For over a decade, Houston-native Vincente Void (real name Christian Vasquez) has been amongst some of the most influential figures in the metalcore scene. While you may not know it, his work and the movements surrounding have been instrumental in the growth and popularity of some of the metal’s most burgeoning subsects.
Chiefly, his original project, Texas nu-metalcore outfit Darke Complex, were among the first wave of bands within the genre alongside tastemakers such as Villains, Sworn In and Gift Giver. This, of course, has led to a movement that is more apparent than ever in today’s music landscape, with the sounds of nu-metalcore bands such as Alpha Wolf, Sylar, Ocean Grove; and in more recent memory ten56., Heavensgate and Pincer+ dominating the collective consciousness wider core-adjacent hive.
Powered by RedCircle
The story of Darke Complex is, well, a complex one, though. Starting out initially in 2012 as a local hardcore outfit, the group recorded a number of demos and performed under their original name, and later namesake to their debut, Widow. While early demos featured a different vocalist entirely, Vasquez (then under the mysterious, mononymous character of Scarecrow, later changed to Vincente Void) soon took over, and stood as the band’s frontman until their eventual dissolution.
Their starkly creative 2015 debut EP, Widow, clearly struck a chord with many. While it never quite gained the mainstream recognition of modern nu-adjacent bands such as the aforementioned Alpha Wolf, Widow, and Darke Complex as a whole in all honesty, fell more into the realm of ‘your favourite band’s favourite band’, which then led to the genre’s widespread adaptation later down the line, but didn’t quite take off as it, by all means, certainly should have.
Darke Complex’s second and final release, 2016’s Point Oblivion LP, took the band in a more overtly nu-metal direction, shedding many of the elements of core that stood at the centre of the band’s sound in years prior. By Vasquez’s own account, didn’t quite live up to the band’s initial vision and creative ambition for the project. Be it due to time constraints, label issues, management quarrels, production halts or whatever else, Vasquez states that the final product of Point Oblivion ended up as a notably different product than what was once conceptualised.
“There was a very clear point where the record was turned over essentially [entirely] to them … A lot of pressure was put on us … We were all kind of burnt out,” says Vasquez. “Our interests were varied. Obviously, we took a lot of inspiration from stuff outside of metal …Raider Clan and [Yung Lean], for example.” He goes on to explain what Point Oblivion attempted to accomplish, and what went wrong along the way. “[Point Oblivion] was kind of like our response to what we perceive to be [a lack of] potential in the [metalcore] genre. There was no more, no further than we could push it … [There were] a lot of other factors. Label involvement, producer bullshit, management stuff that really just, it turned what could have been a really cool record and to something that I’m not proud of at all.”
Despite this, and despite hefty pushback from certain media outlets at the time, one of which Vasquez describes as “a hit piece that made sense,” Point Oblivion proved to be a relative success, with many of its tracks standing as some of their most popular. Despite that, Vasquez’s disillusion with the record remained, and he quietly stepped back from his lead writing role in the band after moving away in 2017, at which point the group were underway writing the follow-up to Point Oblivion.
Of course, seasoned Darke Complex fans know that not only did a record never come, but the band itself never quite saw the light of day again. Vasquez goes on to explain the dissolution of the group, and the events that led up to them calling it a day permanently on the project after some internal turmoil.
“I had just moved away from Houston … to Philadelphia. Being [that] I had written a majority of the music that had [been released up to] then, the band wanted to take more initiative to write, so they could have their names in the songs on the record … Obviously, I advocated for that, but the songs they wrote were not great,” he says.
“After however many months, they turned in some demos. I thought they were pretty bad. But, the label would be the ones deciding of they were good or not, and I didn’t want that onus to fall on me, [given] I have an implicit bias [after writing] Darke Complex stuff [for so long], I need it to sound a certain way for me to be satisfied.”
He continues to describe the initial reaction to the label, and how that fed back to the band in a negative way. “They showed the label the label was like, hey, this kind of sucks. Can you guys [do it] again? Or can Christian maybe help you guys? And so they’re like, Fine, sure, whatever. So, I wrote a song, and I showed them how to write it over Skype or something, and I remember the service was dogshit. They couldn’t really follow along [because my computer was] lagging a fuck ton, [but] they were just like ‘yeah, this is cool, I think I understand how to write a Darke Complex song now.
He continues, “I showed my demo to the label, and they were like ‘yes, this is great … [we] just want more of this,’ so they were off on their way … They [made] five songs or something … and showed the label at our next call, and our label [again] is like, ‘yeah, this sucks’. [I guess that’s when] a lot of them just felt really defeated about it. They were like, ‘yeah, this probably isn’t for me.’”
He further expands that the band wanted to disconnect themselves from living in his shadow, so to speak, “I want to make music that I’m happy about and proud of, and I want it to be associated with me, the artist, without the biases [our label] has as a result of years of working with you.” One member stated, to which Vasquez sympathised “I was like, you know what, that’s fair … you guys do your own thing, and I’ll do my own thing as well.”
The waning months of Darke Complex’s existence proved to be quite a challenge for Vasquez, as he was left to fulfil obligations of shows that the band had agreed on prior. “Darke Complex was scheduled to play a couple of festivals before the band just kind of dissolved … When the band left, one of the festivals [was a month away], and I [asked the band] ‘Hey, guys, you want to get together and play these last couple of shows?’ And they were like, ‘ah, yeah, no thanks,’ so I was like fuck, what I am I gonna do?”
He continues to describe how these shows eventually went ahead, with Vasquez playing a solo set of mixed material between Widow, and his then-unannounced solo EP, Murder. “I played this weird mishmash of Widow and Murder together. It was two festivals [in 2017], one of them was in Austin, Texas, and one was in Dallas. This was right after the band broke up.” Even wagering to his former bandmates that these shows could be seen as last hurrah farewell shows from the group, they declined his offer, and shortly after the performances, the Darke Complex brand was dissolved in its entirety.
Following the band’s untimely demise, however, Vasquez immediately started work on his aforementioned solo record, which would eventually become 2019’s Murder. The record saw Vasquez repurpose the Darke Complex debut, Widow, through its concepts and lyrics into a wider variety of sounds, ranging from the worlds of nu-metal, trap and even K-pop. This wide variety acted as a way to free Vincente of his musical inhibitions, so to speak, but the intent was never quite as hardline as it might seem given the specificity of the genres covered.
“It just happened like that.” says Vasquez, “One of the intentions [was] literally just to flex. But it wasn’t a purposeless flex … [it was three years later, and] I felt like a lot of people just didn’t know about Darke Complex anymore. [Maybe] they had forgotten about it, maybe they didn’t care.” Stating that the delay in getting his own solo material out, despite his previous bandmates kickstarting solo careers almost instantaneously following the band’s demise, left him feeling intimidated. Throughout this time, however, Vasquez says that his time was spent not only in building and refining his solo material that would lead to his re-debut under Vincente Void, but also working closely with up-and-coming nu-metal act Omerta.
Acting as a functional sixth member, being not only a producer but a primary songwriter for the group, Vasquez has been an integral member of the group from their inception and debut with Hyperviolence, until now, with their forthcoming Suicycle release garnering much anticipation and hype from those already aware of the group. It’s clear that the intention with much of Omerta’s doesn’t stray far from the original path that never came to be with Darke Complex, however.
“Omerta was basically an experiment in how I would write … a successor to Widow,” he states. “We wanted to do something heavy, groovy, fun, nu-metally genre mash-up. [But I’m] still a huge fan of rap, J-rock and J-pop … [We refer to] the Point Oblivion demos [as a] repository for cool ideas that could’ve seen the light of day, [just maybe] in a different form.”
Vasquez claims that, further to this, Omerta will “scratch the itch” of those yearning for more Darke Complex material that never was. The band have clearly made a sizeable impression too, having just wrapped up a lengthy 30-plus-date tour with UK darlings Loathe (who Vasquez also provided a vocal feature for at the tail end of their 2020 breakout I Let It In And It Took Everything). Further, the upcoming release of Suicycle left them with a comfortable spot in our Ones To Watch for 2023 late last year, with the promise of new material and exciting new live shows propping up Omerta as having the potential to truly take off and find their place in the wider music world in 2023.
Despite the messy dissolution of Darke Complex, Vincente Void has maintained a steady and commanding presence as one of the scene’s most influential voices. Despite the messy dissolution of one of metalcore’s most promising acts, what rose from the ashes of their demise is a burgeoning phoenix in his further ventures as a solo artist and with Omerta.
Join us later this month on Part II, as we discuss Vasquez’s intentions outside of music itself, and more in the bolstering and creation of fields surrounding it. Implementations of Web 3.0, bustling global music communities and more to come in the next part, so make sure to stick around and keep it locked on Boolin Tunes.