Deathcore has become my pet genre. Having watched the genre evolve through many phases with varying influences has made the pursuit of this style almost academic. The downside of taking the deep dive into the genre for so many years is that there is a sense of genre fatigue that plagues even the most ardent supporter. Very few records stand the test of time or shake things up enough to revitalize our interest. Most records and bands are lost in the myriad of new content being pushed out week after week.

Do the Pittsburgh gents in Signs of the Swarm have what it takes to keep that fire burning with their latest offering, To Rid Myself of Truth?

Admittedly, I have not put Signs of the Swarm’s catalog under the reviewer’s microscope. The first trio of records, Sensless Order, The Disfigurement of Existence, and Vital Deprivation leaned in a more slam direction, relying on sheer aggression and sledgehammer brutality to get their point across. The Disfigurement of Existence was the record that caught my attention during its era. With various personnel changes, the band decided to switch up their tried and tested formula, and add more variability – more progressive and technical elements on Absolvere. While there were moments on that record that did make me think they circled something special, much of it felt like stuff I had already heard before, often better, from other bands on other records. Furthermore, I almost entirely bounced off their most recent record, 2023’s Amongst the Low and Empty. At a cursory glance, that special sauce seemed to be slipping from the band’s grasp, and the record was marred by overly compressed, muddy, garbled production, which made the record a chore to consume. However, Absolvere and Amongst the Low and Empty received generally favorable reviews, so perhaps this jaded reviewer is in the minority.

Knowing that I was biased and perhaps too harsh with my critique of Amongst the Low… I decided to dive into To Rid Myself of Truth with an open mind. Unfortunately, after several lessons, my overall reaction to their newest record mirrors my take on Absolvere. This record isn’t bad by any margins, and I rather enjoyed certain sections and large chunks of certain songs, but as a record, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that every element of the songwriting felt tired and overwrought. This was also among the first times where a record felt like Signs of the Swarm took all the trendy deathcore tropes and mushed them together on the record, yielding a record that feels contrived and lacking authentic thought.

To Rid Myself of Truth actually does well when the band lets go off trying to hit all the tropes and just write fun, heavy, and hard-hitting sections. On the long list of released singles, “HELLMUSTFEARME” is the best example to illustrate the best and worst sides of this band’s current state. With the overwrought and frankly cringy song title, the over-the-top tough guy side of the song overshadows some sections with honest-to-god fun, groovy, and heavy riffs. Continuing through the singles “Scars Upon Scars” brings in the modern trend of sonic textures that have become a mainstay of modern deathcore, the screeches, the dives, the pitch-shifted yells, and the glitch-guitar stuff that bands Distant, Cabal, and Alpha Wolf do way better. This track was yet another example of a meh delivery of the song title in the chorus. With this deluge of singles, at least “Natural Selection” and “Clouded Retinas” stood the rigors of repeated listens.

In this reviewer’s opinion, the non-singles ended up being the most enjoyable on the record. A track like “Iron Sacrament” is Signs of the Swarm at its creative best, using modern tropes and tricks but wielded with thought and cohesion to create a well-rounded song that felt memorable and brutal. The song that shot to my favorite was “Sarkazein”, with its ominous ambience adding necessary menace, with those open chords and djenty lower-register chords giving a Fit For an Autopsy vibe to the track (a band that has quickly entered my favorites). They do completely overdo it with the cybercore drops and futuristic squeals, which were more jarring than enjoyable. “Fear Judgement” opens with a clip of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s impassioned graduation speech extoling the virtues of kindness to combat hate borne of fear. The deathcore ballad “Forcing to Forget”, another modern deathcore trope, fell entirely flat. The inclusion of clean vocals on Absolvere was hailed as a prime example to defend the use of clean vocals in a genre that prides itself on its abject brutality. While the performances on that record felt fresh and unique, “Forcing to Forget” on this record felt entirely contrived and lacked any genuine authenticity.

The switch around of various members of the band probably has a big impact on the songwriting, being so uneven across the band’s six record catalog. Through it all, major praise is owed to Bobby Crow, who is Signs of the Swarm. Drummer on To Rid Myself of Truth, Crow has handled multiple instruments, including guitars, bass, and backing vocals, on previous records. To hold a band down by switching roles is truly a masterclass in ability. Switching to a single guitarist dilutes the songwriting capabilities, relying on layers that become tricky to reproduce live, especially with all the added bells and whistles of the aforementioned sonic textures. Guitarist Carl Schulz debuts as the primary guitarist on this record. He has good ideas but needs the space to truly craft memorable sections to elevate the band to the level it deserves after six records, rather than have the overall sound merely be an amalgamation of elements we’ve all heard before. The production on this record is a significant step forward from that godawful mix on Amongst the Low and Empty, yet this record also falls prey to that overly compressed and muddy low end with growls, eight-string guitars, bass, and double pedals all vying for those precious low frequencies.

Vocals seem always so damn important to Deathcore fans, and vocalist David Simonich is hailed as one of the best in the scene right now. While it is undeniable that the man has pipes straight down to the depths of hell itself, I find myself bouncing hard off his approach to vocal performance and presentation. Much like the previous vocalist, the much-maligned CJ McReery, Simonich has fallen prey to the classic “deathcore vocal Olympic” mire, chasing those viral TikTok moments by conjuring up the filthiest sound a human throat can produce (to chase that elusive Lorna Shore/Will Ramos fame). However, much of the vocals on To Rid Myself of Truth felt extremely overdone to exhaustion. With several tracks on the record opening with interchangeable cold-open growls and extremely cheesy lyrical deliveries of him merely growling out the song title over and over again, this is another example of SOTS trading genuine performance for contrived moments.

To Rid Myself of Truth is a favorable yet lackluster continuation of the Signs of the Swarm catalog. A record that feels more like a mishmash of tropes popular in modern deathcore, and elements taken from other bands that do them better, To Rid Myself of Truth struggles to carve its own identity. There are some enjoyable moments, however they are buried in a sea of tropes that make modern deathcore an oversaturated genre.