It's good to see that there are bands devoted to playing old school death metal in a time when the genre is saturated with technical and brutal death metal bands. Affliction Gate hail from France, and judging from the headline on their MySpace page ("New Wave of Old School Death Metal"), they seem to be a band infatuated with the "old ways". The music on this EP is, on its most basic core, an early 90's Swedish death metal release.

There are, however, some factors on this release which makes stand out from bands like Dismember, Unleashed and Entombed. A lot of it (if not ALL of it...) has to do with the production. Though the music bears great similarity with aforementioned bands, the production has a black metal tinge to it. It lacks the rumbling chainsaw feel that was pioneered by Nihilist, and the way that the guitars tend to be at the forefront of the mix feels very black metal-ish to me. The vocals are great, the guy really knows how to growl (unlike most modern bands that are content with burping the listener into submission), but the way everything is mixed gives the vocals a black metal feel as well. I can't actually pinpoint the EXACT reason why I get a black metal feel from this, because the music is pure Unleashed worship, but the mixing job paired with the somewhat powerless guitar tone gives it a black-ish touch.

The guys in this band really know how to play their instruments. The riffs here are great. Like Dismember's first two albums, the guitars drill their way through in a brutal yet classy manner, and only letting up occasionally to go into melancholic doom-ish sections that bring early My Dying Bride to mind. The drummer does a commendable job but the guitar work really takes the cake.

The mixing job and the lack of a powerful guitar tone should have really spoiled everything for me, but in a strange way it made the music better. The air of melancholy and depression remains even in the fast parts, and that is because of the mixing job. Overall, this is a good EP and it would be interesting to see what direction Affliction Gate takes in their next release. An improved guitar tone and a more death metal-ish mixing would certainly make the band feel like a full fledged death metal band, but it might also take away from the atmosphere.

Rating: 8.6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by MegaHassan
01/06/2009 23:57