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I have no other words to describe this to than to ask, What the hell is the point?

This Brazilian mess called Only in the Vast Cold Alone is from a band called Ad Literam Male Fatum, and I’m absolutely showing mercy when I say that this is one of the stupidest, blasphemous pieces of crap to pass my desk in a while. It is utter noise with some guitar mixed in to keep it metal is my guess, only it misses the mark from metal and falls flat into the vastness that is bad comedy. What angers me most is that this guy behind this band might honestly take this seriously, yet my time is wasted writing the nicest things I can about a demo that infuriates me and insults my intelligence and musicianship all within 15-minutes that I’ve lost out of my life. I’m nearing 40, so every minute I have left here counts! It also wastes precious space on the site where a good band that is serious about the music could be spotlighted. But hey, if you send it in and actually anticipate a response, you got it!

This is unmitigated crap from beginning to end, period.

How dare you torture an instrument and waste precious air recording such banal and untalented garbage. The vocals are nothing more than sarcastic sounding sneering; Atilla Csihar you’re not, pally. The carnival music that pops in like a bad file transfer during “Illusion of the Existence of all Life Murderer” is nothing short of insulting; what could you possibly be trying to convey or achieve here? Abruptum? Shining? You missed it by miles, man.

The annoyance factor notwithstanding, this is hardly legible as music, much less a black metal tag. It’s recordings like this that make people laugh at the current state of black metal music. It seems that anyone can now plug in a guitar to a cheap Peavy starter amp, hit a succession of untuned chords and screech sardonically into a bad microphone ala Burzum’s first album and expect a cult status. The only status this guy can even hope for is to merely be forgotten. This was an egregious waste of my time, so thanks for that.

I won’t tell you to avoid this; hopefully you’ll just take my word for it.  I’ve already wasted 400-plus words.
Absconder, Ad Literam Male Fatum, Immolate & Life Unfair
May 30, 2011
CHRIS
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Absconder - Demo 2011
How does one go about telling a death metal band that their sound reminds one of the early Swedish styles, all the while retaining an unbiased stance since your particular affinity towards said genre is that very sound? Well, you wing it I guess and hope your honesty falls on appreciative ears.

Illinois death metallers Absconder has a firm, death grip on the underground death metal sound that leaps over the rudimentary guttural vocals and blast beat molestation of the modern death metal age and calls upon some very familiar influences. If you dig Grave or Convulse-esque death metal, then Absconder will lull you into complete submission. The down-tempo brutality and flat-out dark production (i.e. somewhat ‘thick’) are the charms of these five songs. “Blood Diner” is every bit the gore-drenched malady its title suggests. Bassist/vocalist Brad Buldak, formerly of the local death metal quartet Morgue, still retains the growling fury that made his early work just as potent and punishing, especially on “Ignorant Depletion”, which reads like a ‘how-to-decimate-your-neighbor’s-barbeque’. If this doesn’t drive the posers indoors, nothing short of a chemical bath will.  

Within the span of nearly 20-minutes, some quality death metal is to be had on this demo CD-R. You won’t walk away shocked at the wondrous reinvention of the metal wheel, but you will more than likely be impressed and properly enlightened if by nothing else the honesty and integral battering this offering sends out without apology or diluted reticence.
Ad Literam Male Fatum - Only in the Vast Cold Alone
Release Date:  2010
Label: Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1.Insanity: (Intro)  2.Only in the Vast Cold Alone  3.Insanity: Part. I  4.Illusion of the Existence of all Life Murderer  5.Dead Inside           -     Total playing time: 15:53
Release Date:  2011
Label: Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1. The Boats  2. Blood Dinner  3. Ignorant Depletion 
4. Catacombs  5. Opportunistic Infection 
-    Total playing time: 18:32
For a copy of Demo 2011 contact the band via their myspace page (click on link above).
Italian depressive black metal band, Life Unfair, attempts to infuse me with a shot of melancholy in the demo Sorrow, which is a breathy, addled foray into the soul’s augmented state.

The first thing I notice about “Indecision” is the very ‘decent’ production for this type of undertaking, with the bass nearly thumping into my ears where it’s usually lost in a myriad of mud and fuzzy guitars. I’m really digging it until it abruptly ends with a silly gunshot that rolls my eyes and causes me to shake my head. It was unnecessary, unneeded and a downright mood-killer. Maybe that was its point, but when the music is flowing so well, that’s a cheap way out. Anyway, by the third song I’m treated to a Casio keyboard sound over an otherwise sorrowed, but not wholly depressing effort. The typically-black vocals are okay, if wildly obligatory, and fit the overall flow of what’s going on here fine, though they are of the dime-a-dozen variety.

I’m hearing the sorrowful black metal here, but not Shining or Forgive Me depression, which is certainly okay. “The End of Days” is somewhat derivative and predictable, but it’s not the worst I’ve heard of the genre. The keyboards try to come off very beleaguered, but they almost sound too “up” for this music. It’s a definite contrasting within the songs, which is different and not exactly bothersome, but it does affect the mood for me because, quite frankly, I’m not sure what to feel. Again, it’s not bad, but it’s a shock to a system of sorts. “Sorrow” has that very cheap keyboard sound that just screams department store as opposed to Jordan Rudess, but it’s a decent song; it’s just not all that memorable.

For what it is, it’s not bad; some people that like their depression a bit watered down might dig this a lot, but if you’re looking for your head to be shadowed and forlorn, you may just miss the mark engaging Life Unfair at this point and time.
Immolate - Demo 2011
This demo from Immolate really takes me aback a bit. It’s not that I’m taken aback in a negative sense; to the contrary, this demo is a hybrid of hardcore, doom, thrash and death all in one neat little effort. I in no way am intending to be condescending; this little unknown band is damn impressive.

Hailing from Massachusetts, Immolate has a pretty resonating sound. The myriad of influences and sounds I’m hearing in these five tracks is a wide array of styles and homage from Rage Against the Machine to Minor Threat, Testament to S.O.D. and anything like-minded in between. The vocals are a throaty rasp that is discernable and volatile, precisely what a band like this is built for. As for the music, it’s a potpourri of battering hardcore and stoner metal (though I detest the latter term) that simmers well in its own juices and pulls you into their sound, which is something new for my ears in recent months. While there isn’t an all-out Billy Milano-like hated in either lyrical or vocal effort, the detailed and structured fashion in which Immolate approaches its music is encouraging. Is it sonically perfect? No, not by a long shot; its production suffers from a little mud and a thickness that might be a touch over the top, but this is nothing that would take the fun out of swallowing this five-track trip in caustic bouts of binging.  

My main complaint about this demo is the shortness of the songs, but I suppose anything more might be criminal and anything less would be an outtake. For what they are these tracks are in-and-out power from a band that, if this dedicated the second time around the horn, will certainly find a comfortable niche in which to grow, divide, and possibly conquer.    
Life Unfair - Sorrow
Release Date:  2010
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1. Indecision  2. The End Of The Days  3. For My Love  4. Sorrow     -    Total playing time:  14:59
Download Sorrow FREE from the band's myspace page (click on link above).
Release Date:  January 12, 2011
Label: Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1. Intro  2. No Other Way  3. PCJ  4. Fire Fight  5. IBS
-    Total playing time: 9:34
Download Demo 2011 FREE from the band's bandcamp page (click on link above).
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