By: Stuart Benjamin
Gatherer | facebook |
Released on August 7, 2015 via Self-released
This four piece New Zealand band – now relocated in Melbourne, Australia, have produced a breezy collection of pop-rock songs that I’m sure would appeal to most rock-friendly radio stations and fans. Indeed, if you like the Foo Fighters or Kasabian I’m sure that Gatherer will not only float your boat, but sail it to the nearest municipal stadium to fill it up with like-minded people for rocking-good-times. I found Heavy Hail to be pretty derivative, however, in that it doesn’t do much to stand out from a very similar sounding crowd of bands that inhabit the more commercial side of rock. I’ll give the band credit for a well produced sound and very efficient musicianship, but I couldn’t help feeling that there wasn’t enough to hold my interest in any of the twelve tracks here. Credit too for doing all the production themselves, they certainly feel as if they know their way around a studio and for creating a strong wall of sound – it’s just that I didn’t find nearly enough light and shade within that sound. Anyway, feel free to call me an idiot for not getting, or seeing, the genius of this band but if we all lived in a world where we all liked the same thing – well – it would be really really boring wouldn’t it.
