(written by Islander)
The Australian band Complexant have been making a name for themselves in their home country since 2022 through tours in which they’ve shared the stage with such bands as Cryptopsy, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Defeated Sanity, Unearth, and Disentomb, and they’ve extended their music across international waters with a string of singles and a 2023 EP (A Rite of Passage). Complexant should draw a lot more attention both at home and abroad when Bleeding Art Collective release their debut album Apex later this month.
As the band’s music has evolved into what’s represented on Apex, they have drawn influence from bands such as Behemoth, Suffocation, Emperor, and Nile, focusing on an intersection of death and black metal that’s rightly described as “a sound defined by weight, darkness and unrelenting intensity”.
We have a very strong example of these qualities today in our premiere of a video for a song off Apex called “Afterlife“.
L to R: Shannon Zivkovic – Guitar; Gavin Bradley – Guitar; Dan Greigsy – Vocals; Chris Tuckley – Bass; Seb Su – Drums
Vocalist Dan Greigsy describes the grim subject matter of the song:
“A married couple struggling to make ends meet yet completely devoted to one another, make a suicide pact to escape their growing debt problems. The lyrics are almost like the final conversation of them convincing themselves to end it all echoing out with the realisation “Nobody wants to live forever when you’re living the hard life and dying on the inside.”
The well-made video includes a chilling depiction of the doomed couple, as well as fast-cutting shots of Complexant performing the song with all cylinders firing. The song itself is a high-octane assault, violent and intense enough to cause shell-shock among unsuspecting listeners, but it also transforms in a way that reveals another side of Complexant’s songwriting.
The song’s turbocharged opening phase is furious, attacking listeners with blasting drums, hurtling bass-lines, and swarms of insectile fretwork that will appeal to tech-death mavens. Moreover, vocalist Dan Greigsy delivers blowtorch intensity, with his face and body as well as his voice, the kind of ferocious assault that would send a pack of hungry wild dogs racing away in terror.
The band also mix in sudden stops and starts, vigorously galloping beats, full-bore percussive strafing runs, weirdly quivering guitar-leads, and thuggishly slugging grooves. All of this is tightly executed, yet it still creates a feeling of flat-out mayhem.
And then the change occurs – subtly at first and then more pronounced. The drums become steadier; the music seems to dismally groan and miserably ring (reminding us of the doomed nature of the tale told by the song); and Dan Greigsy shows that he’s a very good singer as well as a very beastly growler.
For Apex, vocals were tracked by Joey Marsh (Beyond the Marsh Studios) and guitars and bass were tracked by Shannon Zivkovic. The album was mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Shadow of Intent, Ingested), and it features cover art by Matt Priso.
Apex will be unleashed through Bleeding Art Collective in partnership with Blood Blast Distribution on July 31st. For more info about the album and Complexant, see the links below the album cover. And then after those, we’re also including a video for the previous single “No Angels Weep“, described by Dan Greigsy in this statement:
“A tale of vengeance, revenge and killing the false friends who scheme against you, when paranoia turns into reality. Murdered one by one with an old gardening tool, then buried in the backyard. You have freed yourself from your living burden, but you are now haunted by a rotting garden sprouting from your sins”
BLEEDING ART COLLECTIVE:
https://www.bleedingartcollective.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bleedingartcollective
https://www.instagram.com/bleedingartcollective
COMPLEXANT:
https://www.facebook.com/complexantband
https://www.instagram.com/complexantband/
https://complexant.bandcamp.com/music
https://open.spotify.com/artist/66zh3ftuN85voLKArarSEF