Somerset and Dorset-based duo Gather The End transport us into a dystopian world of despair, hope and optimism with a post-apocalyptic math rock sound. The “two big kids trying to make music” have crafted a deliciously powerful sound that they summarise as “cinematic, atmospheric and ethereal.”
Josh Elliott and Tom Ayliffe met at college through a mutual love for skateboarding and formed an emo/metalcore band with their hometown friends called April Dead. They spent their late teens sharing stages with the likes of Devil Sold His Soul, Bring Me The Horizon, Architects and Enter Shikari and touring with Bury Tomorrow. But life got in their way and the band members went their own separate ways.
But fast forward to 2019, Josh had moved back to Dorset, started writing again and got in touch with Tom to see if he was also still writing music. They noodled over a couple of tracks and the inspiration began to flow again, but in the early days they “had no real goal to release anything” and simply enjoyed hanging out and creating together.
As Josh tells us: “Since our previous band I suffered horrendously with writer’s block in Uni studying music. I released post-rock music under the name wecollectskies but I think my addiction to World of Warcraft, beer and lack of sleep didn’t help with motivation. I was asked to join a couple of bands, but I just didn’t feel the same connection as I did with our brothers in April Dead.”
Things shifted a notch in early 2021, when their goal of writing instrumental post-rock songs quickly turned into something else. As Tom says: “When Josh’s ears didn’t bleed when he heard me sing, we decided that I should add vocals to our sound and the style quickly snowballed from there.”
And Josh adds: “I will admit, once I heard Tom sing, I could just sense the potential. It takes a lot of confidence and I am so proud of Tom’s progression, he is developing some strong lungs. My sister Megan, who sings in Forlorn, did guest vocals in our debut track and that spurred us on and introduced us to Nathan Smart. We also reached out to Jonny at Bandit Studios to master a couple of our early tracks. He recorded us in the past and we have always wanted to work with him again in some form.”
The result is an engaging but powerful post-rock sound that’s deliciously dark, atmospheric and moody. In Tom’s words: “We always try and write from the heart and always have the motto of making music we like for ourselves first. If we had to narrow it down then I’d say a cinematic blend of post-rock mixed with post-hardcore. But we try not to limit ourselves to narrowing it down too much, so we can still grow musically.”
And Josh adds: “I think given our name (which comes from a mix of our love for apocalyptic movies, books and games) some have assumed we would be a lot heavier. When uploading tracks to a distributor I hover over metal pondering if we are metal. I tend to describe it as having electronic bits, pop structures, cinematic elements with guitars, drums and vocals. Oh and a big chorus, our tracks can be somewhat unpredictable in where a section is heading.”
The duo have released three singles to give us a taste for this, the most recent being the fantastic Prey, which is arguably their heaviest. It begins with wailing vocals, an echoey riff and high-pitched vocals before a scream ushers in heavy guitar chords. A laid-back verse picks up pace into the catchy chorus “You dance in the distance, You prey on the weakness, And I can’t save you, You feed on the mortal, The vultures will circle, And I can’t.” A chunky riff kicks in through an engaging verse, before ramping up the heaviness with vicious screams and wild guitars and drums. The intensity develops again in a delicious section led by engaging vocals “Break free of surrender, Don’t look back, It’s time to wake from your nightmare, Nightmare” that tee up a final chorus. Check it out in the video here:
Prior to that they released Fade, which opens up with a heavy intro of crushing guitars and a piercing synth sound that flow into Tom’s engaging vocals. That leads into a big chorus of “As you fade forever, was it meant to be? What is left for me?” supported by the heavy guitars and synth sound. A second verse ends with heavy guitars and a haunting synth sound that give way to big layered vocals, which drop into a light piano section before it gradually builds to a powerful conclusion. Check it out in the video here:
Both those tracks followed Fall, which begins with a flickering sound then laid back vocals over building instrumentals. A cool little guitar riff kicks in as the moody atmosphere builds with big rolling drums and huge crushing guitars towards an engaging chorus “We all fall sometimes and redefine what it is to be, Shoulder the load, down this road, You will never be alone.” Deliciously low-tuned guitars kick in, are joined by big layered vocals before a delicious melodic outro. Check it out here:
The Gather The End sound is influenced by a long list of styles and bands including the likes of Underoath, This Will Destroy You, Devil Sold His Soul, Vukovi and Brutus. While Josh tells us he takes inspiration from electronic artists like Joe Ford, Amon Tobin, KOAN Sound, HEALTH, Perturbator and The Chemical Brothers, “trailer music” like Immediate Music and game soundtracks such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
And on what inspires them to write music, Tom explains: “Personally for me, anything that evokes a strong emotion in myself. I’m heavily influenced by clean riffs first, before any of the heavier stuff. It seems to resonate with me more, a sort of stripped back look at the music before anything else gets added. If a clean riff grabs me, I know we’re in for a good song. I’m still in my infancy with lyric writing, having only started being a ‘singer’ since 2021, so I’m still finding my way with both singing and lyric writing. At the moment, I try and tap into things that have happened to me or feelings and emotions I feel and try and put them into words or metaphors. This is an ongoing learning experience for me.”
And Josh says: “For the themes I start shifting song writing when I hear the demo vocals. We say that Tom makes up the characters and I write the story. I then start to imagine that I am scoring a film based on his concept. I am very influenced by game and movie soundtracks. I’ll be watching a film and a certain part of the music or sound design will trigger an idea or theme for a track.”
There’s much more to come from Gather The End, who’ve just finished recording three new tracks with the aforementioned Nathan Smart. They plan to release one track before Christmas (providing the public’s love for Mariah doesn’t get in the way) with two more being released in early 2024. They also plan to branch out into live shows and are always writing, so expect even more new music in the near future.
And the duo add: “We like to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously (which is why we smile in photos). Enjoying the process and having a laugh at the same time is important for us. We just want to make music that gets us both pumped and are grateful to anyone who gets the same feelings as we do about our music. If you ever see us out in the wild, then Josh will have a pint of lager and Tom will take a pint of ice cream.”
You can follow Gather The End on Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.
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