Review: “Death Comes Supreme” by Affliction Vector

Conceived as an introspective exploration by multi instrumentalist Ans in 2018 after the dissolution of Ooze and his separation from Grime, he decided to embrace a solo works, forging a path through his own inner demons, choosing isolation and his dissolving mental health as a fuel for his creative flame and following a dark path that many have trodden before him. Inspired by legends like Mayhem, Bolt Thrower and Voivod, and joined by drummer Christian Musich (The Secret, Grime), the new projects is called Affliction Vector. Regurgitating those influences in the creation of sounds which traverse the boundaries between dreams and nightmares, painting a hallucination like picture of harrowing tales…

…the Italian pair have created a World on the other side of the void forged from Blackened Death Metal, we call it that simply because the fusion of Black Metal and Death Metal in phrasing doesn’t work as Deathend Black Metal and in truth this leans far more on the Black Metal side. After the haunting eerie opening “Voiceless Prediction“, some brutal blast beats rise above the feedback that sits like a low mist above a lake in the dead of a black night. Ans spitting, snarling and screeching, the call of a demon from beyond the grave, in keeping with Black Metal traditions but also similar to the brain child of Brendan Auld’s projects Snorlax and Resin Tomb; in other words the rantings are barely audible in terms of separation of the words themselves, in places, instead acting as a instrument of atmospheric displeasure. Cutting the lengthy build up and diving headlong into the icy abyss  “A Mere Illusion” is another recording from the cave, it’s raw quality evidence that you don’t need fancy equipment to make good music. This one has a layer of feedback fuzz over everything, underneath it is were the ripping riffs and gargantuan drums lay. A metaphor for death, “The Long Cold Rest” is another breakneck blast through Black Metal’s otherworldly pleasures, breaking out with some chugging Death Metal riffs mid track before diving back in, like a sea monster coming to the surface for air. A Doom laden bass introduction gets the swirling monster that is “Abandoned Into The Madness” underway, it’s bad acid trip sense of nausea a testament to the madness in which we dwell. It may not be the all out blood and thunder abrasion that some of the earlier cuts are but it sure as hell will take you to meet your maker. “At The Dying Sun” returns to the frenetic undertaking of the earlier works with a hell for leather energy and all out flesh searing vocal; it purists may shy away from it’s advances but it has all the elements you need to start a fire in the cold Nordic wastelands [7/10]

Track listing

1. Voiceless Prediction
2. A Mere Illusion
3. The Long Cold Rest
4. Abandoned Into The Madness
5. At The Dying Sun

“Death Comes Supreme” by Affliction Vector is out 25th September via Argento Records with pre-orders available here.