Rating: 7.5

Country: France

Genre: Old School Death Metal

Record Label: Self Released

Release Date: 2008

Track list:
1. Severance [Dead to this World]
2. Mirror Breakdown
3. Inner Demise

Band Website: Affliction Gate

Affliction Gate - Severance [Dead to this World]

Herostratos - Vocals
Grief - Rhythm Guitar
Damien - Lead Guitar
JP - Drums

The music on Severance, the demo/EP by this new old school death metal from France, moves like a wounded reptilian monster through the stalactitic caves, its scaly body scraping bloodily against the jagged walls. The anguish of this subterranean creature is very much palpable through the music and the accompanying tortured vocals serve as an alarming reminder of that fact. Echoing in the cavernous surroundings, Herostratos' vocals ooze raw malice and pain, words uttered through his articulate, deliberate delivery hang in the air like a horrid, irreversible curse. Affliction Gate's music follows its own course in the dark underground through just three songs but which are long and well structured and leave a lasting impact on you. Well into the silence that will follow after 15 minutes, you will find yourself shuddering from its aftereffects.

Opener “Cattle Burner” almost has a black metal vibe to it, reminiscent of old Darkthrone material perhaps, with scathing, painfully growled vocals (sounding like a cruder Martin Van Drunen with limited range) amplifying the experience. Crossing the blackened territories, the music traverses on ancient death metal wastelands, passing leads fluttering like flags caught in the wind, where you will find the gentle paced, doleful segment to be most captivating. Following a piano intro sounding vaguely like some nation's anthem being played to someone's breathing sounds (the metaphorical monster), the hate in the voice of Herostratos increases tenfold in “Mirror Breakdown” and the music, insidiously picking up pace, cruelly seems to support that sentiment too. For reference sake I would liken Affliction Gate's music to God Cries era Asphyx (sans the sludge) and perhaps a bit of Pestilence circa Consuming Impulse. With the crashing sound of a cymbal or something similar sounding halfway into it, the music perceptibly intensifies raising your hair, and later the song ends playing some light leads. Final song “Inner Demise”, beginning with a King Kong-esque heartbeat, has the most malicious and threatening chanting of words before the music resumes its pain-inflicting methods. Melodic leads hover on occasion over the dragging music until wicked death/thrash parts suitably resuscitate it; the effectiveness however is a tad diminished due to the thin sound of the guitar on this release. Before the heartbeat re-emerges in the end and finally dies out, you hear a spiteful utterance of “Beware” something something (no lyrics provided) and then the words “I set you free”, which you will later realise couldn't be further from the truth.

Three terrifyingly vicious songs were quite enough to convince me of Affliction Gate's potential. For the longer version, however, if that is on the cards, they would do well to incorporate a few hooks or catchy parts akin to Asphyx or from Bolt Thrower's Realm of Chaos in their raw music and attempt to be more adventurous in their approach. For now these will suffice to fill my fragile life with pain and terror. Argh!

September 30th, 2008