Band:	Am Tuat
Album:	Inmotion
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	2009
A review by:	Lucas

01. Oath Of The Sacrificed
02. Desidero Fides
03. Distant Shores
04. Lost
05. Fading Images
06. Ahead Of Sadness
07. A Cry: The Sound Of A Tragedy
08. Perilous Seas
09. Destinies Grace
10. Into Rememberance

Am Tuat plays a style of metal somewhere in between Thrash and Heavy metal, with occasional Traditional Doom-esque parts. Unfortunately for them, they are largely redundant in today's metal world. And they forever will be if it doesn't get better than Inmotion.

Let me say this first: we all remember the day we bought our first guitar and amp, right? One year of saving up your pocket money, with a 'little' help from your dad, going to the music store and buying that sweet cheap-ass strat? If you still recall all that, do you also remember the first riff you played. Or rather, the first attempt at simultaneously hitting the correct string and placing your finger on the right spot on the fretboard? Well, it's not that bad with Am Tuat, but if I would have continued the analogy to the next couple of weeks, it would be a perfectly matching description. Because seriously, these riffs are so incredibly simplistic it's offending. They've done nothing but turning up the distortion and are now happily re-playing the 'my first little Sony' riffs their bigger sister's keyboard spews out. With distortion, of course, because Metuhll rulez all.

In the vocal department it isn't much better, either. Deep standard growls and weak shrieks are mobilized to form the vocal assault, but neither is able to convince. The deep growls are not much above the standard of the fifteen year old who just discovered Behemoth, and for the shrieks the same can be said when replace Behemoth with Darkthrone. Thankfully the shrieks are quite sparse.

There's one redeeming factor though, the Opeth-esque intermezzo's in for example "Desidero Fides". What a surprise! Warm-blooded clean vocals, not unlike those of Mikael Åkerfeldt, are supported by a well-constructed warm-blooded chord scheme, not unlike those often heard in Opeth's songs. If you have it in you to do this, then why the fuck are you playing riffs a two-year old could come up with?! "Distant Shores" contains a similar intermezzo, as well "Lost" which features some hilarious electronic sounds in the background.

Unfortunately for Am Tuat the obvious claim of inexperience is invalid, as they've been active for over a decade. They really need to put some time in their band formula and decide on where they want to go. It's either souping up their riffs (and skills) and becoming quite a decent Thrash/Heavy outfit with cool intermezzo's, or going soft all the way (which is probably where their potential lies), or staying the same, earning a few more of those wonderful 5.7's.