{"id":310398,"date":"2025-12-11T08:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310398\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T08:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T08:15:11","slug":"review-disaffected-spiritual-humanized-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310398\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Disaffected – Spiritual Humanized Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Dave<\/a> on December 10, 2025December 10, 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"No artist credited<\/p>\n

Style: Progressive metal, death metal (Mixed vocals, mostly clean)
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, Gorod, Obscura<\/a>
Country: Portugal
Release date: 10 November 2025<\/p>\n

An experience common to those of us with autism and ADHD is having music stuck in our head on loop for virtually all hours of the day. The experience can range from unremarkable to exciting to utterly pain-inducing. Noted ADHD witch Jinkx Monsoon described this phenomenon in her interview with Ziwe<\/a> as \u201cA lot of static: just like, constantly four different radio stations playing at once\u201d before demonstrating the sounds of the stations in detail. Over the last few days, my brain has been\u2013symbolizing words symbolizing words symbolizing words symbolizing words\u2013dealing with incessant earworms from Spiritual Humanized Technology, the latest record from Portuguese progressive metal outfit Disaffected. Has the Spiritual Humanized Radio Inside My Mind finally taken mutiny over my consciousness?<\/p>\n

Over their lengthy career, Disaffected have gradually undergone a significant shift in sound. Beginning as a progressive death metal outfit in the 90s, the group slowly diverged from their roots, focusing less on the \u2018death metal\u2019 and more on the \u2018progressive\u2019 with every release. Spiritual Humanized Technology showcases heady drum grooves, angular clean guitarwork, and bass inspired by fusion metal with only echoes of their past surfacing on occasion. The guitars at the beginning of \u201cSleeping With Aliens\u201d or the wobbly bass on \u201cThe Stream We Abide\u201d, for example, wouldn\u2019t be out of place on Cynic\u2019s Traced in Air. Speaking of Cynic, mysticism abounds on Spiritualized Human Technology, as songs cover ideas ranging from the discovery of Atlantis (\u201cSoul and Words\u201d), spectral journeys through spacetime (\u201cThe Stream We Abide\u201d), and, uh, sleeping with aliens? The jury is out on whether Disaffected are simply sleeping among these aliens or shacking up with their extraterrestrial compatriots.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite the vamped-up progressive metal tendencies, the real idiosyncrasy of Spiritualized Human Technology lies in the vocal performance, which comes across less like James LaBrie and more like Geordie Greep. Vocalist Jos\u00e9 Costa lilts through half-spoken, half-sung lines across every track, occasionally accompanied by fully spoken word segments. While the novelty in his delivery is interesting and appreciable, most of the time, the execution can only be described as rotten. Costa is often plagued with a pitchy warbling; the dissonance created by his voice sounds intentional when paired with the sharp punches of atonal clean guitar on \u201cThe Stream We Abide\u201d, but a majority of the time, it clashes woefully with the rest of the band. When not combating micro-micro-tones, the vocals are mired by a lack of enunciation: I do my best to make out what Costa is saying on the chorus of opener \u201cSoul and Words\u201d, but I literally cannot hear anything besides \u201cSymbolizing words, symbolizing words, symbolizing words\u201d over and over again. Earwormy, sure, and a cool moment under the right circumstances, but wholly unpleasant as-is\u2014especially because I know that\u2019s not what he\u2019s saying, yet I\u2019m still sitting at lunch trying to eat a sandwich and my brain can only focus on symbolizing words symbolizing words symbolizing words looping on repeat like a broken radio transmission.<\/p>\n

What keeps the Spiritual Humanized Technology ship from sinking wholesale is songwriting technique: moment to moment, Disaffected do a great job of weaving ideas together into a singular song. The transitions between moments are particularly well-done: \u201cIn Silence Deep\u201d features one of the most engaging moments of the record, cudgeling the listener with a Cynical flurry of drums after a slow, menacing, dissonant arpeggio. Additionally, reprises are handled with finesse, such as the reworked chorus at the end of \u201cSoul and Words\u201d, panning the spotlight from slippery guitar work to pounding drums and thick, rumbling bass underneath. However skillful the transitions are, though, the same can\u2019t be said for what Disaffected are actually transitioning to half the time. The title track features verses replete with crunchy riffage, skittering drums, and corny-albeit-charming voiceovers, building up an intense momentum; this momentum is subsequently sent into a brick wall when the hopelessly messy choruses come in. The songwriting on display is impressive, but not quite as impressive as the band\u2019s ability to expertly oscillate between engaging and infuriating passages.<\/p>\n

And how do Disaffected coalesce these ideas into a narrative arc? The answer is, they don\u2019t, really. While the record undoubtedly features some sick bass lines, lots of clever transitions, and some nice structuring within songs, Spiritual Humanized Technology holds itself together about as nicely as gluing two rocks together. You could rearrange the album in any order to virtually the same effect; there are no ups and downs to be found when zooming out, save for the interlude \u201cDreaming V (Lazarus Syndrome)\u201d. The listening experience becomes so much of a chore that I\u2019m basically begging for it to be over by the time we reach the home stretch. Disaffected would benefit greatly from peppering in their cool songwriting tricks across pieces to give them a more defined sense of identity as opposed to dumping the same cool ideas into every single track.<\/p>\n

Spiritual Humanized Technology has many of the elements for a bizarre, idiosyncratic, and esoteric progressive metal opus. Unfortunately, the record is let down fairly hard by a lack of song-by-song dynamics, some rotten vocal moments, and a bevy of musical duds; no amount of clever transitions will save you from that. A band trying something new and out-of-the-box late into their career, like the vocal performance here, is certainly something to be lauded, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that you\u2019re doing something\u2013symbolizing words symbolizing words symbolizing words\u2013FUCK NOT AGAIN\u2013<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: The Stream We Abide, In Silence Deep
You may also like: Obsidious<\/a>, Phlebotomized, Pan.thy.monium, Hieronymus Bosch
Final verdict: symbolizing words symbolizing words SYMBOLIZING WORDS\u2013OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP\/10<\/p>\n

Related links: Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Firecum Records<\/a><\/p>\n

Disaffected is:
\u2013 Bruno Vicente \u2013 Guitars
\u2013 Ant\u00f3nio Gi\u00e3o \u2013 Bass
\u2013 Pedro Raimundo \u2013 Keys
\u2013 Manuel Teles \u2013 Drums
\u2013 Jos\u00e9 Costa \u2013 Vocals<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n