EP REVIEW: He Watches In Silence – God Complex

February 17, 2025 Chris Earl

When a band releases a swan song, it’s often enjoyed with a bitter taste in the mouth. Sure, it’s more music and often it’s the band playing themselves off, giving their fans something to remember them by, but it’s also wracked with loss. Fans will wonder what could have been, what was left unsung and unplayed. When GOD COMPLEX, underground British hardcore favourites split up in 2021 after releasing To Decay In A Deathless World, they left a lot on the table.

Despite the sheer quality and brutality of the record, fans were upset when vocalist Harry Rule left the band to front BLOOD YOUTH, a band which didn’t take full advantage of his talents in the opinion of many.

It wouldn’t be controversial to say that the move wasn’t the most productive, and when murmurings of GOD COMPLEX returning began in late 2024, the excitement was thick amongst the old and new fans, some of whom missed the band on their first time round. Known for an industrial-tinged, socially aware brand of heavy, lizard brain tingling hardcore, things have taken a decidedly more chaotic, ramshackle approach on their new EP He Watches In Silence, their first release for SharpTone Records.

With a snare that seems to tap into your lizard brain and make you want to start swinging, it’s immediate that the band have returned more pissed off than ever. There’s a sense of grandeur about things, from the artwork to the way in which the songs seem to crash in like thunder on a once calm horizon. Salt And Ash opens with some curious strings, often pinched just enough to get you just on edge, followed by an inviting lull that gives way to a a blasting, chugging slab of chaos. Vocalist Harry Rule sounds as pissed as ever over machine gun percussion and some incendiary downtuned guitarwork.

This continues into Depraved Idol, which echoes the band’s past releases, filled with a mammoth hit swing of groove that just invites two-steppers to the floor. There’s tinges of LOATHE at their most violent here, along with shades of more extreme bands like SANCTION and earlier VEIN.FM. The path this record walks is narrow but fraught with peril, as you get visions of fearing for your orbital bone standing next to a pit when these tracks are played live.

There’s coming back with a bang, and then there’s coming back with something so explosive and destructive that the Geneva Convention would be concerned. This is the band refined and elevated to a level far above their previous work and helps them re-emerge into the hardcore scene as a force to be reckoned with. Let’s hope this time round the band not only gets their flowers, but is able to let their sound continue to grow and expand even further.

Rating: 8/10