Review Summary: After all the mediocre music that's been coming out lately, it's nice to hear something refreshing.
We've all heard lots of junk on the radio. We've all experienced the feeling of high anticipation for a new album from one of our favorite artists. We resist listening to the early leaks on youtube, and instead, rush down to the closest CD shop to buy a copy and support the band. But 3-4 songs in, you begin to realize that yet another of your favorite bands has done a complete 180 turn from what made them so amazing in the first place. After giving the album a couple chances, you find yourself listening to the old stuff again, all the while pretending that that one bad album doesn't exist. We all know the feeling, so we all know how good it feels to come across something completely out of the ordinary, something new and refreshing; a breath of fresh air in other words. In more ways than one, Ceterum's debut album Fathom is just that; a complete breath of fresh air.
Starting this album off with "The Architect", it feels like it's gonna be a metal record. However, you soon realize that's far from the case. Within two minutes of this song, you hear heavy distorted guitars, double kick drum, and odd time signatures. The songs are pretty unpredictable, and go from soft to heavy without any type of notice, which is a nice surprise. Also, I couldn't help feeling that there are fans out there like me of Tool, A Perfect Circle, etc, that love those bands, but feel that there is a little more potential there for heaviness or catchiness. Ceterum in that sense is a little more fulfilling in that they tend to stay on the heavier side of things throughout the album.
Fathom is hard to put your finger on in terms of genre although that's not a bad thing. Certain songs are softer and possess more of a progressive metal feel, while other are just straight up heavy metal, like for example the song "Insolence Recoil" and "Revealed Arcane", where you get to hear some screaming throughout. Although they seem to be playing around with their sound, mixing many different genres into one album, they all seem to have the same central theme, and you don't feel lost at all.
After listening to this album a couple times, I believe this band can go really far with the right support. They are extremely talented and deserve more than many to be successful.
