AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: SIGNS OF THE SWARM — “NIGHTCRAWLER”

 

Last November, Unique Leader released the latest album by Pittsburgh’s Signs of the Swarm, whose musical concoctions straddle intersecting lines of brutal death metal, slam, and deathcore. The seventh track on that 10-track release was “Nightcrawler“, and that song is the subject of the music video we’re premiering in this post.

There are chiming notes in this song that surface here and there. They sound like a child’s music box, one that has somehow continued to play in a mechanized war zone. It’s an eerie sensation, one haunting remnant of innocence in a landscape given over to violence.

 

 

The contrast is sharp. The beginning of the song sounds like a mortar attack, followed by a machine-gun fusillade, accented by venomous guitar swarming. Bouts of start-stop pile-driving amplify the music’s demolishing impact. The vocals are a skin-shivering array of blood-thirsty, bestial roars, toxic gurgling sounds, and flesh-eating shrieks. Slow waves of bleak melody flow across the obliterating, black-hearted rhythms. And to cap off the experience, you get a bridge-collapsing breakdown… and those forlorn tinkling notes again.

The video that helps bring this mauling song to life was made by Marc Liscio, who has worked with the band before.

And in other Signs of the Swarm news, the band will soon embark on a tour with Lorna Shore. The dates are below. The venues might want to reinforce their foundations.

2/20 Fayetteville, NC @ Drunk Horse Pub
2/22 Jacksonville, FL @ Nighthawks
2/23 Orlando, FL @ Soundbar
2/24 Baton Rouge, LA @ 524 Studios
2/26 Big Spring, TX @ Desert Flower Art Bar
2/27 Albuquerque, NM @ Moonlight Lounge
3/1 Las Vegas, NV @ Eagle Aerie Hall

To get the album for your very own, check these links:

SOTS Merch Store:
https://www.indiemerchstore.com/b/signs-of-the-swarm

SOTS Bandcamp:
https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-disfigurement-of-existence

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SignsOfTheSwarm