Chilean band The Lethal Affair unveil an enjoyably ominous, darkly atmospheric sound throughout their debut album, Visions By way of The Sense of Silence. Produced by Atom™, the album thrives on a meticulous stability of brooding atmospherics and emotional depth. Visions By way of The Sense of Silence traverses a wealthy palette of sonic textures — from shadowy synth swells to unsettling strings and cathartic guitar bursts — whereas artfully exploring themes of isolation and existential dread.
Commencing the album, “This Is Your Voice” is exemplary of the challenge’s tendency for gripping, satiating sonic expanses. A meditative swell of synth pulsations transfer with mild precision, traversing right into a title-touting vocal declaration. The solemn vocal tones meld with darkly affecting strings, tonally intertwining seamlessly with the spacey synth textures. A extra bellowing vocal assumes amidst sporadic percussive hints, invoking a sound enjoyably harking back to later-era Scott Walker — particularly because the rhythms interaction with “no one ever solutions,” lyrical bleakness, exuding a way of emotive solitude within the soundscape’s spaciousness and thematic depictions.
The album’s first single, “Line in Heaven” is one other standout. Magnetic synth work spans from an preliminary sense of nocturnal foreboding to a extra effervescent dreamy lushness, presenting a dynamic entrancement that reminds of atmospheric cinema, with Lynchian chills. “The tip of the world,” the vocals of Santiago González Lihn let loose, enveloping inside a post-punk rhythmic pulse and cohesive combination of eerie synths and rumbling guitars. The lyrical references to an incoming apocalypse, and an ensuing lengthy line into the afterlife. “Ready for God to return, and defend them,” the regular vocals proceed, resembling a well-meaning however helpless preacher who hopes and prays for optimistic divine intervention — or, on the very least, a brilliant passage into the afterlife.
Beautiful but bleak sentiments proceed on “Worry Ceases To Exist,” the place lyrical imagery of a “single bullet proper within the chest,” continues the sense of dread. Whereas “Line in Heaven” captured a extra all-encompassing apocalypse, “Worry Ceases To Exist” exists in a extra private realm — the place succumbing to a single bullet can wash away hopes, goals, and a future. Darkish washes of guitar distortion and haunting digital ruminations bolster the mechanical rhythmic feeling, particularly riveting as a number of vocal layers come up previous the four-minute mark. Persevering with to impress, the following “Take My Blood” bears a likening to Nick Collapse its “really feel the silence,” ghostly vocal immersion and swampy electrical/acoustic guitar pairing.
Invigorating in its swaps between whirring digital intrigue and ardent blasts of guitar distortion, “Everlasting Sentence” showcases the challenge’s dynamic attain — immersing throughout menacing rock eruptions and acoustic-laden dreaminess. The observe is a beautiful build-up into the implausible album finale “I’m Trying By way of Your Eyes,” the place stunning string preparations circulate into mild acoustics. Subdued vocals — letting out “we’re what we deserve,” — infuse with the orchestral-tinged slowcore sensations into an enthralling, title-touting shut. Filled with memorable moods and delectable foreboding, Visions By way of The Sense of Silence is a totally compelling listening expertise from The Lethal Affair.
