This traditional death metal act was formed back in 2006. Their origin is in Ventura, California. For this album, they consisted of being a 4-piece act. Neil Burkdoll on vocals/guitar, Wes Caley (Exhumed, Uphill Battle, Stonehelm) also on vocals/guitar, Art Hayes on bass and Tyler Castro on drums. Sadly, Wes Caley and Tyler Castro both left the band in 2009, shortly after this album was released. Now they are a 5-piece band, but with this album, they still were strong and heavily Swedish death metal influenced. The album consisted of sounding like that mostly; that and among other death metal bands as well.

This band plays strictly death metal. With heavy, B-tuned guitars, they are in some parts, wholly thick and consist of some melodic sounding riffs. All of the tracks are filled with semi-fast tempos, along with other songs with even sounding speeds. There really aren't any totally fast parts, but still they are aggressive. Just check out the songs 'Frozen Epitaph' and 'Morbid Derangement', as they are in summation a conglomeration of unique guitar riffs, played at varying speeds.

The melodic parts are totally apparent on many tracks, and other aggressive riffs played alongside their brutal vocal outputs. The drums rarely get to a hyper fast pace-they seem more subdued. That doesn't take away from the quality that this band created with this release. Death metal isn't played much better than what's concocted on here. The guitars are so chunky and heavy, but they don't drown out the more melodic/musical riff-writing.

Some songs are played with less aggression, though the main guitars still remained heavy. There were slower tempos, which captured the essence of the unique writing capabilities of this band. The guitars were more groove laden rather than existing to that of outlandish and nonsensical blast beats. As I mentioned, there were some faster drum parts, but mostly the band focused on having slower tempos instead of reflecting that of an extreme death metal act.

There were some solos on this release, but they weren't too technical. They made the rhythms sound more augmented with enduring melodic temperaments. All of the tracks featured the band's main influences, which again sound like they are a Swedish death metal band. The fact that they originated in California is very surprising.

The production sound/mixing by Neil Burkdoll was solid, with every track including the remastered demo versions. Each instrument was heard with quality engineering. This album captures 7 songs from their 'Loss' demo (2007), plus 4 new songs all remastered onto one CD. All of the tracks are clear sounding, even the earlier demo tracks. They all were well played out and mixed properly. As far as the lyrical contents, they reflect that of death and negativity. Fatalist does no cover songs on here.

In conclusion, if you want a Swedish influenced death metal release with grim and morbidly infested lyrical content, then 'The Depths of Inhumanity' delivers. This album is wholly a strong portrayal of how death metal should be played-with aggression, uncompromising guitar overtures and a complete onslaught of riff-writing. The song titles and lyrical content reflect how death metal is at its' finest. More songs to capture online via their MySpace page are located here. Other tracks to hear with vigor are 'Homicidal Epitaph' and 'Impulse to Kill'. Fatalist defies the odds with songs that deliver fine traditional death metal.

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
08/08/2010 09:54