Fatum
Life Dungeons
(Distro-y Records)
It would be a unfair to call Moscow, Russia’s metal punkers Fatum a complete throwback band—because ultimately—they’re just to damn organic to be thought of as wholly in the past. Nonetheless, they have a crusty thrash metal vibe that calls to mind the rawness of early Celtic Frost, the baroque fantasy of young Metallica, and the speed and mystical outpouring of Possessed, and therefore, you wouldn’t be alone in thinking these guys still worship to Kreator’s first record on cassette. Fatum’s gritty punk and scratchy naturalness is what keeps them contemporary, honest, and interesting, and their second LP, Life Dungeons, is a rocker, and should be cranked as such. It’s a quality jam: hard, neck whipping, earthy, and real. What it lacks in dynamics, it makes up for in grime, equaling out nice, natural, and passionate.
“Fate”, the third composition on the new record, has an inward power metal mentality to it: hovering and stomping with mighty thrashes in the deep. It’s a funny thing—so many varying angles of Fatum’s musical syntax reminds you simultaneously of such contemporary at odd extreme metal idioms, that it’s very refreshing to hear the roots of all these forms molded into one boiling witches stew—without so much a damper of campiness. Life Dungeons breathes Heavy Metal. It lives for the blood, the sweat, and the smoky colors of damp horizons. When I first heard the band I thought of Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and Dawnbringer, a quickening vibe of leather and spikes.
Fatum’s the kind of band that surely transcends tenfold live. Their music is the kind that’s made for the stars, the bars, and the mystical nights of eternity. Life Dungeons definitely does the band justice, but ultimately lacks an overlapping continuance that keeps it from attaining a true quality and measure. The mix is purposely raw and nostalgic, but I could see the band getting cleaner and meaner, and adding some of those progressive and experimental icicles that levitated bands like Celtic Frost and Amebix to higher realms. Either way, Fatum’s running hard and moving fast, a band on the loose.
