Let’s take a lesson in the history of Metal! One of the earliest so called exotic countries with a vivid and developing Metal scene was Brazil. The first bands already started in the beginning of the 1980s, with NESS being one of the first in 1981. One year later, this band renamed itself to DORSAL ATLÂNTICA, with the Lopes brothers, Cláudio "Cro-Magnon" on bass and Carlos "Vândalo" on guitar and vocals, and drummer Toninho “Hardcore”. It took the three-piece until 1986 to release their first album, the legendary “Antes Do Fim”. But until that day, DORSAL ATLÂNTICA weren’t passive, since they not only played shows, but also recorded a demo and five songs for a split LP with country-mates METALMORPHOSE, that was released as “Ultimatum” in 1985. Now this split-release provided the name and the cover artwork for a, let’s call it like that, “early days” compilation of DORSAL ATLÂNTICA. And these early days showed the band rather unimpressed by the already rolling Thrash Metal machine. Instead, the five songs released on “Ultimatum” were more rooted in raw NWOBHM stuff. Somehow I sense the spirit of early JAGUAR or SAVAGE in these songs, that have a production that fit to this spirit perfectly. The fast opening tune ‘Império De Satã’ comes along with high screams and a cool middle part and ‘Catástrofe’ is a cool song with saingalong qualities. With ‘Armagedon’ we have a rather epic song, with a middle part that reminds of very old IRON MAIDEN stuff, except for the guitar solo. ‘Princesa Do Prazer’ is another fast one again and ‘Heavy Metal’ sounds as you expect, with a touch of MOTÖRHEAD, a sense of pre Speed Metal and a quite strange, somehow Rap styled chorus. But as this one is a good compilation, it features no less than ten bonus tracks from the oldest days. First we have three tracks from “Ultimatum”, namely ‘Catástrofe’, ‘Armagedon’ and ‘Princesa Do Prazer’ in very raw live versions from a show in Rio in January 1985. These recordings are as far from being Hi-fi as Neptune from the sun. But these are so fuckin’ authentic and remind me of those days of tape trading when us old geezers listened to live tapes of even worse quality with beady eyes. Next we have two old rehearsal recordings of songs from the Thrash era of DORSAL ATLÂNTICA, ‘Morte Aos Falsos’ (from “Antes Do Fim”) and ‘Tortura’ (originally on the second album “Dividir & Conquistar" from 1988), and, Gee!, these are rough! And cool as well, since they sound so loveable chaotic! Three more live songs are to follow, ‘Catástrofe’ again, this time from Rio in November 1984, the same goes for the up to now unreleased song ‘Abandono O Seu Deus’. Unfortunately these two suffer from the barely hearable vocals, so you can only guess that ‘Abandono O Seu Deus’ would have fitted well on “Ultimatum”. The last live track is the most recent one: ‘Morte Aos Falsos’ (again) was recorded in Lambari, Minas Gerais in July 1985 and delivers not only the best recording quality but also a furiously thrashing performance that even outshines the studio performance. Finally, as the last two bonus tracks, we have the official demo DORSAL ATLÂNTICA recorded in 1982. And directly after the most thrashing recording on this disc, these two are quite a shock. They don’t sound like DORSAL ATLÂNTICA, but like some American Hard Rock band, especially ‘Ela Não Acaba Assim’. ‘Guerra’ has an old fashioned BLACK SABBATH vibe in riffing and singing, so this one is rather fine. But as I said, they don’t sound like DORSAL ATLÂNTICA at all. So, since I told you all you need to know about “Ultimatum”, there’s one final question left to answer: who needs this CD? Well, all those who are into the band and want to know about the origins of DORSAL ATLÂNTICA should check this out for sure. And gem hunters will find some nice stuff as well as Metal historians. For myself, I’m pretty sure I won’t listen to “Ultimatum” that often again… Check out the band at: www.facebook.com/dorsaloficial and www.dorsalatlantica.com.br (only in Portugese language) and the label at: www.areadeathproductions.com