The7thGatekeeper’s “Time Alone Cannot Heal” Makes Nostalgia Easier To Sit With

There’s always a question of what a cover song should bring to the table. Should it remain faithful like a carbon copy of the original or should it take a complete departure and offer an entirely new interpretation? For some reason, a record like Time Alone Cannot Heal by The7thGatekeeper doesn’t have to choose between the two, finding that middle ground between familiarity and personal interpretation.

It starts with Nose on the Grindstone by Tyler Childers, and it has a familiar sound that feels weathered and warm around the edges. It doesn’t have that grand, major alteration to its arrangement, only a subtle stripping down that makes it feel more grounded and intimate. There’s still grit and roughness in the vocals, but just to keep things from feeling too polished.

And if Oasis’ Take Me Away already feels like yearning to be somewhere else on its own, The7thGatekeeper takes that feeling further with a more personal, stripped-back delivery. It sounds like the sort of thing you’d play on a long drive with no particular destination in mind.

System Of A Down’s Toxicity might be full of heavy riffs, jagged arrangement, and aggressive vocals. But The7thGatekeeper managed to distill it down, drawing out the unease beneath all that loud, frantic edge until the only that remains is the quiet, low-burning tension—one that’s more likely unsettling than the original.

Good Riddance from the Green Day as the last track is such a fitting closing for this EP. It’s much slower, more deliberate, giving every word and chords a little more room to settle. There’s a certain fragility in this rendition, as if the song is being handled with the care of someone who has been through a lot.

Every time a track ends, you’d never get an instinct to pull up the original, take or compare notes. That’s perhaps the strongest thing about Time Alone Cannot Heal. Nothing’s grand about it, nor does The7thGatekeeper seem to fixate on making dramatic changes to the songs that had been done years ago. He simply brings something personal, it’s almost as if each song has found its way into his life at a particular moment, and these renditions are his way of giving something back to them.

There’s a refreshing lack of polish to this EP as a whole. It’s unhurried, restrained, never eager to make itself heard. It just leaves you something different, nostalgic but easier to sit with.