Moth Gatherer, The: Esoteric Oppression

A friend recently asked my why this band calls themselves The Moth Gatherer. I didn’t have an answer ready at hand, so I described the band’s music and tried to make sense of it in terms of the band’s atmospheric / doom style. While I was later reading through the band’s promo materials, I learned that the name is expressing hope. You see, the band’s founding members were coping with personal loss at the time and wanted to pick a name that expressed their wish for light and for hope. And so, The Moth Gatherer was born.

Hope doesn’t always find its way into extreme metal, but there’s a good case to be made for it. Besides, lots of bands try to strike a balance between outright hopeless and the promise of something better. The Moth Gatherer are especially good at capturing that glimmer. In general, their music draws on multiple genres, including atmospheric doom, sludge, and post metal. If all my talk of hope has made things seem mushy, think again. The Moth Gatherer are plenty heavy. Check out “Phosphorescent Blight� for good examples of quality riffing and a dense structure. The vocals are also consistently harsh, something that definitely plays to the band’s strengths. It would have been all too easy to alternate between a clean and dirty style to signal the range of emotions here. But the band prefers to mix things up by introducing atmosphereic elements within a slow tempo. This keeps up the sludgy mood while also allowing for those small glimmers of hope to shine through.

For me, the best tracks were those that showcased the band’s musical variety. I especially liked the aforementioned “Phosphorescent Blight,� but I’d also recommend “The Drone Kingdom� and “Motionless in Oceana.� The band gave this album plenty of thought and energy and the results speak for themselves. Recommended.

Track Listing:
1. The Drone Kingdom
2. Motionless in Oceana
3. Utopia
4. The Failure Design
5. Phosphorescent Blight

Added: February 2nd 2019
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1308
Language: english

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