Chilean band The Deadly Affair unveil an enjoyably ominous, darkly atmospheric sound across their debut album, Visions Through The Sense of Silence. Produced by Atom™, the album thrives on a meticulous balance of brooding atmospherics and emotional intensity. Visions Through The Sense of Silence traverses a rich palette of sonic textures — from shadowy synth swells to unsettling strings and cathartic guitar bursts — while artfully exploring themes of isolation and existential dread.
Commencing the album, “This Is Your Voice” is exemplary of the project’s tendency for gripping, satiating sonic expanses. A meditative swell of synth pulsations move with gentle precision, traversing into a title-touting vocal declaration. The solemn vocal tones meld with darkly affecting strings, tonally intertwining seamlessly with the spacey synth textures. A more bellowing vocal assumes amidst sporadic percussive hints, invoking a sound enjoyably reminiscent of later-era Scott Walker — especially as the rhythms interplay with “nobody ever answers,” lyrical bleakness, exuding a sense of emotive solitude in the soundscape’s spaciousness and thematic depictions.
The album’s first single, “Line in Heaven” is another standout. Magnetic synth work spans from an initial sense of nocturnal foreboding to a more effervescent dreamy lushness, presenting a dynamic entrancement that reminds of atmospheric cinema, with Lynchian chills. “The end of the world,” the vocals of Santiago González Lihn let out, enveloping within a post-punk rhythmic pulse and cohesive mixture of eerie synths and rumbling guitars. The lyrical references to an incoming apocalypse, and an ensuing long line into the afterlife. “Waiting for God to come, and protect them,” the steady vocals continue, resembling a well-meaning but helpless preacher who hopes and prays for positive divine intervention — or, at the very least, a bright passage into the afterlife.
Gorgeous yet bleak sentiments continue on “Fear Ceases To Exist,” where lyrical imagery of a “single bullet right in the chest,” continues the sense of dread. Whereas “Line in Heaven” captured a more all-encompassing apocalypse, “Fear Ceases To Exist” exists in a more personal realm — where succumbing to a single bullet can wash away hopes, dreams, and a future. Dark washes of guitar distortion and haunting electronic ruminations bolster the mechanical rhythmic feeling, especially riveting as multiple vocal layers arise past the four-minute mark. Continuing to impress, the ensuing “Take My Blood” bears a likening to Nick Cave in its “feel the silence,” ghostly vocal immersion and swampy electric/acoustic guitar pairing.
Invigorating in its swaps between whirring electronic intrigue and ardent blasts of guitar distortion, “Permanent Sentence” showcases the project’s dynamic reach — immersing across menacing rock eruptions and acoustic-laden dreaminess. The track is a lovely build-up into the fantastic album finale “I’m Looking Through Your Eyes,” where beautiful string arrangements flow into gentle acoustics. Subdued vocals — letting out “we are what we deserve,” — infuse with the orchestral-tinged slowcore sensations into an enthralling, title-touting close. Full of memorable moods and delectable foreboding, Visions Through The Sense of Silence is a thoroughly compelling listening experience from The Deadly Affair.
