Then Comes Affliction to Awaken the Dreamer

The first time I heard about this band I instantly thought of Forbidden’s magnum opus, and felt eager to check what the guys had cooked expecting more or less a tribute to the Americans with all nuances of the progressive thrash kaleidoscope. Needless to add, this album left me quite stupefied, and cold on first listen, since it was nothing like its godfather; in fact, it was like nothing out there whatsoever. It took me several listens before I started deciphering these enigmatic musical formulas, and another few spins before I fully began appreciating this truly impressive tribute to the more serious, more ambitious side of our favourite metal.

Twisted into Form is a super group comprising members of none other than the one-album-wonder Spiral Architect, the guitarist Kaj Gornitzka and the singer Leif Knashaug, who have teamed up with the drummer David Husvik (Extol, Absurd2) and the bass player Erik Aadland (Decadence, Lunaris). In other words, experts in the progressive/technical have gathered here to perplex the audience in a way never done before. Who gave the idea for this madness here is not known, I guess it came from the Architects, but it’s very rare for one to come across such a puzzling, engaging and challenging aural experience.

Enters “Enter Nothingness” and twisted labyrinthine riffs immediately become the order of the day creating dizziness with their jumpy overlapping histrionics. Knashaug is traditionally outstanding behind the mike, and his soaring dramatic croons are a wonder to listen to. Music-wise this doesn’t quite follow his other band’s trajectory as marginally more linear epic passages are introduced later alongside a great bass bottom reminiscent of Steve DeGiorgio. “Instinct Solitaire” is even more perplexing with a hallucinogenic riff “salad” ala Extol’s “Synergy” commencing from the get-go the melodic leads bringing some order, but expect the unexpected later with brilliant melodies, dramatic progressive build-ups, more befuddling spiral-like technicality, and outlandish time-signatures those recalling Spiral Architect. “Torrents” is a progressive epicer with vortex-like riffage ala Zero Hour, but watch out for the more aggressive Death-ish stroke which gets its comeuppance eventually later in the face of an atmospheric chorus-carrying motif and spacey melodic dissonances. “The Thin Layers of Lust & Love” is a multi-layered progressive masterpiece which lures the listener with a drowsy balladic intro; his/her fascination will only grow bigger form here as supreme Oriental tune rises out of thin air later mixed with jarring Watchtower-esque riffs those alternating with the balladisms as the guys achieve perfect balance between the two sides.

“Tear” is 2-min of sinister doomy officiousness before “Manumit” resumes the mazey rifforamas with full force the undecipherable arrangements coming close to pure chaos; dazzling technicality becomes the order of the day the ensuing drama enhanced by Khashaug who adds a few brutal deathy growls which disappear for the next in line breath-taking quieter moment. “The Flutter Kings” “flutters” around with hard-hitting dramatic decisions and more expressive bassisms until a sudden aggressive surreal volcano akin to Mekong Delta erupts followed by relieving melodic lead sections. “Erased” would be hard to be “erased” from your memory with its dreamy balladic accumulations and meditative acoustics Khashaug displaying his more lyrical side to a pretty positive effect. “House of Nadir” notches up the intricacy with overlapping elaborate rhythmic patterns also serving more balladic romanticism the latter acquiring more dynamic doomy proportions in the second half. All the way to “Coda” which lashes hectic stop-and-go thrashy riffs in a bristling staccato fashion with great melodies circling around to ensure the aggression doesn’t go beyond the limits; which it actually does with several dramatic death-y disruptions the virtuoso instrumental variations towards the end siding this opus with the works of Behold the Arctopus, Ellectro Quarterstaff and Spastic Ink.

A fabulous, mind-consuming saga which would remain misunderstood by some as they may not make sense out of these multifarious configurations of musical complexity. It can be viewed as a best of compilation from the world of progressive metal since it nicely reminds of quite a few of the greats from that field, and yet it tries to follow its own path as much as it can although the shadow of Spiral Architect can be tangibly felt at times. It requires several careful listens before one starts savouring the puzzles constructed for which a great help would be the numerous more melodic additives, and again the great vocal performance.

This masterpiece also gracefully summarizes the endeavours from the Norwegian progressive metal scene of the mid/late-90’s and early-00’s, coming as a kind of culmination of this very strong trend. Not surprisingly, it was produced as a collective effort of luminaries from it, and as such it can’t be viewed as anything but a one-spell project which is unlikely to have a follow up. Maybe the future efforts of Extol and Spiral Architect would bring some twisted echoes of it.