“Awaken from lethargic state...”
January 2007
Ten long years after our sounds and notes had faded away on a final rehearsal, a breath of life again seemed to whisper in our ears. For the first time in over a decade, we were going to try again. For one last time we were going to give our dream a chance. The DISAFFECTED dream was about to begin again. A cold and rainy night in January 2007 was destined to be the moment for a fresh new start… It was actually true! We had decided. We were again a band! Vague and ever so fragile… But, nevertheless, true!
Although that night will go down as our official reunion date, the whole idea was brought up at a Molestia / Sinister gig on the 10th of March in 2006.
Having been given very little chances of recovering from a coma after a motorcycle crash back in 2002, Sergio had undergone a long battle. Both physically and psychologically. Doctors had given him very little chances of ever walking or talking again, yet along playing his guitar… But to their astonishment he held on, and week after week slowly recovered in a fashion many said to be nothing short than a miracle.
From those dark days, in his very own “season in the abyss”, he seldom recalled one of his life’s proudest achievements: Vast. Hailed as one of the most outstanding records ever to see the day of light in Portugal, it still stands unique in its genre today... 15 years later! Why not pick it up again? Why not try again? Why?
Having casually met the other «vast members» (except Fátima) on that night in March 2006 made Sergio ask those same questions. The 4 (Sergio, Costa, Quim and Gião) joked about the matter, but “unlimited visions” no doubt filled the air! As an «after vast» former member (vocalist from 1997 to 1998, after Costa and Quim left) and all time undying fan, I for one was thrilled with the idea. DISAFFECTED together again with the «vast members»! It was decided that all would go home to further think about the issue and would latter again speak of matter.
Fátima (now married and with children), was also invited. Nevertheless, a few days after, declined - due to her tight schedule. Some time latter, having carefully thought about the possibility, Quim declined too – due to different musical perspectives and to a tight schedule as well.
The rest of the «vast members» (Gião, Costa and Sergio) thought they should even though take a chance, although lamenting the fact they could not count on the whole “VAST” machine. A drummer and a keyboard player were now needed…
Although having had the honor of being an «after vast» member, I was stunned by the invitation to once again be a part of my teenage favorite band. This time as a drummer! As for the keyboards, a “VAST” tradition was to endue… Sergio’s wife, Bianca, was to join in and close the new lineup. The new DISAFFECTED which was now reborn.
“Like the threatened twinkling of a distant star…”
February - April 2007
The road back… An ever so difficult peril! We decided to first pick up the album’s opening track “cold tranquility”, its title track “vast” and its ballad “desire me not”. Just 3 songs, that took an average of 2 rehearsal days per week, for 3 months. Every single detail from each song was looked into. My iPod was constantly around and played those tracks over and over again for countless times. Even the «vast members» had a though time picking up the complex structures they had laid down years before. At times I was completely lost and felt this was a task far too hard for my drumming skills. On at least two occasions I urged my great friend Quim to reconsider his decision and take his place on the band’s drums. As a true fan of the band I would rather see the act together again without me, than fail with me... These were hard days. It all seemed impossible. Distant. Vague. Like the threatened twinkling of a distant star…
“Despair is queen of her own black veil…”
April – 7th September 2007
With the 3 above mentioned tracks slowly shaping up and a brand new composition in progress, the news that we were to play an open air festival (headlined by Benediction) in early September dropped like a bomb! Gião, Bianca and Costa were very keen in going, but Sergio and I thought it was all too soon. Would 5 months be enough to put together 4 tracks from Vast, the Slayer cover from the tribute album (“Slatanic Slaughter”) and a new song? It seemed all too risky, but we put our full hearts to it. We now had a goal to achieve and would no longer have all the time in the world to steadily brush up our stuff.
As the months sped by, all fears kept growing. Until on the 8th of August – just a month from the gig – I seriously considered quitting. I just felt I could never even get close to what Quim had done on the record. On that particular day, a disastrous rehearsal seemed to prove my point… I spoke out clearly on the issue. Once again stating that before being a part of the band I was a fan, and if its best interest meant my departure I would gladly stand aside. The band would probably still find another drummer in time for the show and would probably be better off for the future…
On that night, in spite the awful rehearsal, a long chat between all members seemed to have strengthened our moral far beyond what any dozens of great rehearsals could have done. We decided that if on the day of the gig anyone wasn’t feeling fully confident we would call in saying that some odd accident had happened and that we were canceling. The pressure seemed to smoothen a lot with that possibility! On another hand, it was decided that, no matter what, this was DISAFFECTED. These were its new members and with no others would the band again come to life. So be it!
The last week before the gig was spent playing almost every day. Things seemed much better and no odd accident was actually going to happen. We were all very high with so much adrenaline, but kept focused! Our new song was probably the one we all felt more confident with. It was our new flag. The new face of things to come! It seemed more than obvious it just had to go by the name of “The Rebirth”. Starting off with a keyboard melody, this song quickly paces up with a few aggressive riffs, soon to be followed by the bands trademark complex structure and closing with some Arabic like sounds all in constant rhythm variations. Should stir things up a bit!
“Rebirth, going down the bowels of the earth…”
8th of September 2007
THE day was at hand! We set out to Paredes - the venue “town” - more than 300 kms away from our homes, at about 11 in the mourning. We were scheduled to play at about 6 that afternoon. The long trip followed without incident and after a few stops and being lost for sometime, by half past 5 we finally arrived. Time was short, so our minds were fully set on quickly gearing up. As the band playing before us came to its last song, details of act were still being put together. The organization of “Caos Emergente”, for example, had no idea I was to play a Roland TD20 and not the regular acoustic kit! Some misunderstanding on the “raider” had gone about and a spot on stage was still to be arranged for me! The stage manager (Bruno) showed great professionalism and in no time had the whole thing figured out. When I realized it, I was already playing our intro! The show had just begun! It was alive! Live! The Rebirth!
We raced through our set of 7 tracks in about 35 minutes – our time limit… Some technical problems shadowed the last few songs (“No feelings left” for example came back to me on the monitors with the weirdest of sounds). Nevertheless, once again, Bruno saved the day and we got to our epic ending with “seasons in the abyss”, dedicated to Sergio for his time in “no man’s land” from were he had snatched himself from and came back to life along with the band which he had founded! Unbelievable! We had actually made it. Against all odds and rumors we had done it.
After leaving the stage and packing things up, we had dinner and picked up on each others performance details in a fashion only those having undergone a similar experience will ever understand. On my phone messages from all by closest friends cheering the event made my smile even bigger – including one from the VAST drum master himself. A perfect day, not even shadowed by the fact that the “Caos Emergente” staff were now saying the bills of our trip were to refer only to one car and not both. A quiet unique deal! “This is Sparta!”
I drove back to Lisbon with my outstandingly supportive better half, leaving the rest of the band at the festival enjoying the rest of the gigs and much acclamation.
“Rejoicing at every footstep…”
9th September 2007 – 7th January 2008
Ever so fuelled up we started to write new songs straight away. In about two months time, 2 new tracks were put together: “Evolution” and “Divine”. The first one took its time to shape up. Rehearsal after rehearsal it slowly took form. Far more complex than “The Rebirth”, its enduring 7 minutes give way to riff after riff in a total of about 10 different musical patterns. Quiet hard to keep up with! The second one was born out of one of Sergio’s burst inspirations one night… the whole 4 minutes! Hence its name. Since our songs have been named after the manner they are put together (which seemed to be an explanation for this one!), the stages at witch the band at the moment stands at or simply just describing themselves.
Our creative calmness was, however, to come to an end shortly… Another concert was arranged! This time opening for Akercoke near Lisbon, in Corroios on the 8th of December. Again the sands of time rushed to that very moment in which the lights are dimmed and our percussion intro blasts out. Before an audience of about 250 metalheads our set, which now included the shorter and catchier “Divine” and dropped the Slayer cover, came through in about 30 minutes. With far less technical difficulties and now indoor, our tracks seemed to really be getting across. The band felt a lot more confident than in September and that also helped a lot. At the end we thought it had gone quiet well.
In the following weeks our moral reached a whole new level. An all time maximum since we started off in January. The reason? The audience’s reviews! Far more important than any another compliment from zines, webzines, radio stations, etc. (all also very important and most welcome!), the feedback from people that take their time and spend their money to go to a show and then write about their particular point of view on forums really counts. Those who truly make the “scene”. From them, these following words (no, we do not know them - they are not our friends – as proved by one our two less brilliant comments also included).
Just a few of the comments taken from Metalunderground (Portugal’s leading Metal Forum):
Disaffected - Para mim a banda da noite! Death Metal com toques industriais...é como os classificam. Quanto a isso não sei...só sei que adoro! Gostei ainda mais que a actuação no Caos....embora o som tivesse mesmo mau....eu tive lá a frente(para o meio), mas quem esteve mais atrás n ouvia muito bem. Acho invejavel o avontade do guitarrista, muitos acham a sua presença estranha e desfocada do que está ali a fazer.....eu acho que ele está muito bem. O feeling que ele tem ao tocar determinadas melodias....é incrivel! quem me dera algum dia, tocar algo com tanto feeling, tanta honestidade! Banda excelente! Espero que componham algo novo rapido para o novo album. Embora ainda não conheça o 1º(estou a tratar disso)...do que oiço ao vivo é excelente! Venham mais concertos! Com melhor som sff.
Resumed translation: “the band of the night (…) I adored it even more than at Caos (…) excellent band. Hope they deliver a new album soon although I do not know their previous one”
Disaffected, epá este senhores tem o som do caralho, só digo o mesmo que digo em relação a PW, com mais concertos de novo como banda e somos bem capazes de vir a assistir a concertos ferozes desta banda.
Resumed translation: “these guys have a fucking great sound (…) with more concerts from them we might see some fierce gigs”
Disaffected-Eu já no Caos tinha curtido..e eles aqui com mais rodagem deram um fdputa de um grande concerto.O novo material parece estar mto bom, que venha o album. É mesmo porreiro voltar a ouvir as musicas de um dos melhores albuns Nacionais !
Resumed translation: “I had enjoyed their show at Caos, and now they getting better (...) the new stuff seems very good, bring on the new album”
Disaffected conhecia do Vast, já há uns largos anos. Foi muito porreiro vê-los ao vivo, no activo, mas o som ou estava "embrulhado" ou faltava ali qualquer coisa. Não me sei explicar. Mas foi um bom concerto."Costa growls the nice".
Resumed translation: “very nice seeing them live. The sound wasn’t to good”
Disaffected foram uma brutalíssima surpresa. Se por um lado já esperava uma prestação divinal por parte de Akercocke, não estava de todo preparado para estes grandes músicos! Embora o Demoniac tenha ouvido várias opiniões negativas sobre a banda, comigo aconteceu o contrário. Toda a banda estava muitissimo bem oleada, com um destaque muito especial para o pequeno-GRANDE baixista cujos dedos voavam, e para um guitarrista genial como não via há imenso tempo, com um feeling tremendo e uma técnica irrepreensível. É MUITO difícil tocar assim em estúdio, quanto mais ao vivo! Foi um daqueles concertos em que a música falou esmagadoramente mais alto que qualquer "dissonância" estética por parte da banda. Composições muito interessantes. Vou ter que ficar de olho na banda
Resumed translation: “great musicians (...) amazing bass player and a guitar genius (...) it is very hard playing like this in studio let alone live”
Paranormal Waltz & Disaffected nunca tinha ouvido mas pessoalmente não foi do meu agrado, o som também não ajudou nada, isto porque as bandas não tiveram muito tempo para um teste de som como deve de ser
Resumed translation: “didnt like them, their sound didnt help”
Disaffected que são para mim um Icon no metal nacional, e a actuação destes Sºrs só veio provar isso!
Resumed translation: “they are a national metal icon, this gig proved it!”
Yes, bands do spy on forums! Yes, they do appreciate an audiences favorable review!
And so 2007 – the year of the rebirth - came to an end.
“Everlasting substance solved in the open sphere”
6th of January 2008
Yesterday we rehearsed for the first time this year. Another new song is now coming along (started in the last few days of 2007). Its structure is even more complex than “Evolution”, yet it is not so harsh. Less metal I would say. A few atmospheric elements give it a very “vastish” touch. Kind of like “The Praxis of the non being”. Gião has a couple of parts on this one that will totally just dazzle those of you who simply enjoy watching a musician play his instrument. Some really cool stuff! Sergio too is at his very best on a couple of occasions. And no solo has yet been arranged!
The song has about 10 different parts in about 5 minutes. We have barely just fitted all the parts together. Tried finishing off with some tribal percussions and some bass. Awesome result! Next rehearsal is due on Friday. More updates then!
