Afflicted

Afflicted (originally Afflicted Convulsion) emerged from the fertile Stockholm death metal scene of the late 1980s, but quickly distinguished themselves through a highly technical and avant-garde approach. While sharing the stage with early luminaries like Hypocrisy and Entombed, their sound leaned heavily into progressive structures and psychedelic influences, a rarity for the time.

Their 1992 debut, 'Prodigal Sun', remains a cult classic of technical death metal, noted for its use of non-Western scales and unconventional melody lines. Following a shift in the mid-90s toward a more power metal-influenced sound on 'Dawn of Glory', the band dissolved, with members moving into projects like Defender. A later incarnation of the name surfaced in the 2000s in London, pivoting toward industrial and alternative metal, though the original Swedish era remains their most historically significant period. Critical consensus views them as a 'lost' pioneer of progressive extreme metal who paved the way for the more experimental sounds of the late 90s.