Writing an album review without sounding redundant can be hard. I can only sit here and tell you how much I like certain part of a song. How vocals sound shot out of cannon. How guitars rip your face off. You get the idea. So…..lets just try things a little different.
The Moth Gatherer consists of two gentlemen from Sweden, Alex Stjernfeldt and Victor Wegeborn. As I’ve stated before in my Norse review, I like duo bands. Two people just in sync with one another, feeding off each others ideas and emotions, I love it. This being their first album, although the songs were fleshed out over a few year span when time was permitting, is a great debut. An album alone any artists would be proud of, but to be a debut, even better. I actually had a chance to speak with one of these fine gentlemen on Twitter (who, I’m not sure, I didn’t ask) and he explained to me his goals of the album. The Moth Gatherer aim to move you with emotions, powerful emotions of loss, death and life. They want you to lay in the dark and absorb this album, let it take you away. So I did what the artist literally told me. We’ve been here before. Bare with me, I tell you what I felt, not what I heard.
“The mushroom cloud was before me. I had my shoes laced tight. My belt tighter. Donned in black. Ready and willing to walk toward my ending. And my beginning. Silver box in hand, I started forward. All my memories of defeat sadness anger resentment poverty loneliness unrequited love cheating cheated disappointing faces screaming cold floors cold knives pills bottles of pills sweet smells gone sour tears on her face my pride being nonexistent my lost days piles of pills jealousy mistrust. You’ve taken my whole life. I’ve no word to say as I walk to the cloud. It spins and swirls. The end waiting to just devour me from its blast of black skies and horrid mist. I press on. My fingers cold from the clutch of what will be my savior. I press on further. My bones ache. My heart races. The pain severe. But for the sake of all life and time I continue. I’m here. Face to face with the cloud. Its tall walls and rounded out top. The box I place in my hand. I press the top and four flaps open. Without a blink or beat I throw my last chance of life into this beast. The swirl is vicious. Lightning cracks and strikes all around. It knows its fate and mine. I’ve feared all until this moment. This ominous figure slowly being devoured into a box of silver. Without memories I am nothing. But these are the fears I no longer will to remember. The cloud screams hisses lashes out as I stand still. Swirling into a box no bigger than a human heart. The fears are nothing. The cloud is gone. The sky is clear. The box now closed and sitting in a pile of windswept dirt. I dig. I dig for hours with my hands. I dig a hole further than six feet. I place the box square and center in the hole. I fill it back in with all I have left. I pull out a map. I mark the place where this cloud once stood and the hole once was. I pull out a cigarette and inhale the smoke. I set the map on fire and walk away. I shall always know where my demons rest. And I can revisit them if I wish. For now I’m headed the other way. Towards the sun, I light another cigarette and make my way home.”
Some albums you hear and drive your body wild. Some albums you put on as background music during dinner with your wife. Some albums you pop in on road trips. And some you absorb to take you somewhere else, weather that be good or bad it makes no difference. Sometimes you just want to feel anything. Luckily for us, The Moth Gatherer have put out an album that can and has done just that. With harrowing vocals, heartbreaking musical movements and pure heartfelt emotion. And I tip my hat to them for making such a beautiful, powerful, moving album.
A Bright Celestial Light comes out on April 16th (April 30th in the US) via Agonia Records. Be sure to pick this album up, support honest artists you love and enjoy.
HAIL!
