Despite how brief their passage is traced through maniac possession Trieste, Italy-based blackened death metal duo AFFLICTION VECTOR yet manage a wild streak of atmospheric horror and mayhemic action here on this debut full-length album. Using bestial black metal as their foil and death grooves as occasional throttle their focus on ‘Contra Hominem‘ offers notable balance between atmospheric storytelling and animalistic violence. Though it may initially appear incomplete as a wandering thought dispersed in descent there is a somewhat unique conception and character here in the band’s second key work which finds it transfixing as an eerie and aggressive jumping off point.

Affliction Vector formed circa 2018 by way of vocalist, guitarist and bassist Ans after having spent most of the 2010’s playing bass guitar in sludge metal bands (Ooze, Grime) which were defunct at that point. The focus of the project was initially solitary black metal insanity but would shift to an esoteric form of blackened/bestial death metal when he’d then paired up with former bandmate and drummer Chris (now of Feral Forms) in 2019. The result of that initial union was an EP release (‘Death Comes Supreme‘, 2020) which you might recall I’d premiered at the time. Their description of their craft at the time was something like Mayhem, Bolt Thrower and Voivod in shape though I would say the first two influences were most evident on that EP, a harried “war metal” type record with a dark ambient bent towards the end. It was an energetic record with a maniac directive in mind, probably best exemplified by “Abandoned into the Madness” as a raw point of expression on that first recording. While it was a solid debut there were no real expectations for this group to show up again after five years of relative silence on the release front.

Reappearing in a new configuration for this next ritual Affliction Vector is still a duo but now includes Claustrum drummer Stefano S. who is from the same general scene/area but bears a different hand entirely. Time and its inevitable shadow change are important factors in distinguishing the original odd-angled black/death maul of ‘Death Comes Supreme‘ from the far more atmospheric but no less eruptive transformation which occurs on ‘Contra Hominem‘. The best general description I could manage is something like atmospheric bestial black metal with some death metal grooves providing its whipping spinal column, a quickly flowing non-linear presentation which slips through its echoing possession in a tightly wound, horrified ~28.5 minutes.

Affliction Vector are at their most lucid where we begin as a piano riff forbids entrance via opener “Antiuomo”, outlining both the main riff of the piece while sounding like it were pulled from an old giallo film intro. From there we get very brief shocks of the duo’s expanded ouevre in terms of a more fill-heavy drum performance which shies away from plainest trample as well as some variety in the vocals which now more readily scrawl into cleaner-shouted points and the occasional echoing “ough“. That horror melody doesn’t carry through the full album but it does resolve within the final phrase of the opener, leaving “Lethal” room to bring the noisome brutality we’d only had a glimpse of just yet. While some of the pacing and grooves keep their work locked into the frenetic “war metal” mode to some degree even this most straightforward piece has its designs showing as purposeful rather than erratic punk-charged whipping, to me this has a sort of Inquisition-esque feeling to its dynamic apart from the slower section (re: ~1:04 minutes in) which otherwise dominates the interest of the song.

Again the band revisit a scene of horror with the dark ambient interlude “Cavern’s Murmur”, a short piece which serves as liminal space during an immersed listen, offering a break between the blur of deeper subterranean terror and increasingly loosened grooves surrounding. “Ephemeral Lifeless” continues this thread of ominous descent with the inclusion of keys and a snaking sense of movement, a rant that dissolves in hand and eventually grinds into guitar feedback. Side A is more-or-less the peaking interest of ‘Contra Hominem‘ for my own taste and from there you’ve more-or-less gotten the idea beyond the specifics of their rhythms which continue to knot between rolling and whipping bestial black/death metal action. None of it is plain or phoned in in any sense but you’ll have imagined the possibilities during the first several pieces on the album otherwise, that said the final point of descent (“To Lucifer”) is appropriately fiery in that it brings riffs, cathedralesque keys, and a satisfying conclusion to this shock of possession.

The knack that Affliction Vector have harnessed here on this album for my own taste comes with the jammed, emergent rush of nausea that which captures the intensity I look for in this type of bestial black/death metal music beyond the late 80’s but doesn’t stick to the path provided. The only gripe I’d encountered in my time with ‘Contra Hominem‘ was the standard set for Side A being so high and the second half being left to finish the thought fairly quickly. There is a grand finale in some respects but there was space enough for a work that’d match the energy of, or provide a destination beyond, the album opener. That said the rate of fire on ideas is yet above-average in their hands and the band’s work once again provides its own distinct adventure through. A moderately high recommendation.

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