When casting a first listen to Aphotic's gentle, grave, and melancholic music, the first question which springs to the mind is "why -the hell- aren't these guys signed?!" The eponymous demo _Aphotic_ contains five tracks of melancholic, dark and slow metal, very reminiscent of masters Katatonia on _Brave Murder Day_, and although this band can not as of yet claim to delve as deep into sorrowful emotions as Katatonia once did, Aphotic's compositions are breathtakingly moody, fantastically efficient and of enrapturing beauty in their "ordinary" moments, and are massively enthralling at their best, such as on the magnificent track "Psycoma" -- probably one of the best dark, forlorn metal tracks I've heard in a long time. Although I inevitably end up holding a grudge against bands preferring drum machines to human beings, Aphotic use this element to its fullest, and actually succeed in turning what could be a weak point into an instrument of cold, calculated rhythmic exactness. This American trio have a powerful, meaningful form of music conjured here, and if they prove to rise towards the heights of "Psycoma" or "Livid Dread" on their forthcoming material, they have more than their fair chance to become one of the most significant and followed acts out in their own, darkened realms.