Formed in June of 2016 in Delaware City, Delaware To The Death brings us some of the finest metalcore to birthed in the New England states. The current lineup includes Josh Tucker on vocals, Tyler Sargent and Chris Bullen providing the riffs on guitar and current drummer Tyler Foraker. The band is currently looking for a new drummer as the current percussionist Tyler Foraker is moving to Florida. The band has yet to release a full length or EP but they have dropped tracks over their 3 year career that have instantly made us fans. The bands recent member changes have cause the band to delay work on their upcoming EP, but they are in hopes to get the ball rolling again this winter. In addition to providing guitar work for the band Chris Bullen also produces the bands work and does a tremendous job as we can see in previously released singles. “Bred For War” was the first single To The Death released in 2016 not long after their formation. They followed that up with the release of “Beyond Repair” in 2017, and most recently the band dropped the single “Triumph” in May of this year.
“Triumph” is what originally caught our attention and sealed the deal on our To The Death fandom. The song has these hammering guitar riffs that just drive the song home and pairs perfectly with the mixture of harsh and melodic vocals. There are 2 variations of harsh vocals on the track. Things get started with these aggressive sharp and harsh vocals, gritty and raw. Then as the song approaches the chorus the aggressiveness in the harsh vocals are dialed back a bit and the lyrics are enunciated more clearly. That’s the moment that the clean melodic vocals chime in. The cleans are so polished and vibrant, its like the sun rising over an open grave. There is beauty around but darkness is also lurking. The harsh vocals are predominant in the track and the melodic clean vocals only rear their head a couple times. It gives the song a great contrast. There is also a variation of riffs throughout the song and it doesn’t become stagnant with one constant isolated riff, and the drums remain constantly fierce together with the bass lines creating this underlying groove. Speaking with vocalist Josh Tucker about the lyrical content and writing process for “Triumph” he stated “When writing “Triumph” and honestly all our songs lyrically, I have a truer meaning behind all of them. “Triumph” in particular hit hard to all of us and because of what we were all going through as whole at the time. We all had been struggling with our own lives and having a hard time actually sitting down together and writing. Essentially the song is about just that. Overcoming something when you think your on top and doing the right thing but in reality life hits you and steers in you in a different direction. The song actually became one of our fan favorites at shows and still when we play it people absolutely love it.” It’s no surprise that the song is huge hit with fans in a live setting, because the recorded version is complex and they emit various layers of sound. While To The Death may not have an extensive discography or even an EP to speak of they have definitely flaunted their talents on this track alone. Their previous singles “Bred For War” and “Beyond Repair” (which you can hear below) should not be ignored either. Our hopes is that the band receives an early Christmas present in the form of a permanent drummer. The band has relayed to me they hope to release the EP this winter and we may even see the release of a new song that no one has yet to hear prior to that. This is one band that you can’t overlook, we fully expect their upcoming EP to be a huge hit with metalcore fans near and far.
