#whitechapel — Public Fediverse posts

Some bands just know what they’re about right away. Australia’s blackened death metal band Complexant poise themselves as a rising star in the continent/country/island’s extreme metal ecosystem, storming the scene with “a sound defined by weight, darkness, and unrelenting intensity.” There’s little fanfare to Complexant’s promo around their debut full-length Apex: in so many words, they merely promise to kick as much ass as they can fit in a thirty-four-minute session. They’ve tormented their home country since 2022, but Apex aims to make Complexant a global menace. But can Apex raise Complexant to the cream of the blackened death crop?

That Apex is a debut isn’t too shocking. Complexant play a dense, modern-sounding brand of brutal death metal dusted with black metal vitriol and (slight) deathcore stank. Think Cordyceps—restless riffing, crushed production, murderous intent, etcetera—but with more human-sounding vocals and a willingness to let their boots off your neck from time to time. Apex is heavy, raw, and blunt, but Complexant’s greenness shows in some undercooked ideas and seriously ham-fisted moments. Clean vocals worm their way onto “No Angels Weep” and “Afterlife,” which aren’t nearly as vital as vocalist Dan Greigsy’s screams and tack on an unwanted Stone Sour butt rockiness to the latter track’s ending. Endings are another issue. Although it’s worth celebrating Complexant’s realization of the power of editing, “Heretical Supremacy” and “Critical Mass” both end before they’ve hit their stride. Add some clumsy lyricism—”Cyclops, you only see through one perspective.” (“Cyclops”), “My head is at critical mass. One more thought and my cranium will surely collapse.” (“Critical Mass”)—and Apex’s rawness sometimes doesn’t work to Complexant’s benefit.

But more often than not, Complexant uses Apex’s bluntness as a proper instrument of devastation. Under the oppressive fury of drummer Seb Su’s blast beats, guitarists Shannon Zivkovic and Gavin Bradley and bassist Chris Tuckley churn out seething, brutish riffs one after the other, underpinning Greigsy’s incensed performance across Apex. Songs like “Swing Myself to Sleep” and “Eye for an Eye” attack with a balanced approach of imposing, dissonant blackened chords and neanderthal death chugs, the former deploying some fucked up noodling bits in the bridge and the latter ending in seriously caustic heaviness. Complexant’s mix highlights Su’s drums, who complements the guitars with a similarly dynamic balance of concussive speed (“No Angels Weep,” “Apex”) and groove (“No Hope for Sanctuary,” “Eye for an Eye”) while littering just enough fills across Apex for good measure. Finally, Complexant utilize breakdowns conservatively and effectively to punctuate dramatic moments in their songs (“Swing Myself to Sleep,” “Cyclops”) rather than writing everything tailored to the breakdown. Apex is a thematically uncompromising record, and thus benefits from the unsophisticated sound Complexant bestows it.

Not to be cruel, but Apex sounds best to these ears when Complexant sound just miserable. Apex features some truly harrowing and uncomfortable lyrics, and these moments usually encompass Complexant’s best material. From the suicidal ideation of “Swing Myself to Sleep,” to the vengeful murder fantasies of “Eye for an Eye,” to the proclamations against life itself on “Afterlife,” Complexant don’t endear themselves to you with their sunny dispositions. When Greigsy screams, “Eye for an eye when you take a man’s life. You brought a weapon, a weapon to a fist fight,” (“Eye for an Eye”), you best believe the instrumentals rise to meet his vitriol. At times Apex reminds me of Whitechapel’s The Valley in both sound and in barefaced confessional lyricism, reaching its emotional zenith on closer and album highlight “No Hope for Sanctuary.” Relaying the speaker’s childhood home life, his early claim of how he “was raised by fucking vandals” is bolstered by scenes of harrowing domestic violence and abuse, offering up an apt metaphor of being trapped under debris for the unstable environment he came up in. Apex doesn’t reach greatness as a whole, but in these uncompromisingly bleak moments Complexant reach the mark.

I had a good time having a bad time with Apex. Proving further that everything from Australia wants to kill you, Complexant can bring the hurt with the best of them, and Apex is a more than adequate exercise in hostility. Even where songwriting faltered, Apex is still enjoyable through the simple joy of the disgusting riff. Now, if Complexant hone their songwriting further by the time they’re ready for album number two, we’ll have something truly worth watching. If for our own safety, at the least.

Rating: Good!
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: ???1
Labels: Bleeding Art Collective and Blood Blast Distribution
Websites: complexant.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/complexantband
Releases Worldwide: July 31, 2026

Deux amis ratent leur correspondance à Londres et se retrouvent dans les ruelles de Whitechapel. Ce qui commence comme une escale érotique et complice bascule dans l'horreur la plus sombre.

Jack l'Éventreur n'a jamais vraiment quitté ses rues.

⚠️ Contenu 15+ : érotisme et horreur graphique.
📖 Sur #Panodyssey ou #Substack

https://lien.gabrieldax.fr/5

#Horreur #Érotisme #JackLÉventreur #Whitechapel #Fiction #GabrielDax #Nouvelles #Mastolivre

Signs of the Swarm – To Rid Myself of Truth Review

By Dear Hollow

I think deathcore’s lack of respect in metal circles is due to its subservience to trends. Riding waves of what’s considered too brutal or not, the recent MySpace-style revival and the inevitable shadow of Will Ramos-fronted Lorna Shore have collided to emphasize relentless brutality and utter sonic depravity. Signs of the Swarm has been a victim of this more than most, riding the coattails of the trends rather than setting them, and while offering some of the most intense deathcore offerings within the realm of the “low and slow” template, there’s been nothing to convince naysayers to give their albums a listen. Will To Rid Myself of Truth be the tipping point?

In many ways, To Rid Myself of Truth is the part 2 of predecessor Amongst the Low & the Empty, but the Pittsburgh quartet has never quite hammered down what their trademark approach to deathcore is. From the slammy gurgles of CJ McCreery’s troubled tenure in Senseless Order and The Disfigurement of Existence, to the husky roars of David Simonich in his contributions to discography highlights Vital Deprivation and Absolvere, Signs of the Swarm has latched onto Low & Empty’s template in being as brutally downtuned and chuggily cutthroat as possible. To Rid Myself of Truth continues the toe-dipping into djent and industrial for maximum heft and devastation, and while it’s better than its predecessor, it still begs the question why you should go out of your way to rid yourself of truth.

To Signs of the Swarm’s credit, To Rid Myself of Truth is a little more than the one-trick pony fucking shit up in the pit the way its predecessor was. Techier flourishes, rabid blastbeats, and rhythmic warbling offer reprieves in the muck, while better songwriting doesn’t end every track with ten-ton demonic breakdowns. Pinch harmonics add a dimension of madness to the already insane brutality (“Natural Selection,” “Iron Sacrament”) and jerky djent rhythms add a bit of variety (“Scars Upon Scars”), while a neat lil’ groove spices things up (“HELLMUSTFEARME,” “Chariot”). Once again, Simonich delivers an absolutely monstrous performance, his horrifying vocals an easy highlight amid low and empty chuggery, including some tasteful grunge-influenced cleans atop eerie industrial-influenced plucking and atmospheric tremolo picking (“Forcing to Forget”). Guest vocalists show up in tasteful areas, including the man, the myth, the Lorna-man Will Ramos (“Clouded Retinas”), Whitechapel’s Phil Bozeman (“Iron Sacrament”), 156/Silence’s Jack Murray, and Prison’s Johnny Crowder (“Fear & Judgement”), providing a bit of reprieve to Simonich’s all-consuming roar. To Rid Myself of Truth can feel like a honed version of Amongst the Low & Empty, utilizing the same tools but with tighter performances.

To Rid Myself of Truth has all the ingredients to a solid album – as Signs of the Swarm has always possessed – but the execution of excessive brutality and stuffy production makes it into a messed up deathcore duck-cake.1 While it felt like Amongst the Low & Empty had almost infinite breadth in its production and mixing, To Rid Myself of Truth is majorly compressed and condensed, perhaps lending itself to the tight galloping of Absolvere. But we can’t have our duck cake and eat it too, because the mix is absolutely suffocating trying to remedy the two approaches. As such, like you insulted Signs of the Swarm’s mother, you’ll be hit with so many concussions in sheer amount of breakdowns and venomous attacks, it’ll be hard to keep track (“HELLMUSTFEARME,” “Chariot,” “Sarkazein” all come to mind). Many of these tracks likewise follow a similar pattern, opening up with the title of the song roared, followed by bone-crushing breakdowns, too often adhering to the “To the Hellfire” formula of “yuuuuuuge” concussive chugs and Simonich sounding as animalistic and demonic as possible.

To Rid Myself of Truth is catharsis for Signs of the Swarm,2 a streamlined potpourri of no-frills deathcore that continually beats you over the head with “ze brootalz.” If this is your bread and butter, then feel free to rid yourself of truth – this album was written for you. Signs of the Swarm, as in the case with Amongst the Low & Empty, constantly impresses with its trendiness and novelty: a relentless breed of brutality with a consistently impressive vocal performance. However, once the novelty wears off, you’re left with brickwalled production and copied-and-pasted brutality. To Rid Myself of Truth? More like To Rid Myself of Tooth.3

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: signsoftheswarm.bandcamp.com | signsoftheswarm.com | facebook.com/signsoftheswarm
Releases Worldwide: August 22nd, 2025

#15 #156Silence #2025 #AmericanMetal #Aug25 #CenturyMediaRecords #Deathcore #Djent #LornaShore #Prison #Review #Reviews #SignsOfTheSwarm #ToRidMyselfOfTruth #Whitechapel

#TheMetalDogArticleList #MetalInjection Metal Injection's Top Tracks Of The Week, 9/13/2024 metalinjection.net/playlist/top... #Mastodon #LambOfGod #Whitechapel #BlackLabelSociety #AugustBurnsRed #Jinjer #DefeatedSanity #Earthburner #AsILayDying #Frost #Molder #Underoath #NeonNightmare