Disaffected – Rebirth (2012)

Hailing from Portugal, today we have a band that ‘waited’ for 17 years to release their second full-length release. Disaffected’s last album was back in 1995 and with “Rebirth” they deliver a very interesting and unique sounding release that is quite hard to categorize, but it’s very enjoyable to listen to. Mixing powerful guitar lines with hectic bass guitar sections, pummeling drums, crazy keyboards and harsh vocals, Disaffected has managed to catch us off-guard and produce something totally unique and different.

After a very weird and trippy intro, “C.ult O.f M.y A.shes” and “Getting Into the Labyrinth” feature a wave of powerful guitars laid on top of intricate drumming. The vocals are very aggressive and they nicely add more brutality to the overall mix of thing. The structure of these songs is quite weird and unpredictable, and while there are some melodic portions, they keyboards and the bass guitar line seem to be on a completely different plane of existence. “Dreaming III (A Nightmare)” moves into more Avant-garde areas with a very chaotic nature and a crazy feeling of a terrible nightmare, as the name states.

Mixing crazy keyboards with groove elements “Evilution Within” delivers an even more chaotic feeling, and we are totally lost as to where this album is going to. After the instrumental “Miracle Dance”, the band sort of settles in somewhat of a unified approach for “Our Will”, “Hypnotic Prophecy”, “The Rebirth Of..”, and “1460 Steps to Divine”. This approach of course is very chaotic and with weird guitar sections, crazy solos, a pulsating bass guitar line, and constant tempo changes. All of this is done very intelligently we might add, creating quite a diverse and unique listening experience.

The futuristic outro track “Arrival” is our favorite song since it is very melodic and not as seemingly random as the other tracks. It also closes with a weird jazzy section with female vocals and everything… totally weird, but very cool. We can’t really describe what Disaffected is doing as a whole in “Rebirth”, but we completely like their balls-to-the-wall approach to music and the intensity they have. If you are looking for something totally cracked out and out of the ordinary, this is the release for you.

Release: May 25th, 2012

Country: Portugal