Review Summary: DREAMKILLER is the best song on the record.
Signs of the Swarm have continuously pushed their signature style of deathcore without falling victim to the common modern tropes of the genre. You will not find melodic orchestral string arrangements here, nor will you find slow, nu-metal-influenced chugging. No clean vocals, no dance music-esque interludes – this is about as straightforward a deathcore offering as you’ll hear in 2023. The atmosphere and use of the aforementioned interludes is more akin to their 2019 release, Vital Deprivation. Gone is the massive, ambient foreplay before each track – replacing them are creepy, almost unsettling passages which span much smaller portions of tracklist. What I call “the atmospheric elements” (the arpeggiated synths, the ethereal pads, the scratchy siren-like risers, etc.) of this record are much more subtle, and act much more as an adhesive for other elements of the track, rather than standing out as their own distinct element. This may be one component of Amongst... feeling like the tightest and most focused release from the Signs’ catalog.
Amongst... seems segmented between the “heavier, brutal-er, bouncier” first portion of the record, while the second half feels “progressive, thoughtful, experimental” (relative to their previous output). In the first half, exceptional riff writing is displayed on tracks like “Pray for Death”, which harkens back to “Totem” – a bouncy, head-nod-inducing riff that really catches your ear, even on a passive listen. In contrast, songs in the second half, including “Shackles Like Talons”, “DREAMKILLER”, and “Faces Without Names”, showcase some of the most diverse, dynamic, and complete songwriting that we’ve seen from Signs. “Shackles...” features an intro that is slightly reminiscent of The Acacia Strain, “DREAMKILLER” is the most melodic and emotive track on this release (should have been the closer instead of “Malady”), and “Faces...” is the most complete ‘song’ on the record – with diverse vocal sounds and interesting musically arrangements, all while providing an exemplar of Signs’ signature sound.
On the note of Signs’ signature sound, David Simonich’s vocal performance is as stellar as ever. While I mentioned that Signs is not buying into the common themes of the modern-day deathcore landscape, there is a little bit of the “vocal gymnastics” going on, especially on the title track “Amongst the Low and Empty”. However, Simonich manages to avoid coming off as obnoxious in his display of vocal prowess. If anything, it’s just massively impressive, mainly because it doesn’t sound like anything new is happening – it’s just improving on an established vocal tone in a terrifying way. See the end of “The Witch Bekons”, which has one of the most unique and ear grabbing vocal sounds on the record (followed by what I perceive to be off-mic coughing). “Echelon” is another prime example of Simonich flexing his vocal range, with some goblin-like screams to open the track.
While I think that ultimately, I like Absolvere better at this point, I don’t think that I have any truly negative comments about Amongst the Low and Empty. Like I said, I think that listening to the album as a whole would be much improved by rearranging the track order (make “DREAMKILLER” the “Death Whistle” of this release by simply making it the closer), and I would like to see them expand their sound even further in future releases. I feel like they grew “just enough” on this record to hold my attention, but not enough to blow me out of the water. Nonetheless, I think that “Amongst the Low and Empty” will stay on rotation for a good long while – because it’s a good damn record.
