Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps more of a telling state of the world in the last year, the feeling of sheer abandon that has crept through in certain quarters and into the lives of those who have been placed into such desperation that the debut E.P., Widow, by Darke Complex should resonate with the anger and warning of the Liberty Bell being struck with the same ferocity as was achieved when first cast in Whitechapel and before being cracked as it stood resplendent on American soil.

The fixated and the psychosis that is the undercurrent theme in Widow, just doesn’t bubble under the surface, it sings out loud and clear, it permeates the soul and has the listener asking questions that might be seen at best as a knotty situation, at worst a multi-faceted driven obsession. Yet the questions need to be asked, for even in the darkest corners of the human spirit, the simple is to be taken to task and the grave to be explored.

For Scarecrow, Okage, Mothjaw and Onehead, Widow arguably is the foundation stone in which an empire could be built or indeed could be the source of destruction. However, listening to thermo-induced, rocket propelled anger and storm fires of well thought out lyrics such as Frigid, Desperation, Grief and the superb Invertebrate, the E.P. is one in which an empire in the dark could be achieved. The overwhelming hints of menace, the pulse of Mouthjaw’s bass guitar ramming home the peril and the saving grace in which the band offers, all are intricate and rightly as the band suggest, complex, emotionally and psychologically.

The empire of the Darke is at hand, thankfully there is a light close by in which to see the shadows crawl.  

Ian D. Hall