I Prevail « The RingMaster Review

Fathom Farewell is a band with a growing wind of praise behind them, one sure to be more vociferous with the release of new EP, Consume the Earth. The Boston quartet have emerged from within the melodic metalcore scene but as the six tracks within their latest offering shows, their sound is a far more adventurous and varied blend of metal and melodic rock enterprise.

Since emerging in 2014, Fathom Farewell has forged a potent reputation and fan base with their Decomposition EP in 2017 especially luring strong praise and attention. Live the band has equally impressed as they have shared stages with the likes of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, Volumes, I Prevail, Currents and many more, supported Sevendust on their 20th anniversary tour, playing upon the Vans Warped Tour four times as well as making numerous appearances at other prestigious festivals. In the midst of their Raid Area 51 US Tour, the band is hungrily nudging far broader attention with Consume the Earth, a hinting which is hard to see not finding some real recognition such its impressive character of sound and craft.

EP opener, Six Feet Beneath, immediately drew keen ears with its initial rally of rhythms and stabbing riffs, melodic enticement swiftly joining that initial potent lure as the song quickly slips into its magnetic stride. Individual dexterity is just as openly and rapidly in evidence, the guitar of Gage Killion and bass of Steve Almona unveiling respectively sharply incisive and contagiously brooding imagination around the equally compelling rhythms of drummer Casey Albiero. Just as striking come the vocals of Alex Cohen, his variety and agility another major captivation to song and sound as the EP gets off to a stirring start.

Its title track follows and is soon showing the same strength of invention and contagious enterprise, its breath and flavouring arguably even more rapacious than within its predecessor as the song surges boisterously through ears. Again metal and rock textures align to be woven into a song thick in melodic prowess and unpredictable ideation whilst embracing more familiar hues to equally enjoyable success. A momentary calm only brings further and richer drama to the track, the same kind of emotively aflame quiet lining Cohen’s vocals ably backed by the harmonic tones of Almona.

As eagerly devoured as they were, Wide Awake took a far bigger swipe at our favourite track choice, its opening voracious tempting as feral as it is melodically seductive and urgently catchy. It is an infectious adroitness which continues to infest the magnetic landscape of the fiery encounter before Mutiny adds its claim to that personal choice honour and ultimately seizes it. A twirling thread of guitar introduces the immediately tempestuous climate and body of the song, its ferocious metalcore nurtured assault inspiring a similarly fierce and untamed eruption in the vocals. There is an instant infectiousness to the rabidity of the song, rhythms again as barbarous as they are a virulent incitement while Killion’s guitar spins another enticing web before melody and harmony momentarily flood the creative and emotive antipathy; subsequently breaking the turbulence again with similar magnetism in a storm of nothing but.

A far calmer but no less heated Cold Beginnings is next, its evocative and melodically lit body exposed to sonic flames and intense drama throughout before the release is concluded by Soul Within The Shadow. The final track is another with drama soaking every note and syllable, its tapestry of sound and imagination ablaze with melodic intensity and technical insurgency. Equally it has an underlying volatility which erupts with ferocious, masterful, and accomplished adventure.

It is a rousing end to a release which only impressed from start to finish with certain and numerous moments that just lit our fires. Welcome world to Fathom Farewell.

Consume the Earth is out now; available through http://www.fathomfarewell.com/store

http://www.fathomfarewell.com/ https://www.facebook.com/fathomfarewell https://twitter.com/fathomfarewell

Pete RingMaster 27/09/2019

It is never a bad thing to make a thumping good first impression and that is exactly what US quintet Vault 51 has done with their debut EP, Kid. Not that the band is exactly a new force to attention having been around a while now with a buzz soon brewing up around them and apparently they have been signed to Roadrunner Records at some point too. Kid though is their first meaty proposition for real focus following a clutch of magnetic singles, and a forcible reason to pay close attention to their rousing sound.

Roaring out of Atlanta, Vault 51 breed a sound which lies somewhere between alternative rock and melodic/post hardcore; a proposition embracing familiar essences with fresh invention to create an individual character which blossoms across the six tracks of Kid. Already earning comparisons to the likes of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Story Of The Year, the band gets straight down to persuasive business with the Drew Fulk (I Prevail, Motionless In White) produced and Lee Rouse mixed EP. Thirty Six gets things underway, it’s ticking suggestiveness soon submerged in a torrent of riffs and fiery sonic flames. That passing of time is still there working away as the song ebbs and flows, the bass of Alex Garmon a gnarly temptation and the jabbing beats of Joshua Landry a biting trespass as melodies and harmonies catch alight and soar. Frontman Landon Jones leads the way with his potent tones backed by the similarly alluring voice of guitarist Tom Jepson, whose strings simultaneously collude with those of Patrick Snyder in a web of enterprise which has ears gripped and an early appetite stoked in swift time.

It is a powerful start to the release, that mix of varied flavours and textures a tempestuous yet composed blaze which as suggested earlier merges recognisable essences with bolder exploits belonging to Vault 51; a success found again within the following We Don’t Care. The track quickly shows itself a predatory individual, riffs carrying a sinister and aggressive edge tempered by again impressing vocals. With rhythms bringing their own cantankerous almost inhospitable intent, the track still plunders the senses; a Spineshank meets Breaking Benjamin spicing grabbing keen attention as things flow through mellow and harsh scenery with craft and emotional intensity.

The first two striking tracks set the marker for the EP which arguably the subsequent songs miss matching yet as latest single Magnolia with its melodic graces and atmospheric caresses soon reveals, the adventurous ear pleasing nature and power of the release refuses to die down. A volatile encounter as calm and seductive as it is fiery and imposing, the third song breeds a virulent infectiousness as forceful as that cast by its predecessors and in next up Wildfire. A poppier incitement from the off but soon lighting a pyre of emotion and intensity, the song has something of Australians Voyager and Sick Puppies to it, a mix of the two in many ways at least which has the imagination soon caught up in its creative drama.

The magnetic reflective calm of Mourning View makes an engaging contrast soon after; the song a melodic serenade on the senses with a brooding rhythmic lining as keys cast their suggestive poetry. It too has tempestuousness to its heart which flirts with rather than breaks in ears, adding an anxiousness which firmly appeals before Sincerely Me brings things to a ferocious conclusion with a blistering tempest abound with melodic beauty and emotional drama. Maybe taking longer to initially convince than other tracks within Kid, it blossoms into one of the highlight of the release with its cyclonic breath and rousing ingenuity.

Kid makes an increasingly compelling and impressive statement through every listen, sparking the lift off of Vault 51 into the grasp of real attention but more importantly a certain new wave of hungry fans.

The Kid EP is out now on Spotify, through other stores and @ https://www.vault51.net/merch/kid