Before an aviation engineer can take a new airplane into the sky, it must be tested, then it must be tested again, and tested again until absolutely everything is lined up properly for a real flight. When it comes to music, demos and EPs are the test vector for bands trying to get everything right before they put out an official full-length album. Sometimes that testing can be worth it; a band could see a certain song meant for the single to be overlooked in favor of a throwaway track, for example.

The average listener must be forgiven for wondering how long any band or artist can keep testing before they finally get off the ground with a true debut. Case in point, one of the band's in the Death Metal scene of Long Beach, California, GUILLATINE. They've been around for a number of years, but even with the recent release of "Beheaded", there are hardly a dozen total songs in the band's catalog. This less-than-prodigious output risks leading to a hamstrung future. The "Beheaded" EP is essentially split into two parts; the first part features three studio tracks, while the second part contains four live rehearsals.

Leading off with a Satanically deep voice chastising the listener, "God Stomper" is a standard growler with some pretty clear CANNIBAL CORPSE influence. "Decapitated Thought", starting with the sound of a head and neck being parted, follows up with much of the same as the track before. "Majia Negra" doesn't so much stray from form as it does fray from form, taking the sound they'd used up to this point and raising a few extra feathers, which does help it stand above the rest of the EP.

The live rehearsal tracks seem to have been recorded at much lower volumes, making for a noticeable partition at the beginning of "Gang Green", which is also the longest on the EP at about four and a half minutes and has some of band's best drum work thus far. Quick breaks abound on "Severed", and even a full breakdown makes an early appearance in the song.

"Oppressor", the shortest track at three-oh-five, reels everything back in for a somewhat more old school tune, the sort of old school that makes the song feel much longer than listed. Wrapping up the affair is "Demon Semen", another average Death Metal growler which does still thank the listener in the end.

All told, "Beheaded" is about what you'd expect for a Death Metal band by the name of GUILLATINE. There aren't really any surprises here, which means there also isn't any pioneering, but then not every metal band can be a trailblazer. With so little to speak of in the band's history, it's tough to call whether GUILLATINE has taken any big steps over the last five years. For now, one can only say that they fill a niche; not the same sort of niches filled by PARTY CANNON or MAC SABBATH, but the niche of bands that sound exactly the way the average music consumer imagines their genre. Until they're ready to make a brand new mark on a full-length album, GUILLATINE will remain on an undistinguished list.