San Francisco-based band Apex4X craft a darkly introspective rock appeal on Nightfall, melding alternative, darkwave, and metal influences amidst starkly impactful themes. Control and censorship from oppressive leadership, and the startling realities of the world in general, are captured amidst powerfully brooding productions.
The lyrical accompaniments are powerful and timely, critiquing societal structures, power dynamics, and human behavior. A bleak portrait of society resonates with artful cohesion — emphasizing corruption, greed, and manipulation apparent throughout society, and its leaders especially. These morose truths are provided with an undercurrent of hope, suggesting an eventual reckoning from those who are oppressed. “Truth once buried does not die / It waits beneath a bloodstained sky,” vocals resonate on the haunting “Beneath a Bloodstained Sky,” which tactfully explores how ignoring warnings and exploiting the world will inevitably lead to consequences.
Opening the album, “Hollow Kings” consumes in its depictions of rulers who have built their towers “high as gods,” — adorned alongside by buzzing, ominous instrumentation and steady percussion. The references to “hollow kings, hollow thrones,” doesn’t waste any time in showcasing a disdain for leaders that emphasize self above others. Captivating with similar themes, “High Justice” crafts an eerie, industrial spell within vivid imagery of environmental and societal decay (“Turned the soil to fields of ash”). Elsewhere, a heavier rock swell invigorates on the gripping title track. Apex4X’s Nightfall is a thorough success, especially in lyricism that delves into the corruption of leadership, both past and present.
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We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
