The Gathering - You gotta check this out!

[ypsidan04]

Just take a look at all of this that came from allmusic.com, which as far as I'm concerned is the foremost music review site around:

First off, no less than four of their albums have a 4.5 out of 5 star rating.

the addition of the incomparable Anneke van Giersbergen, an incredible singer capable of stretching miles of emotion out of each and every syllable. The next album, 1995's Mandylion, remains one of the very best heavy metal albums ever recorded. van Giersbergen's poetic and haunting lyrics, paired with the band's orchestral ruminations, resulted in darkly important songs that seamlessly blend from one to the next.

The singer's enviable vocal talents are also fully displayed throughout the album, whether playing the soft-spoken angel while harmonizing with herself on "In Motion #1 and "2," or portraying the menacing siren while exploring her entire range on "Leaves."

instead, they have metal diva Anneke Van Giersbergen, whose voice often recalls Björk and may range from a powerful, throaty wail to a sweetly tuneful caress

\

Anneke van Giersbergen's vocals are the stuff of dreams

This album takes metal to a beautiful new place.

Highest possible recommendation.

And that's not all. Do yourself a big favor, especially if you like Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, et al - like myself - and take a good long look at this band, if you haven't already. I don't yet have any of their CDs, but I will be getting one on my next music shopping trip. And the others are on my list. I don't think any band has gone from completely unknown to one of my top favorites quicker than this.

If you register for free at allmusic, you can listen to 30 sec. clips of any song you want, and please do, because I bet this band, this singer, will leave you at a loss for adjectives, the same thing they did to me. I'm serious. This girl is a 12 out of 10. Or if you have Launchcast, add them to your station. Or if you download a lot of music, get some of The Gathering. Just don't do nothing. Let me know what you think.

And don't waste your time with their first two albums from 93 and 94.

Just search for 'The Gathering' - they dont allow hotlinking or something like that:

http://www.allmusic.com/

[Unplugged]

I like The Gathering, especially their song "Amity" Very good, I highly recommend it.

[karxwp]

I love Lacuna Coil it's my favorite Band...and I like nightwish and of course The Gathering...they came to mexico two months ago....but I was pennyless :S

anyway the gathering to be honest it'a a pretty changing band...they started like a dark gothic semi heavy metal...then they evolved to gothic...then to something more pop-ish...then to electronic...but overall they are great! More Anneken

[ypsidan04]

*bump*

it'a a pretty changing band...they started like a dark gothic semi heavy metal...then they evolved to gothic...then to something more pop-ish...then to electronic...but overall they are great!

Tell me about it! It's hard to belive they haven't changed names. I mean the artists known as "The Gathering" have had THREE different lead singers, and ANOTHER back-up singer at one point. They started out in 1993 with a typical black metal growler guy (insert :gag: here ) in the vein of Hatebreed for example. Then in 1994, they had a male lead singer in the vein of Simple Plan/NFG, kinda high-pitched punk like, and a part-time female backup singer. It wasn't until their third album, in 1995 that Anneke arrived. And apparently in the last year or two, another change has happened so that Anneke is not the only female member. Now there is a female guitarist as well. With all these changes, specifically with the early male singers, you'd think they would have changed names, a la Guns N Roses and Rage Against The Machine (both of which are better now IMO, and the new incarnations of both are both top ten bands for me).

And why I got back to this thread. With all this talk of Lacuna Coil going around, I stumbled over this photo, and couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe my luck at getting, IMO two out of the top three of the best female singers in vocal quality and good looks in the same freakin photo! If they didn't know each other before then, they should now.

My desktop for quite awhile to come probably

Closing thoughts:

- I have looked high and low for the past 6 to 8 weeks at several local stores and have still never seen a Gathering album. I think I'm just gonna have to get them online. I've also been looking for, but have never found albums from two other favorite bands of mine: Lucerin Blue, and Simon Says. I'M TIRED of seeing Luce albums, Carly Simon albums, and Simon and Garfunkel albums all over the place.

- The Gathering homepage: http://www.sandandmercury.com/ - go to "Souvenirs" for photos, they also have some low quality media, for the most part, under "Goodies". It's quite disappointing, their lack of good music clips.

[spyretto]

Did you like "Souvenirs"? Some excellent songs there like "A Life All Mine" but overall I think it doesn't have the hooks of their previous albums and it's maybe too alternative and a bit more "difficult". I really liked it but I didn't get stuck with it as I did with Mandylion and the absolutely gorgeous, "space-age" How to Measure a Planet. That one I saw on HMV and grabbed it a couple of years ago and I think I also saw Souvenirs on HMV ( here in Wales )

So they have a female guitarist now too? gosh, that sounds way too "nu metal" style for my liking

[Mossopp]

Originally Posted by spyretto

So they have a female guitarist now too? gosh, that sounds way too "nu metal" style for my liking

Mossopp hereby challenges the all-knowing spyretto to name but one "nu metal" band with a female guitarist.

[spyretto]

yeah they prefer bassists really cause there aren't many female guitar players around who can play; nor are there drummers for that matter : So, Coal Chamber?

Yeah I'm looking around nu metal bands. Chevelle? no Saliva? no...I keep on looking

oh i know one: Kittie!

Never said I'm all knowing. All I said is that metal used to be much much better
Why don't we make a heavy metal discussion thread so we can discuss it?
Not to mention the Gathering have a couple of metal albums as well...

[ypsidan04]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Did you like "Souvenirs"? Some excellent songs there like "A Life All Mine" but overall I think it doesn't have the hooks of their previous albums and it's maybe too alternative and a bit more "difficult". I really liked it but I didn't get stuck with it as I did with Mandylion and the absolutely gorgeous, "space-age" How to Measure a Planet. That one I saw on HMV and grabbed it a couple of years ago and I think I also saw Souvenirs on HMV ( here in Wales )

So they have a female guitarist now too? gosh, that sounds way too "nu metal" style for my liking

Ooh, yay! New posts! I'm not too familiar with that unfortunately. All I know is "Monsters" which they have a video out for. I do have HTMAP now though, my first of eventually 5 CDs from them ( ) - A friend of a friend was nice enough to burn me a copy. I've heard that too about Souvenirs, that the vocals are great as ever, but the music is kinda lacking from the earlier CDs. But let me tell you that from what I've read, their best album is "If_Then_Else" ("Highest possible recommendation." ^^ ). Which I certainly haven't experienced, and it seems you haven't either. Yes, the whole Souvenirs album was made with the female guitarist, to my knowledge.

Originally Posted by spyretto

Not to mention the Gathering have a couple of metal albums as well...

And I can't stand the goddamn vocals on em! The first sounds like friggin Hatebreed (really bad) and the second sounds like Simple Plan on steroids (bad), with an occasional female vocal here and there. But Mandylion is supposed to be still pretty heavy from what I hear.

Originally Posted by Mossopp

Mossopp hereby challenges the all-knowing spyretto to name but one "nu metal" band with a female guitarist.

I missed his sarcasm the first time thru. Nu metal? Don't know a single one. But let me tell you, especially Souvenirs, which is all this female guitarist has to her credit, is far from nu-metal.

[spyretto]

I know the Gathering for 4 years now, so they're nothing new to me. I stumbled accross them thanks to their Dead Can Dance cover of the song "In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated", and was enchanted by Anneke's vocals. Their albums go like this:

About their albums before Mandylion which I haven't heard in their entirety: Their first album was a typical soft-death metal style with howling vocals. For the second album they tried some weird male/female combination which didn't work ( nowhere near as good as Lacuna Coil's )
I think both of those albums were out of print but were re-released recently.
In "Sickness and Health" is my favourite song of those two albums. ( from what I've heard anyway )

Then Anneke joined and they released

-Mandylion: Progressive metal music with female vocals, not much to say. Strange Machines was a minor hit for them, another favourite song of mine from the album is In Motion # 2.

- Nightime Birds: The follow-up to Mandylion and similar style. The title song is quite good, Shrink is beautiful and Kevin's Telescope is the single.

-Then they changed their style completely and released the double cd "How To Measure a Planet". They included an insane 40-minutes-long "song" which is comprised of space sounds - a filler of the 2nd cd - but apart from that this work is a masterpiece. All the songs are great, the atmosphere is special, very experimental sound, Anneke's vocals are the best ever. Travel, in particular is a masterpiece and the bit with the lyric "

I wish you knew
your music was to stay forever
And I hope....

made my skin crawl.

Then they released "If Then... Else" with contemporary, hard rock sound ( they changed their style again ) but the songs there are excellent; Saturnine, Amity, Rollecoaster my highlights.

Then they released a live album called "Superheat". They're quite alright live, no complaints.

Then came a 4-song ep, a prelude to "Souvenirs", sort of speak which included a piano version of their song "Broken Glass", also included on "Souvenirs"

Then came "Souvenirs". This album, as I said, is more "obcsure" and experimental than the rest. There'are good songs there as well though, like Monsters, A Life all Mine, the ballad "You Learn About It" etc.

I haven't been following the band in the last year or so...
So are you sure the Gathering have a female guitarist now? Even if they do, I doubt she took part in Souvenirs. It must be a later addition.

By the way, haven't you noticed what is written bellow my user name? It's "These Good People" which is the title of the first song from "Souvenirs". I have it for a year now.


On b-sides of singles the Gathering usually included covers they've done. Apart from the Dead Can Dance cover, there's a slow version of Talk Talk's "Life what's you Make It" but my favourite cover is "When the Sun Hits". ( can't remember whose the original though )


I think that pretty much covers it Oh The Gathering has played in Greece many times and they're quite popular there...

[ypsidan04]

Originally Posted by spyretto

-Then they changed their style completely and released the double cd "How To Measure a Planet". They included an insane 40-minutes-long "song" which is comprised of space sounds - a filler of the 2nd cd - but apart from that this work is a masterpiece.

28 minutes. As I've seen one or more reviewers say, "Its not really a song as much as an audio experience".

Travel, in particular is a masterpiece and the bit with the lyric "

Yeah, that's quite good. Another one though is "My Electricity". Fantastic. Sucks that it's only 3 and a half minutes though.

So are you sure the Gathering have a female guitarist now? Even if they do, I doubt she took part in Souvenirs. It must be a later addition.

http://www.sandandmercury.com/ - first off click on newsflash January 2005 (She's having a baby! ) Then go to "Souvenirs", "Promo Pictures", And "New Lineup", second from the left.

By the way, haven't you noticed what is written bellow my user name? It's "These Good People" which is the title of the first song from "Souvenirs". I have it for a year now.

Holy crap, I never put that together once I heard of the band. I know it's been there, but like I might have said, I didn't know of this band only a few months ago.

They also released another live album called "Sleepy Buildings". I have no desire to pick up their live albums though. I heard on either one or the other that there is way too much crowd noise.

[spyretto]

http://www.sandandmercury.com/ - first off click on newsflash January 2005 (She's having a baby! ) Then go to "Souvenirs", "Promo Pictures", And "New Lineup", second from the left.

oh yeah! So they're totally "en vogue" now. They must have used a session bass player for Souvenirs cause I remember they were a quartet before. Perhaps it was the same person and they introduced her properly as part of the band...cool

Originally Posted by ypsidan04

28 minutes. As I've seen one or more reviewers say, "Its not really a song as much as an audio experience"

yeah , I located my copy of HTMAP and the "song" HTMAP lasts for 28 minutes and 32 seconds. It was dragging on for so long that's why a had the idea it was longer. Rene, the guitarist, who tends to post on their official website's forum calls it a "soundscape". It'd be interesting to be used as background music for, say, a documentary - like Jean Michel Jarre's title track off his "Waiting For Cousteau" album