There are moments that I find myself thinking about the past, present and future of Metal and all its musical genres. There are lovely bands trying to leave the flood of those bands that have nothing to say to anyone, from clones that are just repeating what was already done. But there are those that, even doing nothing new or outstanding, are honest and have potential to surprise us. I can say that FATALIST, a power trio that comes from Ventura (California) is a good band, as "The Bitter End" is here to prove.

They are a band in the same vein of Old School Swedish Death Metal, those from the beginning of the 90s, having as their main musical influences names as ENTOMBED in its earlier works, DISMEMBER on their more aggressive moments, CARNAGE and UNLEASHED. No, there's nothing wrong with their work, it's just the opposite: they are good, and have a personality pulsing under their music. But they need some improvements, because they are too near of their influences. Not enough to make "The Bitter End" a total loss, but you can hear clearly that they can do better.

The production is good. It preserves their Old School way, with a nasty and raw sound, but with a sense that we aren't in the 90s anymore, so the sound has a modern and clean outfit that allows us all to understand what they are playing. It's truly heavy and brutal, showing good work from the producer. It's a fine work done by John Haddad on the mixing and mastering. Their 11 songs are signs that they need to improve to be an outstanding band, because they have potential to be so. Listening to songs such with the brutality and aggressiveness of "Aberration" (good vocals indeed) and "Blood Fest" (very good work of bass and drums), the bitter "Coloured Red" (with excellent slow parts in some moments), the catchy tempos of "A Hollowed Shell of the Body" (an excellent example of their musical talent, filled with some nasty melodies on the excellent guitar parts), the filthy and horrid nightmares called "Symphony of Chaos" and "The Bitter End" (both with no extreme velocity, but with catchy and very good guitars) you'll understand what I mean.

They can be better than this, but they're on the right path. Just one step more and they can be an excellent act, so please keep this in mind.