Last year UK hardcore metallers Fathoms introduced themselves with the Transitions EP, a six track free download release which left you thinking that the Brighton quintet had a towering future in UK metal. Their acclaimed release’s successor is now upon us and the Cold Youth EP not only confirms and furthers that suspicion but makes the previous confrontation seem almost deceptive in its promise. The new four track fury is breath-taking, an incinerator of senses and thoughts which launches a torrential and imaginative tirade of invention and ferocity to leave the most potent of rapture in its blistering wake.
Formed late 2010, Fathoms took little time in finding a fervour led fanbase for their aggressively intensive sounds and acclaim for their live performances which has seen them share stages with the likes of A Hero A Fake, Polar, Dividing The Silence, Legend, Set Your Goals, Deez Nutz, and Napoleon as well as tours across the UK, Europe, and the US all equally as successful. The Transitions EP took what their fans knew to a wider audience and strong acclaim within media coverage but with Cold Youth you only feel it was a gentle start as the release in its immense presence surely is a trigger to major things.
Opener Pride of Lions springs from a sample of a speech on teaching children in a sonic haze to inflict the cruellest rhythmic badgering 
and predatory riffing within an instantly unpredictable and riveting corruptive temptation, the guitars of James Munn and Dan Goddard sculpting and conjuring a web of insidious provocation and startling imagination. It is impossibly captivating, the drums of Lui Sarabia insatiably inventive and impacting whilst bassist Tom Axtell is like a heavyweight raptor as he skirts it all with his carnivorous intent. It is a staggering start, a ridiculously addictive torrent of abuse which is ridden by the equally aggressive and corrosive vocals and vicious scowls of Max Campbell. His attack is uncompromising but also diverse like the sound which ensures something different and apart from not only other similarly clad bands but their previous release.
The following XIV soon notches the intensity and craft up a level, a contagious lure fuelling the chorus and primal swagger of the track whilst the guitars again twist song and manipulate air into a destructive narrative which senses and imagination can only devour with greed. To be overly critical there are elements which are well used and trodden in recent years but employed in a blazing creative fire as here it is hardly an issue. It is fair to say if breakdowns do not feed your appetite song and release might struggle to fully persuade but there is still a wealth of invention to seduce that same hunger whilst for those with a passion for such invention the track is a furnace of manna.
Third song Old Bones opens on a progressive caress if with a soak of menace, and soon stretches its evocative breath into a flesh flailing, bone splintering expanse of crippling rhythmic danger and sonic intrusion. It is a glorious slab of aural turmoil, perfectly crafted and impossible to resist. The vocals solo and as a band, are a fury which is virulently infectious and bewitching whilst musically there is debris flying mentally and emotionally before the thrilling corrosive escapade.
The closing Home/Less is just as ridiculously addictive and inventive, waspish grooves uniting with raptorial rhythms and the intensive riff brutality. The technical craft and inventive thought of the song and whole release, again is transfixing and makes multiple listens to Cold Youth essential to explore and suffer all of its glories, though it only takes one engagement to breed lust.
Fathoms have gone far beyond what was expected after the Transitions EP or maybe just got there quicker. The bottom-line though is that the Ghost Music released Cold Youth is a staggering slice of sadistic mastery which makes the future of the band even more exciting and you can imagine ground-breaking.
https://www.facebook.com/fathomsuk
10/10
RingMaster 02/10/2013
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from
The RingMaster Review 
Leave a Reply