Review: “Imprisoned” by Fathom

Cincinnati, Ohio Blackened Deathcore Merchants Fathom caught our attention in April with their debut single “Dread“, a bleak and DJent heavy Deathcore track that pulls no punches and just three months later, their debut EP “Imprisoned” has landed on our doormat. Vocalist Kyle Greene, guitarists Brandon Wallace and Austin Wiesman alongside drummer Bryant Sullivan have been busy behind the scenes getting this ready with the help of Billy Duganne from Legion Productions who handled the Mixing and Mastering.

The 67 seconds of “Time” is shot across the bow, a dark, swirling atmospheric with enough staccato Deathcore riffs coming out from under to form a warning of what is to come. “Throes of Cognition” goes downtempo with some cleverly worked multi layered vocals from Greene creating a nasty dynamic. Again, the dark, swirling atmospheric is of crushing intensity and there is a fine balance between Black Metal and Downtempo Deathcore, akin to Black Tongue, within the confines of a single track, taking the best of both worlds and smashing them together in the best possible way. “Shut In” has a few off Slam vocal moments but instead of the relentlessly driven sonics you might expect, they slow things down to crawl of dirge laden riffs with momentary silences that help to create a platform for the vocals to be the blunt force trauma. “Distressed” continues the demonic possession plague in very similar 8 string stylings with the slow pummeling groove an anchoring point for some of the ugliest vocals you’ll hear. Unclean is the understatement of the year. When they do shift up a gear for the closing of this one, it is more of what was witnessed on “Dread“, a long stare into the bleak black abyss [7/10]

Track listing

1. Time
2. Throes of Cognition
3. Shut In
4. Distressed

“Imprisoned” by Fathom is out now