Year: 2020
Total Time: 47:58
Label: Self-Financed
At this review we will talk about a band from Patras-Greece called MATHER. This album was released on the April of 2020. MATHER combine Heavy riffs, quite fuzzy with atmospheric and progressive parts, something that -I imagine- will bring a sour taste in the mouth of many of our readers out there, but the Greek bands and artists will always find a place in the THEGALLERY.GR!
After a short Intro, “Recoil” follows and builds up gradually, with a lot of Stoner references, not only to 1000MODS, but also to PLANET OF ZEUS. The guitar keeps a nice tone and the warm vocals are building up together with the song. The band’s love for PORCUPINE TREE and Heavy Rock is shown in “A Night To Remember, A Day To Forget” with a dreamy pause in the middle, with the beautiful, lyrical and dark vocals leading the song to an explosive finale of psychedelic nature. “Give In” lets us take a breath with just vocals and a guitar, something that brought to mind KALEO and next, comes “Sympathy For The Gods” which goes on from where “Give In” stopped to evolve in the same way as “A Night To…”, but with a heavier finish that reminds of OPETH.
“Co-Lapse” is the longest song of the album, lasts more than 13 minutes and mixes together all the influences that MATHER have, either PORCUPINE TREE, TOOL, or 70’s Psychedelic and Heavy Rock from the 90’s. However, here I detect a faint weakness in the vocals that unfortunately keeps the song from lifting off, working as an anchor, either with the “Greek pronunciation” or with their unfit toning. On the contrary, the keyboards are pretty clear, working as a loyal soldier, filling in any gaps there are, there. “Engine”, the song that closes the album, will reveal the band’s influences from ANTIMATTER (post-Patterson Era) but also a folk turn with the guitar competing the keyboards, creating an electric, oriental, slow-motioned “conversation”, similar to a restrained “misirlou”, with a hard and heavy breakdown closing the “This Is The Underground” album.
MATHER have released a promising debut album, in which they tried to combine their influences, covering them with a veil of darkness, with great success, I could say. The vocals “won” me with their warmth and their sweet, almost “Cavey” (Nick) gloominess, although in other parts, they weren’t so “warm” for me. The production from Nikos Bastas at Noisebox Studios helps the band, but in my opinion it could have been a bit warmer, not having the guitar so loud covering the bass. That is of course, how it sounded to MY ears so it can sound different to someone else’s ears. Nevertheless, “Underground” hides some diamonds. Remember Bahrein, with MATHER declaring “This Is The Underground”. A good effort from those guys. I hope they will continue despite all the difficulties, and release another descent album in the future.
Rating: 6.5/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Translation in English: Notis Konstantinou
Related Link: MATHER – Facebook Page
