The Afterimage – Formless

Band: The Afterimage
Album: Formless EP
Record Label: Ghost Music
Release Date: 29th October 2012
Reviewed By: Mark

I promised to review a few albums for All About The Rock but I’ve been a naughty boy and haven’t done them yet, I blame the Christmas period and all the drinking I have been doing. Anyway I picked a few albums to review by bands that I’ve never heard of and had no idea what I was letting myself in for, so I finally put the albums for reviewing onto my iPod and here goes. First up is The Afterimage with their EP Formless, now I have never heard of The Afterimage and so I did a quick search on the internet and found out that they hail from Canada and this is their debut EP.

I pressed play and ‘Prologue’, which is the opening track of the 4 track EP, filled my headphones and I must admit that I felt somewhat dejected. It starts off with calming guitars and drum beats that you would expect on a pretty boy “metal” band and then it starts to get a little tempo going but still in unwanted territory, however it finally blossoms into the first heavy breakdown of the EP.

We then go into the first really track of the EP ‘Reverie’ and this gives us the first taste of the vocals and they are a deep brutal visceral vocals that shouldn’t really work with this kind of progressive metal/metalcore. The band mix technically nimble frantic guitar work with intricate pattern and heavy as an Elephant nut sack drumming with the deep grizzly vocals. The guitars constantly barrage you with complex riffage that twist and turn unexpectedly and then the drums will change it all into a hellacious breakdown that is brutal and like being kicked when your down.

‘Shallows’ has so many transitions that it is pointless in trying to keep up, but they are so quick and effortless that it doesn’t matter if you cant keep up. On this track they add another level of weirdness when they add a synth over a brutal breakdown, which surprisingly works very well. They then save the best for last and ‘The Void’ pushes the grooves further than they have on previous tracks and the sluggish breakdowns come quick and fast while the riffs bounce from one to the other and all try to compete for time.

The EP comes in at 13 minutes and is a teaser of things to come from the band. This is a very strong debut EP and hopefully they will be able to go on from here onto bigger and better things and are definitely one to look out for in the future.

SCORE – 7/10