As I say many times, Death/Black Metal isn’t a consensual Metal genre because it has endless ways of being done. It means as well that extremely hard to make accurate descriptions of how a release of the genre sounds without stating similarities with other acts of the past. But don’ be disturbed: the Italian duet AFFLICTION VECTOR has a musical simple to be understood on “Contra Hominem”, its first full-length. Alessandro Perosa did the recordings, while Gabriele Gramaglia took care of the mixing and mastering at Crepuscular Sound Studio. The sonority is something brutal and massive, heavy and aggressive with distorted chords tunes, but with a good level of sound definition (to enable the fans to understand what’s being played).

The artwork of The Hermit (cover) and Daniel Valeriani (logo, layout) is simple and efficient, stating the band’s musical ways. As guest, here is Luca Solferino playing piano on “Antiuomo” and organ on “To Lucifer”. They’re into an Old School Black/Death Metal way similar to ancients as SARCÓFAGO and VULCANO (from Brazil) with the energy of acts as ANGELCORPSE (especially due the tunes of the harsh vocals), contrasting faster blast beats and insane tempos with some slower parts, and such contrasts appears on the use of vocals (a midterm between shrieked-growled tunes contrasts with normal one in many moments, as on “Antiuomo” and “Nero Gorgo”). It's nothing extremely new, but’s full of energy and will seduce the fans of the genre easily.

“Antiuomo”, “Lethal”, “Ephemeral Lifeless”, “Nero Gorgo”, “Animalis Irae” and “To Lucifer” are charming Black/Death Metal offerings with excellent instrumental basis and charming vocals, always pulsing with an aggressive energy and constricting charm, while “Cavern’s Murmur” and “Abyss Rises” are short instrumental songs that work as outros. For extreme Metal fans, “Contra Hominem” is a delight, indeed.

Oh, are you still reading this review? Go and get your own copy of “Contra Hominem”, and enjoy AFFLICTION VECTOR’s music!