“It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder. A wide investigation of reports from funeral homes, morgues and hospitals has concluded that the unburied dead are coming back to life and seeking human victims…”, Night of the Living Dead
Just as the living dead terrorized Pittsburgh in the classic film by George A. Romero, so too is the sound of oldschool death shambling out of the heavy metal morgue in search of rare meat. Leading this pack of grisly ghouls is Fatalist, a California-based quartet hell-bent on dragging the stylistics of ancient, traditional death metal kicking and screaming into the present day. With their debut full length, The Depths of Inhumanity, the band presents us with an updated take on the genre that culls its strengths from a wide range of influences unearthed from death metal’s classic era.
Using the rumbling, blood ‘n’ guts-soaked buzzsaw guitar tone of Stockholm, Sweden circa 1991 as a template, the band may owe a few of its tools of the trade to death metal’s veteran acts, but Fatalist are far from a mere tribute, clone or rip-off. The band infuses the Sunlight Studios sound (i.e. Dismember, Entombed, Grave, etc) with some eerily atmospheric lead guitar work and a sense of reckless abandon that recalls the crusty likes of Autopsy and maybe even a hint of early Bolt Thrower. This is death metal of the burly and bulldozing variety, free of technical wank or glossy pro-tools sheen. You won’t find any triggered drums or 8-string guitars on The Depths of Inhumanity. In other words, Fatalist are the real deal f**king deal.
Not only do Fatalist have a more-than-firm grasp of the aesthetics of old school death metal, they also know how to craft rough, raw and ready chunks of compact, catchier-than-herpes riffage that will have you spinning the album over and over to get another fix of the fetid stuff. Much like their forefathers, the quartet have designed these tunes to be the ultimate accompaniment to an evening of headbanging, beer-swilling and ill-advised grave robbing (please don’t try that last one at home, kids). Tracks like “Contamination” and “Impulse to Kill” are infused with a sense of skull-crushing urgency, while “Life Deploration” and the title track are drenched in sinister atmosphere. Album closer “Rivers of Blood” features an intro melody that sounds like it could have been lifted from an old Fulci flick before exploding into a bludgeoning, groove-laden slab of total death and ending with some extremely evil-sounding twin guitar-work.
Overall, The Depths of Inhumanity is one of the strongest death metal debuts of 2009. It will be exciting to watch this band continue to develop, and one can’t help but imagine that in a few more years they’ll be decimating everything in their path like a horde of marauding flesh-eaters straight out of the death metal mausoleum.
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