I suppose I'll just say, their debut from 2012 So Be It is awesome. It's one of the best albums this decade, especially being a debut album. "Regular Frontier" and "Thrive" among the rest of it, are favorites. And the production is incredibly clear and pristine.
Gatherer found this way to be really heavy, loud, and complex, yet still have dreamy soaring melodies. And the guitars and syncopation was really unlike any combination I'd heard before.
And as they described below, they refused to cater their music to trends.
Heavy Hail their 2nd album from 2015 I recall liking, but my memory was it being a little hit and miss. It used more electronic sides, which I recall the production was quite dense. I wonder if I went back to it now, if I might appreciate it more than I did initially back then as it probably has been 2015 or 2016 when I last gave it a go.
Their new and last song "High Notes" video below) I am enjoying, in a bittersweet way.
Also I think it's worth adding how their previous name/incarnation "This City Sunrise" I also really love, and may be 1 of the best or rarest examples of 'Core music that actually works without the vocals bugging me enough. In fact I grew to enjoy them, almost as much or in different ways than I did with Gatherer.
I forget, but I thought the 2 This City Sunrise EP's I found online to purchase on CD, but never got around to it.
WHY I didn't hear about this until now? (July 11th, per the news/new video+track came out April 3rd), I don't religiously read FB and Twitter feeds (myspace sadly had that setup much better with a blog subscription, etc).
The New Jersey band Gatherers (formerly Gatherer but added the s after the same name of the band New Zealand), I saw last evening with Bent Knee and Bubblemath, and seeing them/thinking about Gatherer from New Zealand, got me curious what they may be up to.
But not shocking, another one goes by the wayside, despite support from Kimbra. O well, maybe Gatherer at the time their music came out, were a bit too unusual to be appreciated. But maybe in the coming years their music will still be discovered.
What the members do next? I dunno. Maybe a reunion of course someday, or other projects perhaps.
In the mean time, I hope to find some other music that pushes boundaries and struggles to resemble other music out there, while maintaining quality songwriting the way Gatherer did.
Facebook April 3rd, 2018
Hey team, we're gonna keep this brief.
We would love to introduce you to our latest and last song, 'High Notes'.
The last few years have been a whirlwind for us as we grew into actual adults and became really hungry for something fresh. With so many years of brotherhood, loyalty and history under our belt we dug as deep as we could to find a new way to do this thing, but as we reached the home stretch we ultimately discovered that our hearts just aren't beating to the same drum any more.
That's it, really. This is where we ended up. We're immensely proud of everything we've done, we lasted longer than most bands ever do and we have a friendship that is unlike any other. At the end of the day our mission was to be an incredible band that refused to follow trends and we can rightly say we smashed that goal out of the park.
We love all of you. To anyone that believed in us, helped us, sacrificed anything in any way for us - we'll never forget.
Onward and upward!
Gatherer
Clip by Greg Cooper, Art by Pat Fox, music by us.
