With the thundering, hypnotic combination of bass, riff driven guitar and drums that opens the first 13 seconds of "Radars Are High", I immediately feel like I have cause for high expectations for VEUVE's "Fathom". The Italian Heavy Psych, Stoner band (with more than a hint of Prog) have been around since 2014, and have released a previous EP, and full length ("Yard"). "Fathom" is their newest offering and is available via the ever prolific Argonauta Records.

Unfortunately, that early optimism is a bit waylaid by somewhat amateurish vocals and a mediocre vocal mix. I actually kind of like Quattrin's vocals, there's just not enough natural ability backing up what he's attempting to pull off. Unharnessed potential is there, and I hope he gets some vocal training as it'll help the overall presentation in the future. What's not amateurish is Quattrin's bass work as well as Crovato's guitar skill and Carlin's percussion ability. There's precision and technical ability on display here ("Taste Of Mud" and "Low In The Air") as well as pure force ("Radars Are High", "Death Of The Cosmonaut"). Musically, the playing is top tier with complex time signature changes, heavy hitting riffs, nimble bass work and tribal drums.

VEUVE's song composition is impressive, though lyrically I was left wanting more. The lyrics aren't horrible by any means, they just don't measure up to the technicality of the music, and ultimately the music becomes the true star. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as there's plenty too like there. Highlights abound when I approach from the music aspect. "The Unseen" is chock full of fuzzy desert riff drones, though the closing vocal "chorus" seemed to deflate much of the energy that the song powerfully built. "Into The Smoke" really showcases the band's ability to incorporate different musical approaches successfully in a relatively short amount of time, if 8+ minutes is short. Again, it's the vocals that really caused me indecision here. I really liked the overall musical approach, but over and over found myself caught up in wishing the vocals were stronger.

There's certainly a lot of promise with VEUVE, and I'll be looking forward to their next effort. I'm not sure I'll be revisiting this one much in my rotation going forward.  "Fathom" is good, but its not overly memorable. It really could have been much better, and that's unfortunate.