Disaffected - Vast (1995)^{Release ID: 23447}

It's 1995 and we have had the technical wizardy of Nocturnus as well as the progressive structuring of Atheist reach the shores of Portugal. Here, death/thrash metallers Disaffected are just dropping album number one after four years of demos (well all in 1992 actually) and the record reeks of both the aforementioned bands to high heaven.  Unable to avoid wearing their influences on their sleeves, Disaffected churn out twelve tracks of technical and progressive death metal that include one Acheron cover and an instrumental to boot.

There's a fair old amount of Death in here also but the keyboards of Fatima Jeronimo (yes really) add a much more atmosphere tinged experience to most tracks adding to this sense of the ethereal alongside the fluid and precise guitar playing which lends from Schuldiner heavily in places but feels like a genuine celebration as opposed to wankery worship.  Nearly all the tracks have this air of mystery to them and use great builds to achieve the dizzy heights of some fine death metal.  Other influences creep in, such as Morbid Angel (just fleetingly, here and there) as well as the more consistent Edge of Sanity references.  Throughout all of this though, Disaffected manage to stand out as talented, skilled musicians who can carry off al these parts and not fluff them or make them boring.

As such, it is an album that defies structure in terms of a consistent form across the record.  The chaos of Phelebotomized minus the slower, doom elements springs to mind when listening to some of the more avant-garde aspects to the record.  Wherever the band's sound takes you as a listener there is absolutely no doubt that the band have some real bite and intensity to their sound, with solid riffing often forming part of some (largely twisted) backbone to songs from which eruptions or off-shoots often form to avoid the feeling of safety ever becoming present.  The disorienting bloops and blips in the middle of The Praxis of the non-Being are unexpected in a track that whilst it most definitely does go off-piste is also very riff based at the same time.  Instrumental track Allusion is an enticing and beautiful piano piece that I have to say is quite unexpected, but the furious and bestial riffing of Dead Like My Dreams that immediately follows this is even more unexpected.  Here, again are the blooping keys (along with some odd tribal drumming) but this time it detracts from the music a little too much in my book.

You are required to focus a lot on Vast otherwise you will miss something and wonder how you went from that swirling technical alchemy to a straight up riff fest.  The prog elements tend to arc of the tracks like solar flares.  You know they are bright and attention grabbing if not potentially very dangerous but you can always see where they originated from.  This is the beauty of Vast, it is a very rewarding album that is not just focused on trying to outwit the listener, more there's a feeling that it is always trying to entertain you.

It isn't perfect, and last sentence before this withstanding, I do get lost sometimes - even at my most focussed.  But for an album I found completely at random, I can't recall how often I have felt this rewarded by a release from a completely unknown band.