the title track from their new album, at No Clean Singing. The record lands August 21 via Tankcrimes.
The Bay Area outfit have spent this album widening an already broad remit, folding death metal, thrash, punk, industrial, doom, noise rock and d-beat into their grind without leaving the seams showing.
"Our goal for this album was to seamlessly bend musical genres and create a unique sound," guitarist Greg Wilkinson says. "We allowed you to gaze into our neighborhood on our second album 'It's Only Midnight'. 'Hell Is Evil' will plunge you with haste into our whole world."
The title track was the first thing written for it, and Wilkinson's description of where it goes is not subtle. "This is the first track written for our upcoming full length which will drag the listener through a handful of genres. Hell can be many things to many people but this specific version is awful. Fold your teeth back til they snap, drink acid, eat vipers, listen to torturous sounds while bathing in pus filled rain. Demons cheer while you are here. Hell is evil."
No Clean Singing's write-up backs him up. "The song has a fantastically hellish beginning," the site notes. "It brings together brutishly slugging grooves (segmented by bursts of maniacal battery), sinister sequences of descending arpeggios, and shrill notes that miserably shimmer and frantically shiver, like the wailing of tortured souls… And then foul grunts emerge, the drums go wild, and the riffing begins to convulsively squirm, both dismal and deranged in its sound."
DEATHGRAVE formed in San Jose in 2013 and built their sound out of an unlikely spread of reference points — SIEGE, RUDIMENTARY PENI, NAPALM DEATH, IMPETIGO, GODFLESH, ZENI GEVA and the members' own former bands — without ever landing anywhere near any of them. The lineup is deep in scene mileage: Wilkinson (AUTOPSY, BRAINOIL) on guitar, Fern Alberts (AMBER ASYLUM) on bass, Andre Cornejo on vocals and Clint Zane (OWL) on drums. Thirteen years of touring the U.S., Canada and Mexico have produced two demo tapes, four split 7"s, a split 12" and a run of full-lengths.
"Hell Is Evil" was mixed and mastered at Wilkinson's own Earhammer Studio and features guest and backing vocals from Chris Reifert on "Hard To Swallow", with artwork by Max Rain. It runs 32 minutes.
"Hell Is Evil" track listing:
- Hell Is Evil
- Hard To Swallow
- I Am Here
- Born From Death
- Smaller And Smaller
- It's Only Midnight
- Yaws 3D
- Your Pain Is Ready
- Won't See You In Heaven
- 27B/6
DEATHGRAVE live:
- August 23, 2026 — The Holding Company, San Diego, CA (with -16-)
- September 11, 2026 — Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA (with NECROT and IRON LUNG)
Stream "Hell Is Evil" at No Clean Singing.