This has got to be one of the best deathcore releases of the year. Signs of the Swarm has taken me by surprise with their ridiculously extreme modern deathcore cuts on this behemoth of an album. Technicality is off the charts in the speed department, and they have to be at the very least tech-death adjacent.
I first caught Tower of Torsos, which was an aggressive yet surprisingly really catchy single with a violent glitch-infused chorus, and I found their sound really quite unique. Then I listened to the other single out at the time, which was the title track, and boy did that one blow me away. Craziest breakdown of the year, for sure, but the rest of it was also full of great grooves, tasty riffs and monstrous vocals. Those double kicks are insane though. After these two, I knew I wanted to see what they had in store for the album.
The album was, unsurprisingly, insanely heavy. I love their more polished and technical touch on deathcore, especially with the kind of ridiculous breakdowns on Pray for Death and Faces Without Names, but also the great use of production in subtle ways to accentuate this pixel perfect brutality of theirs, like all the vocal chops and echo effects. Despite the sonic territory of modern deathcore, they manage to dish out songs that are memorable and catchy even. Pray for Death has some crazy blast-chugs and breakdown chug patterns, Between Fire & Stone has a tasty first breakdown with some monstrous vocals and this really cool repeating lead motif at the end of the song, Echelon has a really nice production-heavy chorus and decently insane breakdown too, and likewise on Faces Without Names. I find it kind of interesting that I think of Malady as the de-facto ballad of the album, somehow that was the impression that I got when it came out as a single, and nothing about the album has changed that impression for me.
Amongst The Low & Empty is definitely a fun find for the year, especially coming from modern deathcore. It's rare for me to find a deathcore album I actually enjoy most of, but Signs of the Swarm has insanity as its main appeal, and boy does it appeal to me. The vocals and instrumentation are some of the highest quality you can ask for in a deathcore band, but their creativity with pushing the limits is always a plus. My jaw might still be on the floor from the title track but at least I'm headbanging.
Rating: 8/10