Like many die-hard music fans, I have an increasingly complicated relationship with streaming services. Spotify has managed to become the poster child for enshittification, AI slop, and militarized tech bros, while Tidal often froze and didn’t have enough depth in their metal library. Qobuz was delightful in many ways, but was also missing a number of heavy artists. Apple Music, by default, became my backup music service after Bandcamp and physicals. Shockingly, the app surfaces a band that wasn’t on my radar, but immediately becomes part of my heavy rotation. Case in point: Aussie tech deathcore wrecking crew Complexant.
Their debut album, Apex, is a testament to the wild deathcore scene in Australia. Crisp production sets the stage for bludgeoning riffs to expand in a moody atmosphere, letting clean vocals exchange blows with harsh growls that echo over intensely aggressive songwriting. Complexant captures the perfect balance between ignorant (complimentary) death metal and technical, semi-polished deathcore. The sound is juuuust clean enough to give each element the space to breathe while not sacrificing the suffocating, pummeling heaviness.
Perhaps ironically, given that tech dystopia is part of the reason I discovered Complexant at all, their new visualizer for “Cyclops” is a cutting condemnation of the surveillance state enabled by tech corporations. Rendered in stark black, white, and red, the video flickers between song lyrics and the horrors of modern society: cameras watching your every move, environmental destruction, an unjust “justice” system, and war.
Watch the video below and follow Complexant on Bandcamp.
Music: Complexant
Lyrics: Dan Greigsy
Mixed and Mastered: Christian Donaldson
Graphic Design: Taigan Harris, Bleeding Art Collective