It was a strange moment this year when I turned
19. I realized that I was just as
old as, if not older than, some of my favorite bands when they were releasing
genre-defining albums. Now the same age
as Milo Aukerman when he went to college and introduced hardcore to juvenility,
I can no longer relate to Jesse Lacey as he croons, “I want to stay 18 forever.” Point being, people my age are
more than capable of making good music, as demonstrated by Gatherer, a friend
of a friend’s band hailing from New Jersey.
Though the band members are only a few years older than I am, Gatherer’s debut EP, Postcards, is as professional and tactful
as any melodic hardcore release that you will hear nowadays.
Consisting of just four tracks that combine for a total of
seven minutes playtime, the EP is concise but spares no aggression, as each
track reeks with fervor. The listener is
bombarded with melodic elements of post-hardcore along with rapid punk beats
and a beautifully urgent vocal delivery.
Nostalgic, heart-on-sleeve lyrics
bring acts like American Nightmare and Touché Amoré to mind. Take “Wedding Bells,” the all too effective
album opener, for example, which features lyrics such as, “Driving home from
your nine to five, I hope you reminisce the front seats and sounds that made
you feel alive. Is this all that I have
left?” “Jones Beach,” the EP’s
highlight, is another track that will tug at the heartstrings of now-grown-up punks
yearning for their glory days. Every aspect
of the EP is executed with meticulous detail and unbridled emotion and, overall,
Postcards makes for a brief but
cathartic journey that forecasts a bright future for Gatherer.
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