Atlantis

Brazil's Atlantis is another lost-among-the-pages nwothm act long due for appraisal and praise since birthing in 2015 and 2016 with an innocuous but deadly pair of EPs titled Summoning The Witch and Hotter Than A Burning Church, before spewing a couple of singles ahead of 2020's titular full-length debut, itself soon followed by yet more cruising singles...

At times reminiscent of fellow countrymen Wild Witch, Atlantis plays a rough and tumble brand of old school heavy metal which at first sounds very jam-y and disorganized, but upon further listens, the trio soon mark(et)s itself as a healthy haymaker of bruising rhythms defined by loosely crunchy guitar riffs and haphazardly strewn solos above voluminously pounding bass and drums, the lot fronted by front man/axe man Tino Barth, with his youthfully rebellious mid-range shouts which hem and haw about various topics ranging from the now sub Antarctican (if not star-bound) civilization to drug fuelled rampages by way of Jack-The-Ripper and vampiric lore, to name a few.

There also appears to be an unwritten rule regarding seven tracked releases of this lowbrow yet ever-engaging nature: though incongruous to a fault and sounding entirely different from one another, the songs retain attention thanks to their juvenile dynamics and spontanetous delivery. In other words, they each stand out on their own, while as a whole, retain a certain rough hewn demo flair I've long been a sucker for.

Completing the line-up, bassist Fellipe França and drummer Bruno Eggert* provide a fat and rollicking backdrop for Tino to shred away like nobody's business (especially on "London Ripper"), even if Atlantis is far from a strict "guitar" band, as attested by the prominent bloops and bojangles of instrumental "Dreaming City". Despite their girth, later cuts such as "Quest For Vengeance" and doubly extensive closer "Among The Stars" - a partial doppelganger for Iron Maiden's "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner - avoid stagnating like so many long-winded expeditions or experiments of this nature. Suffice to say, with a bit of polish and fine-tuning, Atlantis could prove a helluva mean machine in the future.

*Newfound member now replacing original sticksman Walter Müller (no relation to evil Tintin shrink J. W. Müller).