{"id":17927,"date":"2014-10-20T14:20:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T14:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-gates-bloom-breathe\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T08:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T07:48:56","slug":"album-review-gates-bloom-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-gates-bloom-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Gates – Bloom & Breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Is post-rock the new math-rock? By which, of course I mean, is the former showing signs of becoming the new \u201cfeeder-genre\u201d for emo outfits to sink their teeth in? In recent times, we\u2019ve come across many a post-hardcore band exploring the possibilities of layering their emotional directness onto twiddly guitars and some marginally unusual rhythms and time signatures. If Gates<\/strong>\u2019 ‘Bloom & Breathe’<\/em> is anything to go by, there\u2019s an argument to be made that the latest imperialist emo ventures involve conquering the atmospheric sonic landscapes of post-rock. And for the first half of this, their debut album, the band\u2019s vampirism appears worthwhile. The second half, however, is another story. The sanguine well of post-rock\u2019s novel ideas is unlikely dried up, instead Gates<\/strong> seem not to know what to do with them anymore, at which point they begin to shift their sound towards the safer, more recognizable, ground.<\/p>\n

Take opening intro ‘Everything That Has Ever Been’<\/em>. What its expansive soundscapes and rousing melodies suggest is a sense of grand scale, of that much-despised, but relevant, \u201cepic\u201d tag. Gates<\/strong>\u2019 best moments involve a good balance between aspiring for post-rock\u2019s deliberately-paced grandeur and emo\/pop-punk\u2019s emotional directness. It\u2019s clear from a track like ‘Not My Blood’<\/em>, however, that Gates<\/strong> aren\u2019t interested in very gradually moving towards catharsis, as is almost post-rock tradition, preferring instead a hasty and head-on careening towards pay-off. Which isn\u2019t to say that it\u2019s any less effective of course, I\u2019m merely describing here.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The band absolutely drown their vocals in a wall of sound in their loudest moments, most notably on ‘Bloom’<\/em>, which has the positive effect of heightening the intimidating stature of the instrumentals, as well as undercutting the poppier convention of emphasizing the voice before the rest. If everything works well up to that point, things get resolutely ‘Alchemy Index’<\/em>-era Thrice from thereon. ‘Nothing You\u2019ll Miss’ <\/em>has the amped-up ethereal quality of that album\u2019s Water segment but none of its moody beauty. To their credit, ‘At Last The Loneliest Of Them’ <\/em>seems to combine the best of ‘Water’<\/em>\u2019s guttural ghostliness and ‘Fire’<\/em>\u2019s hoarse brutality, so it\u2019s not all \u201cdisappointing dilution\u201d.<\/p>\n

For half its length, an EP\u2019s worth, ‘Bloom & Breathe’<\/em> presents a clear identity, a coherent direction that aspires to combine post-rock and post-hardcore. The other half is a major regression, one borne either out of prudence or a simple lack of ideas. One can only hope that the band will build on the first half\u2019s encouraging signs and continue to tinker their style successfully.<\/p>\n

3\/5<\/p>\n

‘Bloom & Breathe’<\/em> by Gates<\/strong> is out now on Pure Noise Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gates<\/strong> links: Facebook<\/a>|Official Website<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (@bearclawlewis<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is post-rock the new math-rock? By which, of course I mean, is the former showing signs of becoming the new \u201cfeeder-genre\u201d for emo outfits to sink their teeth in? In recent times, we\u2019ve come across many a post-hardcore band exploring the possibilities of layering their emotional directness onto twiddly guitars and some marginally unusual rhythms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,8053,8054,2711,66],"class_list":["post-17927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-bloom-breathe","tag-bloom-and-breathe","tag-gates","tag-pure-noise-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Gates - Bloom & Breathe - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is post-rock the new math-rock? 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