For anyone approaching Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship for the first time, 2D Complex probably sounds like complete nonsense. Blast beats collide with anime melodies, guttural growls give way to animalistic squeals, and songs seem determined to throw every possible idea at the listener before immediately replacing it with another.
On paper, none of it should work, yet somehow, it does.
The surprising thing about 2D Complex isn’t its brutality. Extreme metal has never lacked heaviness. What’s surprising is how quickly the apparent chaos begins revealing its own internal logic. The frantic pacing never feels random, and beneath the relentless blast beats sits a precision that keeps the album from collapsing under its own heaviness. Every sudden change feels intentional, even when it sounds completely unhinged.
That balance becomes even more interesting as the album moves beyond the band’s meme-driven reputation. Beneath the kaleidoscope of sound sits something far less playful. The lyrics wrestle with isolation, obsessive fandom, self-destruction, and the uneasy relationship between escapism and reality. The anime references become less of a joke and more of a language for expressing experiences that are difficult to articulate directly.
For those unfamiliar with extreme metal, 2D Complex may register as sensory overload. For others, particularly those whose minds find comfort in complexity rather than simplicity, the album’s intensity can become strangely calming. Once the ear accepts that every shriek, blast beat, and sudden melodic shift belongs exactly where it is, the noise stops feeling chaotic and starts feeling organised in its own peculiar way.
2D Complex won’t convert anyone who fundamentally dislikes extreme metal. By finding unexpected coherence inside what first appears to be total disorder, it embraces its own absurdity with complete conviction. Sometimes chaos isn’t the absence of order. Sometimes it’s simply an order that speaks a different language.
