Review: “Amongst The Low And Empty” by Signs Of The Swarm

“We’ve always been a Deathcore band. But this record is a lot MORE—it’s got death metal, metalcore, djent, some industrial stuff… we wanted to make something that was just heavy. Everything came together so fast we didn’t have time to second guess it. If we had a part where we weren’t sure what to add, we’d just let Josh do his thing—and thirty minutes later, he’d have a handful of fresh ideas for us to try out.” ~ Bobby Crow

Produced by Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, King 810, Tallah, Varials), the highly anticipated fifth album from Signs Of The Swarm finds the Pittsburgh natives approaching a decade of destruction with Bobby Crow the quartet’s longest-standing member. Serving as both drummer and main songwriter, he’s joined by former Improvidence vocalist David Simonich who has been with the band since 2018 while the new album is their first with former Sterilizing the Deceased bassist Michael Cassese and their latest recruit in guitarist Carl Schulz. He’s known for his prior convictions in Great American Ghost and Degrader and brings backing vocals to the Kings table. There is more to this than meets the eye however as while the record sees a guest appearance from Matthew K. Heafy of Trivium, both Joshua Travis (Emmure, Glass Cloud, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza) and Cameron Losch (Born of Osiris) were in the studio with the band, throwing riffs and ruckus into the mix…

The skull battering begins with the vicious “Amongst the Low & Empty” and finds Signs Of The Swarm doing exactly what they said they would. Deconstructing the Deathcore sound and rebuilding it from the ground up they’ve incorporated elements of Technical Death Metal and the brutal end of DJent to give this a far more varied approach while being just as lethal as it was previously. Simonich sounds like a prehistoric beast climbing out of a tar pit to reign terror on Manhattan in a low budget horror film, his throat splitting vocal range defying the laws of physics as he proves over and over again why he was a worthy successor to the crown of CJ McCreery. Enhanced by electronics to give it a dark evil almost science fiction horror vibe “Tower of Torsos” slaps even harder, increasing the intensity with barbed staccato riff breaks that slice and dice the cerebral cortex. A huge downtempo breakdown is the kind of finale that is built for the live show and here it’s nothing short of immense. The blood and thunder of “Pray for Death” continues in the same vein, an artillery shelling kit performance from Crow bringing down the high rise buildings before the tanks roll to level the ground completely. It’s savage undertaking and a calling to the mosh pit from beyond the void, taking a leaf from the book of Humanity’s Last Breath and Reflections to create something with the gravitational pull of a black hole.

Schulz gets a moment behind the microphone during the bouncy “Borrowed Time“, a cut with a surprising amount of nuance despite being shorter and faster than most on offer here. Blast beats redecorate the brain waves on “Between Fire and Stone“, the spine juddering angular riffs cutting through the flesh like a hot knife through butter. An almost spoken word passage is a nice touch before the crushing weight of the anvil heavy breakdowns hits like a right hook from a prize fighter. Who said a Deathcore band can’t do atmosphere? The introduction to “Shackles Like Talons” proves that Signs Of The Swarm can, it’s oppressive twisted nature sets the tone perfectly allowing for moments of dark electronics and even a short piece of lead to emerge from the black depths. The construction is clever, each cut building on the foundations of the previous one and finding new ways to bring the sonic abrasions to the ear drums. Schulz then brings a solo to “DREAMKILLER“, a track that has a little bit of ambience in the electronics and a cleaner backing vocal for a bright and bold chorus. An attempt to become expansive that pays off handsomely as it finds the band painting in light and shade while not being afraid to take a risk. It works because they don’t push it too far, not allowing themselves to transcend into territories too unfamiliar but instead striking a balance between their core sound and this new World. Fans don’t want Signs Of The Swarm sounding like Architects fronted by Simonich.

There can be no doubt that the appearance of Matthew K. Heafy of Trivium on this record raised a few eyebrows but has to be said that “The Witch Beckons” sacrifices nothing of the Signs Of The Swarm sound to incorporate his presence. If anything having someone of his stature will turn a few heads who may switch off within a few moments as this one represents another slab of brutality that simply can’t be unheard. Heafy gives Simonich licence to give one of his harshest performances and contrast a not quite clean vocal part with something that sounds like it’s from the bowels of hell itself. “Echelon” finds him approaching Slam levels of righteous indignation and the sheer power of it is all consuming like the intense heat of napalm. The industrial elements give the whole cut a science fiction horror vibe which bleeds into “Faces Without Names” and brings to mind the new album from Djinn-Ghül in the process. Menacing and sinister with hints at what Northlane did with “Alien“, the concept serves to enhance the barren bleakness for fleeting moments between the brutality and works impressively well, the band taking a sympathetic approach rather than drowning anything out with it and using it as a background sound. If you thought “Malady” was going to be a power ballad, guess again. A disturbing riff with low and slow bassline, it lurches and chugs to an eerie conclusion and leaves you wondering exactly what you just heard. Dark and twisted, this is the nightmare that dreams are made of… [8/10]

Track Listing

1. Amongst the Low & Empty
2. Tower of Torsos
3. Pray for Death
4. Borrowed Time
5. Between Fire and Stone
6. Shackles Like Talons
7. DREAMKILLER
8. The Witch Beckons (ft. Matthew K. Heafy of Trivium)
9. Echelon
10. Faces Without Names
11. Malady

“Amongst The Low And Empty” by Signs Of The Swarm is out 28th July 2023 via Century Media