Prior to receiving Gods, Hate, War, the debut release of the Brazilian three piece Abantesma, I had never heard of the band and all I had to go by was the inlay promo and their myspace description. After looking at the cheesy cover art and going over the lyrics, which try to be blasphemous and bad arse but end up as childish as a Michael Jackson fantasy (and to top it off the broken English just makes them funny), I thought this was going to suck. After giving the CD a few spins, I can safely say that I was right. Abantesma claim to be a “brutal death metal band” but I have seen higher levels of brutality playing Neopets. The opening track starts with a riff that is more akin to polka music than death metal. It doesn’t make you want to bang your head and thrash about; the upbeat almost happy feel makes you want to tap your foot and bounce. I can seriously picture Animal from The Muppets playing drums. Even when the drums are blasting away, the guitars retain the bouncy polka feel and you can’t help but laugh. There is a random solo thrown in that just sounds off, as if the guitarist didn’t bother tuning before entering the studio. The second song starts with the same bouncy feel but then goes into a riff that makes you think the band is made up of school kids with Attention Deficit Disorder: they start to play a riff, get distracted halfway through, then begin to play something completely different. I’m guessing they are trying to pull off a more chaotic sound but it just comes across as awkward. The song does pick up a bit towards the end but it in no way redeems the rest of the demo which follows the same pattern of polka, blast, ADD riff, solo, me being relieved the song is over. Surprisingly for a first demo, the production on Gods, Hate, War is actually quite good. All the instruments mesh together nicely and the vocals, which sound a lot like Glen Benton after waking up from his afternoon nap, are clearly and easily defined over the mix. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only good thing about this release. As musicians, I think they have potential to play decent music but whoever is responsible for the atrocious song writing needs to be excised from the group because they are the gangrenous stump that will kill the band. Written By: Rohan