Before Horrendous, Unwilling Flesh, Spinebreaker, Terminate, Skinfather, With Burning Contempt and others threw a US made hat into the Swede death arena and made it cool, there was Invasion and Fatalist.  Fatalist were formed from members of Uphill Battle and Exhumed and released an album/demo compilation back in 2009, The Depths of Inhumanity,  that was one of the better, earlier US attempts at the Dismember/Entombed thing, and they nailed it (right down to the logo font and promo/press photos in front of giant crosses).

7 years later, Fatalist has returned, and although many other bands (most listed above) have also successfully rendered the Stockholm sound with excellent results, Fatalist certainly have not fallen by the wayside or lessened in their ability to render a perfect Nihilist/Entombed sound with aplomb, as The Bitter End is killer example of the style, American or otherwise.

With John Haddad (Deathevokation, Abysmal Dawn, Exhumed) recording, mastering an mixing, the sound is as you’d expect; a perfect rendition of that classic mid range buzz, though with a little more raw primality than the more polished, often overdone peers. Just listen to the opening bars of the title track  or opening salvo of “Devoured” and let me know if there is any paint left in your house afterwards. I’ll wait.

Song wise, it’s also as you’d expect with almost a pure early Entombed and early Dismember (think Indecent and Obscene/Pieces) worship. It’s big instantly recognizable gallops/trots (“Aberration”, “Symphony of Chaos”, “Fear of Death”, “Suicidal Aftermath”) and occasional somber licks (“A Hollowed Shell of the Body”, “Colored Red”) with a healthy dose of pure, snarling blasts (fucking savage “Bloodfest”, “Diluted Thoughts”, closer “Tortured Existence”). All with more than a few nods to their peers and enough self rendered tenacity to make it their own.

As with the debut the vocals are the only real gripe as Wes Caley still has a more mid range rasp like Orvar Säfström from Entombed’s Crawl EP, it’s not particularly commanding or authoritative, but it works and frankly the vocals on any album of this style play second fiddle to the guitar tone. I’m glad to see these guys not just back, but back with a real sense of menace and purpose and show a bit of a nastier side to the homage.

[Visit the band's website]

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