Review Summary: A consistent, dark album of expertly constructed drum and bass, featuring a collection of fantastic tracks with very little filler.
It can be argued that drum and bass full-lengths are tasked with the challenge of remaining engaging across their run-time, despite the music being primarily geared for DJ mixing. When a release manages to pull it off it can yield spectacular results, and Cern's Terminus definitely delivers.
Kicking off with the excellent Hopetoun Bridge, a brooding, dark track that provides a nice glimpse of the album at large. Weaving an elegant melody over the pounding beats and heaving basslines, the track progresses with some excellent and subtle melody shifts throughout. The layering of the sounds here is really satisfying and is present with similar levels of quality on other tracks too. It makes a great track for night-driving.
The album definitely presents a strong dark vibe from start to finish, with tracks like the aforementioned Hopetoun Bridge, Wasabi, Fools and Life's Curse, among several others all propelling forward with aggressive beats and punishing basslines. Contrasting these are tracks like Love of Fear, the title track Terminus, and the closer Insignificance, all managing to conjure a more uplifting vibe, though still remaining relatively dark. Terminus is particularly impressive with its subtle progression and attention to details as it builds the sounds together towards the latter half of the track. Insignificance is a great closer, managing to leave the album on a more positive and uplifting vibe with nice thick textures and melodies.
For me, this all seems to be inspired by some of the early legendary producers for labels like Metalheadz and icons like Photek, and is pulled off here with precise execution. Cern's debut full-length is superbly solid from start to finish and comes highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the darker styles of drum and bass/jungle.
