The Gathering

Only one word: gorgeous.

A very nice surprise... New lead singer, but same musical style, with more rock oriented compositions.

This is a very remarkable album. I'd call it Progressive Epic Atmospheric Metal/Rock. The Gathering started as a Gothic Metal band with progressive elements, and although there still are some edgy metal guitar sounds, their newer albums like this really evolved into some sort of modern Space Rock. It sounds quite electronic at times, but is largely based on traditional instruments.

The wonderful voice of Anneke is the constant element in this 1 hour 43 minutes journey. All the instruments just support the vocals, there are very few solo spots for guitar or keyboards. The whole album just flows from melody to melody, from song to song. And these melodies are really great.

If you like mellow albums like Opeth's Damnation, or Porcupine Tree's Sky Moves Sideways, you might want to give this a try, if you enjoy female vocals, too.

As you can tell by the ratings - I really enjoyed listening to this wonderful album. The Gathering certainly have come a long way. Their last album Souvenirs was already not a metal album anymore, but at least to me it seemed a little bit torn between different styles. This album seems totally focused to me, except for the track Solace, which escapes me at the moment - but it's the first listen.

If you like melodic, calm Post Rock a la Sigur Rós with a little less melodic complexity but much more beautiful vocals, then this is for you!

This album was even more a turning point for The Gathering than How to Measure a Planet. With this album they turn away completely from the kind of music which got them confused with Gothic Metal at the beginning of their career. Instead we get a really modern sound - lots of effects, different instrumentation throughout with the distorted guitar as an important, but not dominant element. The drums are really laid back, often not using the snare drum in favor of brush or rim/stick.