Gathering - Cycling Colours

In recent years the boundary between metal and the "rest of the world" has become relatively more blurred, partly due to the innovation brought by certain genres, and partly because of the radical changes that have taken place in the discographies of some bands. In the latter case, we're talking about artists who initially belonged squarely to this scene but then diversified, sometimes abandoning it altogether, allowing their audience to discover new territory and expand their musical horizons. The most striking example is perhaps Ulver (who moved from black metal to experimental electronics, ambient and art-rock), but the story of Gathering is just as creative and unpredictable.

With their very first releases in the early '90s, they were among the pioneers of gothic metal. Nowadays the specialist press mostly uses this term to refer to a very melodic and formulaic genre, at times more commercial than artistic given the sheer number of clone bands. In its early days, though, gothic metal had a sound far removed from what would become the canon in the 2000s - harsher and darker, but also more refined and complex, drawing in various ways on doom metal or darkwave. Gathering were indeed witnesses to the genre's first evolutions, which could already boast quite different styles from one another. And yet, just when the formula was starting to catch on, and it would have been easy to ride the trend of melodic metal bands fronted by a captivating frontwoman, the Dutch band turned the page and abandoned that genre, absorbing and reinterpreting influences ranging from progressive rock to dream-pop to trip-hop.

Their change of direction led them into the territory of a highly personal alternative-rock/art-rock, letting introspective lyrics, spacious atmospheres, hushed digressions and compositional refinement take over.

A shift similar to that of their English neighbours Anathema, who, starting from very similar origins, followed a parallel and kindred path to that of Gathering, with whom they have in fact maintained close ties and occasional live collaborations.

Led by the crystalline voice of Anneke Van Giersbergen, one of the most magnetic and compelling voices in rock at the turn of the millennium, Gathering carved out a niche of their own, delivering highly personal works that ranged across different genres and sounds.

The Dutch band coined, without any pretension, the term "trip-rock" to define their style. Anneke Van Giersbergen would later explain what this label meant as the band intended it. Here she is, for instance, in an interview for Eutk: "What we mean by trip-rock is basically 'trippy music'... you can sit back and relax listening to us. It's different from trip-hop, because it's rooted in rock music... Not heavy music, of course, but on the contrary very melodic and intense. Heavy pop or soft melodic rock are ugly definitions that we don't like... Trip-rock is a nice word."

Let's get to know this band step by step from their beginnings, bearing in mind that the chapters making up their discography can sound very different from one another, and that the earliest ones are diametrically opposed to what came later.

The "underground" beginnings

Gathering were formed in 1989 in Oss, near Nijmegen, Netherlands, by brothers Hans (drums) and René Rutten (guitar) together with vocalist Bart Smits, joined a few months later by keyboardist Frank Boeijen. The four subsequently recruited bassist Hugo Prinsen Geerligs and guitarist Jelmer Wiersma. Almost all schoolmates, musically they were drawn to the underground metal scene, though Smits in particular lived it most actively, while the Rutten brothers took a greater interest in the various offshoots of '80s wave and that whole melting pot the specialist press called alternative rock. The fact that the local youth music scene in Oss in the late '80s was almost entirely focused on metal, between festivals, club gigs and teenage bands, in any case led everyone to play metal like their peers. For their name, the six young men drew inspiration from the "Highlander" franchise, which speaks of a great meeting of all the immortals ("the gathering"). Indeed, they were thematically inspired above all by fantasy literature and cinema, as would later be the case for many other bands.

Years later, Hans Rutten would look back on this period with nostalgia, but also with regret for the lack of creative freedom ("it's probably disrespectful towards the metal scene, but we couldn't do anything other than play this kind of music: Oss is a truly metalhead city, you could hardly find an alternative scene, which only developed on its own later on... if we'd been born in another city, we probably would have played something very different", from a mini-interview on the DVD "A Sound Relief").

The Dutch band released two fairly raw and primitive early EPs, influenced by death metal but with the occasional keyboard flourish (An Imaginary Symphony in 1990 and Moonlight Archer in 1991), before putting out their official debut, Always…, in 1992. In the meantime, Henk Van Koeverden had joined as a temporary guest on synthesizer, along with Marike Groot as a secondary female voice accompanying Smits.

In this very first phase, the band was still close to so-called death-doom, a style that combines the macabre, otherworldly atmospheres and growled vocals of death metal with the slow, decaying sounds of doom metal. The Dutch band were struck by albums such as "The Astral Sleep" by Sweden's Tiamat and, above all, the seminal "Gothic" by Paradise Lost (which Smits in particular considers, not without reason, one of the most important extreme metal albums of all time). Then there were their countrymen Sempiternal Deathreign, little known to most, but important in the development of death/doom away from the spotlight. Gathering, however, were also fascinated by the early extreme-metal experiments of Celtic Frost, who with 1987's "Into the Pandemonium" had shown off original ideas, pairing sulphurous, dark thrash metal with female vocal parts, keyboards, and even a cover of new-wave band Wall of Voodoo. In short, there was a far more varied melting pot of influences to draw from than might appear at first glance, and with hindsight these ingredients would push the band to go further.

Despite songwriting that at times still feels derivative at this stage, the debut album Always begins to shape the band's musical style, making it a little less death-doom and a little more gothic, allowing Gathering to be counted among the genre's pioneers. Indeed, it's in these sounds that the original roots of gothic metal lie. Overall, the album sticks to the already well-tested rough coordinates, adding distinctive touches in its tendency to season the songs with keyboard textures, loosened rocky riffing, and melodic digressions. The production is obviously raw, given the era and the resources available, but better than one might expect. For all its grim, harsh quality (especially rhythmically), the album already shows more atmospheric, reflective openings. These are influenced by the '80s goth scene and bands like Sisters Of Mercy or Fields of the Nephilim, with their driving goth-rock, but also by the more atmospheric, keyboard-driven Dead Can Dance.

The keyboards on Gathering's debut album serve an accompanying role, often slipping into an almost mesmerizing death sound tinged with darkwave ("In Sickness and Health", "Gaia's Dream"), while becoming the sole foundation of the song only in the atmospheric interlude of the title track. There's no shortage of more granite-hewn riffs either, as in the thrash-doom of opener "The Mirror Waters". The lyrics, too, lean toward more romanticized and decadent themes, at times "gothic" in the 19th-century sense of the word, with several fantasy references.

The main feature, albeit a relative one, is the duet between Bart Smits's male voice and Marike Groot's female voice. Smits is primarily engaged in a low, cavernous growl, while Groot's voice is lyrical and high-pitched. This pairing is directly inspired by Paradise Lost, who just a few months earlier had symbolically "introduced" death/doom-metal with "Gothic". But Paradise Lost had in turn drawn on the experiments already carried out by Celtic Frost back in 1987. Chronologically, we're three or four years before Norway's Theatre Of Tragedy officially popularized and standardized the concept, kicking off what came to be known as "the Beauty and the Beast vocals" - the contrast between a dark, roaring male voice and a sweet, ethereal female one (which by the 2000s had become commonplace across much of gothic-metal).

At this early stage, however, the singer's role is still very much secondary. Bart Smits holds the reins for most of the record, and his voice dominates even in the songs where Marike Groot appears, such as "King For A Day" or the melancholic "Stonegarden". While his growl fits well into the context, the occasional "clean" singing comes across as less expressive.

Following its release, Smits leaves the band over musical differences (he would go on to form Wish), as he was interested in darker, heavier sounds while Gathering wanted to develop something relatively more experimental. Groot also departs (she would go on to work with minor bands) and is replaced by Martine Van Loon.

With their second album, Almost A Dance, we witness the Dutch band evolving, refining their music by metabolizing and diluting its more extreme elements into a more compact, accessible style. What stands out is the voice of Niels Duffhuës, who steps in for Bart Smits: a clean voice, with a timbre close to that of Mike Patton of Faith No More. It's an unprecedented choice for the genre, even if not especially well received by the metal crowd. His performance is lived-in and atypical for the genre. Niels is heavily influenced by the post-punk/new wave era, and in particular by goth-rock acts like Sisters Of Mercy or Christian Death (but also by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or the Swans of "Children Of God"). That influence is filtered through a more direct, less obsessive lens, lending a decadent touch to the songs more than any other element introduced on this album, and it also underscores the record's departure from its death-doom origins to carve out a path of its own, one that would later branch out into different realities. At this point we can begin to speak of gothic-metal. Other similar outfits from this early period, like Anathema or My Dying Bride, are also drawing increasingly on darkwave, picking up the traits that allow the genre to carve out its own identity and distance itself from its more extreme roots. The experiment doesn't come off particularly well here: voice and instruments sit awkwardly together, and the production makes things worse. What's more, Niels Duffhuës isn't quite in sync with the rest of the band and too often goes his own way (clashing in particular with secondary vocalist Martine Van Loon, with whom he's meant to duet frequently despite her limited vocal range, though her contributions are doled out sparingly). Band members would later say he was better suited to a solo career than to working within a group.

That said, Almost A Dance still contains interesting songs, at times enriched by frequent keyboard flourishes or the occasional exotic instrument (such as flute or didgeridoo). There's also a denser, more catchy atmosphere, and the promotional material billed the album as "alternative doom with keyboards". The opening "On A Wave" and "The Blue Vessel", placed back to back without a break, set up these atmospheres, while not shying away from faster breaks and refrains made epic by background keyboards. But it's the following, lengthy "Her Last Flight" that brings the goth-rock influences most to the fore, with melodic release, supporting atmospheric layers, and slowed-down chords forming a wall of sound. "The Sky People" sits halfway between the two previous songs: melodic keyboards, a cameo from the female voice and a placid interlude blend with more metallic elements like the cutting solo. "Nobody Dares" is a mournful, intimate acoustic interlude, a sort of placid ballad that eases the mood after the preceding songs. The sampled trumpets of "Like Fountains" and the exotic background keyboards tie back to the more solemn, ceremonial side of Dead Can Dance, built on a firm drumbeat and steady guitar chords that then give way to thrashier riffs, while the female contributions in the chorus take on an angelic dream-pop quality instead. The following "Proof" picks up where "Her Last Flight" left off, but features more searing breaks and arabesque riffs, diluted and measured amid long ambient keyboard fills in the background, over which pulsing basslines, placid extended solos and delicate arpeggios in the distance are laid. "Heartbeat Amplifier" doesn't add much to the album's narrative, while "A Passage To Desire" fades into a dark, depressive atmospheric outro.

In its premise, Almost A Dance proves to be an interesting evolution of the primordial theme that led from death/doom-metal to gothic-metal, opening up new avenues that show plenty of potential, but the result doesn't live up to its ambitions. Its reception is poor: panned by much of the specialist press, especially over Niels's voice (perceived as "out of place"), the band expresses its own disappointment with the album and decides to turn the page, starting by replacing both vocalists.

And it would prove to be the most important turning point of their career.

The Arrival of Anneke Van Giersbergen

In 1994, a talented young singer/guitarist (just twenty-one years old) named Anna Maria Van Giersbergen hears from a friend that there's a band of guys looking for a female voice, and has herself taken along to play at a café they frequent. For two years she had been part, alongside Deniz Cagdas, of the jazz-blues duo Bad Breath, and had already made her recording debut with the experimental rock band The Mess (described as "imagine Frank Zappa meeting the Tubes"). The guys were, of course, Gathering, who are struck by her performance and invite her to an audition, choosing her almost instantly. Rarely has a decision been more artistically on the mark for a gothic-metal band. Together with the singer, nicknamed Anneke, Gathering now begin a long and fruitful collaboration with which, as we'll see, they will reach their peak. In 1995 they release the landmark Mandylion on the major metal label Century Media, a title referring to the Image of Edessa, a cloth venerated by Eastern Christian communities said to bear the face of Jesus and believed, like the Shroud of Turin, to be of miraculous origin.

Meanwhile, the band's style, moving away from the bleak, oppressive sound of their early days, has evolved into a refined, intense gothic-metal. The slow, measured riffs retain their formal ties to doom-metal, but what makes them unique is the timbre, the pathos, the atmosphere. The latter carries a faint tragic veil in the combination of background keyboard textures and the distorted guitars of René Rutten and Jelmer Wiersma, but is characterized above all by a certain exotic flavor borrowed from the ethno-dark of Dead Can Dance. The sounds are distorted, evocative and vaguely psychedelic, drawing close to "Wildhoney" by Tiamat, released the year before, behind which stands the same producer, Waldemar Sorychta, who manages to bring out the points of contact. The most obvious comparison, staying within metal circles, is however with "Tears Laid in Earth", the debut released the previous year by the Norwegian band The 3rd and the Mortal, also fronted by a female voice that Anneke greatly admires: that of Kari Rueeslåtten. Since the late '70s there have been metal bands fronted by a female voice, but they played different genres, styles and atmospheres. The debut by 3rd and the Mortal, on the other hand, sits within a hybrid of gothic-rock and atmospheric, melodic, melancholic doom-metal, one that would prove highly influential, effectively founding a trend. The Dutch band is struck by it in 1994, as if electrified, and decides to offer its own personal take on the concept of dark metal fronted by a female voice. The resulting album proves to be a work rich in emotion, one that far surpasses its predecessors in compositional terms, and whose crowning achievement is precisely Anneke's expressive voice, charged with emotion and personality. Compared to Rueeslåtten's delicate, gentle tone, Van Giersbergen's voice is more powerful and full-chested, as well as more versatile, and it too would go on to set a precedent.

The lyrical themes of Mandylion center on a passionate, melancholic romanticism, describing nature, people and relationships with them, the masks we wear. "Strange Machines" narrates a journey through time inspired by the tales of H.G. Wells, with its mechanical riffs becoming one with the keyboard atmospheres and letting the listener fully into the heart of the song. A dark keyboard backdrop instead introduces "Eléanor", built slowly around Anneke and her angelic voice in preparation for the faster, even more intense chorus. The first part of "In Motion" is built on exotic melodic interplay and Anneke's powerful voice, up to the long, sentimental, melancholic solo: it's like Slowdive if they'd been played by Paradise Lost, who by that point had themselves softened considerably. The sweet arpeggio of "Leaves" immediately brings to mind the band's key '80s influences, but distorted, repetitive, macabre riffs soon return, acting as the backdrop for the vocal play of Anneke's throat. After that the solo becomes more relaxed and dreamlike, cradling the listener until the refrain returns. This time it's like the Cocteau Twins if they'd been played by Paradise Lost. But the whole album carries an ethereal halo in the background; without the metallic distortions it would be even more evident. "Fear The Sea" immediately conveys impetuous sensations, like a light shock to the touch that nonetheless strikes deep. The long interludes fill the atmosphere with a density you could almost touch with your bare hands. The title track "Mandylion", originally written for a side-project of the two Rutten brothers called Diep Triest (later shelved in favor of Gathering), is an instrumental interlude that leaves you breathless: the fiery flute, the tribal percussion, the powerful synth-strings backdrop and Anneke van Giersbergen's brief entrance intoning her angelic singing form a dense, ethereal amalgam that in a flash conjures immense vistas and far-off expanses, worthy of Dead Can Dance. The comparison with the Anglo-Australian duo comes not only from the exotic tonalities with their strong emotional impact, but also from Van Giersbergen's vocal lines, which follow no lyrics but give themselves over to indefinite, theatrical vocalizations just like Lisa Gerrard's. The long, dark suite of "Sand And Mercury" (almost 10 minutes, the longest track on the album) seems like another instrumental interlude, intense and evocative. Hans Rutten described it as a cross between Celtic Frost and Pink Floyd. Around the midpoint of the track Anneke steps back in with her magnetic singing. It's the album's peak, with immense interweavings of keyboard and distorted guitar. The tight-throated closing monologue, an excerpt from a radio broadcast in which J.R.R. Tolkien spoke about the meaning of life and death in The Lord of the Rings, makes you hold your breath before the second part of "In Motion" begins, closing the album with its tenuous viola and double-bass orchestrations accompanying Anneke's passionate singing and the corrosive distortions in a bittersweet, decadent-flavored contrast.

Mandylion would prove highly influential: the evolution compared to just five years earlier is remarkable. The darkwave influences are significant because, while historically gothic-metal descends from doom-metal - and its origins can thus be traced back to Black Sabbath - there are many bands in this genre that show few points of contact (sometimes none at all) with the dark & goth bands of the '80s, who instead trace their origins back to post-punk. Despite sharing a name, gothic-metal is not gothic-rock. In fact, many fans of the latter are keen to point out that they are "goth", and those two letters' difference make them something quite distinct from "gothic", which is metal, an entirely different thing. That makes it doubly notable when bands like Gathering manage to also show the influence of darkwave, fusing such disparate scenes together, blending everything into an original and creative style.

Two years later, Gathering dig deeper into the path they'd set out on: critical acclaim catapults them into the ranks of the genre's leading lights, and it's under these favorable auspices that in 1997 they go back into the studio to make their fourth album (the second since Van Giersbergen's arrival), Nighttime Birds, preceded by the EP "Kevin's Telescope", which features superb covers of "When the Sun Hits" by shoegazers Slowdive and "In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated" by Dead Can Dance. Dedicated to the recently deceased mother of Hugo Prinsen Geerligs, who poured his grief into writing the album's themes while thinking of her illness, the record loses none of the passion, elegance and personality shown up to this point.

It opens with the dense walls of acid gothic-metal guitars on "On Most Surface", accompanied by penetrating basslines and flute flourishes in a whirlwind of epic, stirring sounds. It's followed by the slow, evocative "Confusion", built on placid guitar lines alternating with corrosive distortions, while a dark bassline reminiscent of shoegaze underpins the song alongside the steady drumming. The retro, melancholic flavor of the elegant "The May Song" is one of the album's most interesting and enjoyable moments, with gentle melodic lines recalling Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins, accompanied by a soft background Hammond organ and acoustic flourishes, later alternating with more metallic guitar work. "The Earth Is My Witness" is a small gem of dark sweetness and great class, where slowed-down riffs form an altar for Van Giersbergen's powerful throat, which commands the album's attention; the same goes for the dreamlike "New Moon Different Day", again very '80s in feel, with an opening rhythm section evoking post-punk and guitars that fade into the background, limiting themselves to faint background lines of notes (when they don't disappear entirely). Meanwhile the crystalline vocal lines are accompanied by Hammond fills and small electronic touches, before giving way to occasional distorted riffs and galloping double-kick drumming at the emotional climaxes. Anneke Van Giersbergen comes across equally at ease in the more energetic passages as in the more subdued, contemplative ones, showing off her vocal versatility. "Third Chance" is one of the album's most melodic yet energetic tracks, one that would find its ideal consecration live. "Kevin's Telescope" offers atmospheric background keyboard layers and imposing guitar distortion, while small string flourishes are added that, in their sparseness and scarcity, end up sounding like minor additions that exist for their own sake. The title track has a nocturnal, bittersweet quality, delicate and powerful at once, enriched by exotic percussion that brings to mind Dead Can Dance if they played metal. The album closes with the memorable "Shrink", a melancholic, passionate piano performance that never slips into mannered predictability.

With these two works, Mandylion and Nighttime Birds, the Gathering secured a place in the pantheon of heavy dark bands and became an essential touchstone for countless subsequent gothic-metal acts, even surpassing their own "mentors" 3rd and the Mortal, who remained stuck in the underground. Pretty much every band of the genre that came along in the years immediately after, especially those fronted by a female singer (such as early Theatre Of Tragedy, Leaves Eyes, Provenance, Autumn, Flowing Tears, or our own Lacuna Coil), would often be compared by the press to the Dutch band, if not cited explicitly as having drawn from them. Even those who achieved greater commercial success sooner or later had to measure themselves against the towering stature and compositional peak of the Gathering's albums. Few, however, came close to matching that quality — in fact, many came out of the comparison thoroughly defeated, because by the turn of the century "gothic metal" had gradually become a trend that was often uncreative and excessively prone to recycling much blander, more banal stereotypes, devoid of any real emotional depth. Artistically speaking, this genre had precious little left to say after the Gathering, and few subsequent bands showed comparable personality, passion and compositional ingenuity — so much so that for a good part of the specialist press, the term "gothic-metal" became a byword for something negative from the outset. When applied to the Gathering, then, it shouldn't be misleading, nor should it lead to the prejudice of a stereotyped style or a commercial gimmick, as it did for so many other bands.

Anneke's vocal approach would also become an inevitable reference point for three other Dutch symphonic-metal bands fronted by female singers who rose to prominence a few years later: Within Temptation, Epica and After Forever, all of whom achieved a fair degree of commercial success. The Gathering would likely have been lumped together with them in the years that followed (despite the stylistic differences), had the six musicians from Oss not decided to break away from the metal world altogether. It was a mature choice, a sign of musical culture and open-mindedness, but also a brave one, since — as already mentioned — goth and its various surrogates were about to become extremely commercially viable, guaranteeing greater promotion and bigger returns with far less business risk. Nighttime Birds, in fact, is the Dutch band's last "metal" album. Let's see why.

The turning point

Towards the end of 1997, second guitarist Jelmer Wiersma decided to leave the band to focus on his work as a sound engineer, leaving René Rutten as the sole guitarist. Meanwhile, the Gathering felt they had hit a compositional dead end: both the label and the fans had certain expectations of the band, which they increasingly experienced as a straitjacket. The Dutchmen wanted to give fuller expression to their wide-ranging musical background, which spanned everything from Motorpsycho to the later Talk Talk, and they wanted to compose more freely and creatively, to reinvent themselves. Even the aforementioned 3rd and the Mortal had in the meantime indulged (albeit with a different vocalist) in more exotic influences, before evolving into an atmospheric, minimalist rock band.

Meeting veteran producer Attie Bauw, who showed them new recording techniques and encouraged their desire to experiment, was the final push toward a change of genre. As Hans Rutten recalls: “He's a very well-known producer in the Netherlands, with a lot of professional equipment. Attie wasn't afraid of experimentation, and we needed someone with the gear and the knowledge to experiment. Around that time, Radiohead released Ok Computer. We still love it. Attie knew everything about how that album was recorded. We didn't want to sound like Radiohead, but the recording techniques were very interesting. That album was the blueprint for How to Measure a Planet?, along with a few old Pink Floyd albums.”

The Gathering thus broke with their past, carrying out a radical shift in their music that was unveiled on their fifth album, released in 1998, How To Measure A Planet?: gone were the slow, atmospheric gothic-metal, the intense, cadenced riffs, and the use of keyboards as towering walls of sound in the background. Anneke Van Giesbergen too gave up her role as a charismatic front-woman, becoming more measured, intimate and gentle in her angelic voice, blending in more with the rest of the band (in order to "be more collective and less individualistic, and to cut down on the screaming," as she herself explained). The arrangements are hazier, the guitars make room for psychedelic, spacey distortion, and the moods become far more contemplative. The result is a fresh and courageous new direction, built around the synergy between the musicians, which the Rutten brothers simply describe as "chemistry".

Split across two discs, the album is an intense exploration of the theme of travel, full of ethereal, hazy digressions. It focuses on refinement, contemplation, and a more reflective rather than impactful approach; it's a work conceptually closer to art-rock than to dark. Aside from Anneke's personality, with her irresistible voice that's impossible not to notice, the Gathering almost seem to have no single face: measured, introverted, almost shy, intent on translating their emotions and impressions into sound, shared among the members without any one of them taking on a dominant role. The guitars, even when heavily distorted, never take over; the keyboards fill out the atmosphere, letting the bass step into the foreground before receding back into the background. It's an attitude that, in its own way, is very Floydian, placing them alongside a number of other musical acts, but having absorbed that lesson in a particular, dreamlike, evocative way. They're like five guys who share the same passions and want to start a band to play them together and tell their own story... but with almost ten more years of experience behind them, and the determination not to be boxed in the way they were in 1989. Always crystal clear in their intent to shuffle together the bands they love to create something new, reinventing themselves each time, rather than tagging along with so many others simply repeating or slightly varying an already-established formula.

Stylistically, the Gathering lean toward a highly personal, diluted form of alternative rock, informed precisely by the delicate atmospheres of 1970s Pink Floyd, with their evocative, finely sketched music, by the sonic play of Radiohead (who had recently released the seminal Ok Computer and are themselves a touch Floydian), and finally steeped in more distorted touches close to the space-rock of Motorpsycho. While not abandoning the song form altogether, the band tends to dilute it within compositions that form intimate soundscapes. One could indeed speak, mutatis mutandis, of progressive rock too, a genre the band certainly edges toward without adopting its technical-compositional cerebralism, preferring instead sonic refinement and evocative atmosphere. To that end, the Gathering also draw on the melodic vein of shoegazers Slowdive, dearly loved by the Dutch and especially by the Rutten brothers, whose influence on the band is given new life in a more eclectic, darker guise, stripped of the noisier layering. The final result is highly personal, with echoes and references blended into the whole to forge something new, rarely sounding like an explicit nod except in a few isolated moments. But the whole band draws on the most disparate of reference points to create something new.

Anneke also cites David Bowie's melodic vocal sensibility among her influences, Geerligs cites the freedom and attitude of Motorpsycho, while drummer Hans Rutten considers the rhythmic counterpoints of Geoff Barrow of Portishead exceptional, and tries to reinterpret them for his own purposes. Indeed, such disparate names don't really seem to surface directly in the album's sound; rather, they inform the musicians' creative process as they build their own personal sonic vision. We'd also add to the mix a touch of "In This Room" by 3rd and the Mortal, released the previous year, with its minimal, intimate sound; on more than one occasion there are points of contact in terms of attitude and the desire to break from the past... but the Gathering sound more creative, fuller-bodied and more finely chiseled, with a superior melodic sensibility. The students outdo the masters once again.

The first CD is the hazier of the two, opening with the tender, delicate "Frail", melancholic and evocative, carried along by its placid note repetitions (something similar would be done the following year by Piano Magic with "Crown Estate") over a rarefied, sustained bed of sound. "Great Ocean Road" boasts an enveloping array of effects, enriched further by theremin, combining prog-rock and ethereal-wave, right through to a distorted, psychedelic/spacey coda reminiscent of Ride and Spacemen 3, while "Rescue Me" settles into gentler arpeggios before spilling into a distorted, acidic interlude that edges close to Mogwai. "My Electricity" opens with a slow, cadenced drumbeat and guitar chords, painting melancholic moods with its notes. If the single "Liberty Bell" is a strummed, electronic alternative-rock number, "Red Is A Slow Color" seems to pick up where the previous track left off, intensifying it and culminating in a chorus underscored by background string-keyboard textures. "The Big Sleep" is no less striking with its dense, smoky electronics, while "Marooned" lets itself be guided by the interplay of rhythmic patterns and keyboards. The first disc closes with the stunning sonic journey of "Travel": a nine-minute suite moving between Pink Floyd-esque cadenced passages and a guitar intensity recalling King Crimson's "Epitaph". The second CD is more psychedelic: if the instrumental "South American Ghost Ride" is slow and hypnotic, "Illuminating" stands out more with its funky-dub bass, theremin, and near-ambient keyboard textures underpinning Anneke's superb vocal performance. "Locked Away", slow and hypnotic, is the shortest song on the record — just three minutes — a dark-rock prelude to the stirring seven minutes of "Probably Built In The Fifties", with a firm rhythm section and Anneke's filtered vocals enriching the mesmerizing atmosphere, right up to the closing riffs that evoke "Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins, as if it had run into latter-day Massive Attack and the whole thing had then been distilled several times over. Closing the album is the long title-track suite, nearly thirty minutes long, the first half built from an extended, minimalist psych-rock jam session, awash in reverb and delays, while the second half is a long, repeated ambient outro.

After its release, How To Measure A Planet? met with disapproval from part of the band's old-guard fanbase. Listeners more attached to the past gave it a lukewarm reception, in many cases feeling betrayed, unhappy that the band had abandoned its niche in favor of softer music that seemed, as a result, more immediately accessible, if not — according to the most hard-line fans — "commercial", under the mistaken assumption that harsher sounds are less suited to mass appeal. Yet the exact opposite is true, dramatically so: any real commercialization would have come from doubling down on the goth-metal sound that would soon become a trivialized, pre-packaged trend, spawning countless copycat bands along the way. Instead, the sounds introduced by the band are far more refined, slow and hazy compared to more mainstream rock, and decidedly less hit-oriented. Sales didn't even reach two-thirds of those of the previous full-length, not helped by friction with label Century Media, who weren't won over by the band's new direction and would soon part ways with them. Music critics in general, however, grasped the Dutch band's potential and forgave them the odd minor flaw — such as a certain tendency toward excess and over-length — in light of their courage to experiment and change course, which they openly praised instead. The musician community was thrilled, with no shortage of tributes of admiration, while fellow travelers Anathema drew inspiration from it for a similar evolution in their own sound.

Two years later, the Gathering heralded their return with the EP Amity, which features a fun cover of "Life Is What You Get It" by Talk Talk (whose path of sharp changes had itself served as an example to the band) along with various trip-hop or electro remixes of the title track, plus the live album Superheat. With their next album, the Gathering opted for a more "impactful" approach, with fuller guitars and more direct arrangements that hewed closer to the song form, to the point that if_then_else (2000) almost feels like a halfway point between the two previous records; in reality, though, the riffing has little to do with the band's past and instead leans more toward a certain brand of space-rock, and in some ways toward Motorpsycho. At first glance, this more aggressive approach might disappoint and seem "dumbed down", but that would be a misreading: even in the most direct riffs, great care is taken over sonic detail, and the result is an intense, emotional form of alternative rock, marked by atmospheres that shift between dark and dreamlike, carried by Rutten's distorted riffs and accompanied by Geerligs' penetrating bass lines and Boeijen's keyboard flourishes, which find a direct, immediate space of their own. The album, moreover, is this time produced by the Gathering themselves, with the assistance of Zlaya Hadzich, who would stay on through the following album as well.

So the evocative atmospheres that open "Rollercoaster" are quickly torn apart by full-bodied, bass-heavy riffs, surrounded by dark electronic effects and Anneke's crystalline voice, while "Shot To Pieces" is faster, more driving and energetic — even more so set against the ethereal, stirring "Amity", which blossoms into genuine dream-rock, reaching its emotional peak in the climax of Boeijen's keyboards. "Bad Movie Scene" is a passionate crossroads between Traffic and Spacemen 3, marked by timid arpeggios, molten distortion, Anneke's powerful voice and string counterpoints. The full-bodied "Colorado Incident" brings space-rock together with near-stoner Sabbath-esque riffs, more ethereal Pink Floyd-like interludes, psychedelic solos and bass lines; the result is mesmerizing (the title has been linked to the Columbine massacre that occurred the previous year, but it actually refers to a cancelled concert amid plenty of hassle and apologies from the band). "Analog Park", on the other hand, has a darker, more direct attitude, combining ethereal sounds and melodic trills (vocally reinterpreting Cocteau Twins) with intense space-rock riffs and bass lines worthy of the gothic-rock years: the result is modern and sharp. "Herbal Movement" is a graceful, dreamlike trip through dream-pop melodies and spacey atmospheres that confirm just how well the band learned the Pink Floyd lesson on soundscape and texture, particularly that of "Echoes"; it's one of the most evocative tracks on the album. The title refers to drugs, but the song doesn't describe the sensations of using them as in classic psychedelia — instead, it's a reflection born of watching those who do. The famous "Saturnine", one of their best-known songs, is more radio-friendly, playing with atmospheric keyboards, cavernous riffs, acoustic touches, nostalgic piano lines and layered strings, a successful hard-art-rock episode. "Morphia's Waltz" is a sweet, relaxing semi-acoustic ballad, halfway between art-pop and dream-folk, where the string arrangements reach their most substantial point on the album, though without ever crudely taking over, remaining instead a velvety accompaniment in the background. Sporadic classical instrument parts had already appeared on the previous album, but those were samples, since the band felt it was too costly to bring in additional musicians; on this album, however, real instruments appear for the first time. After a minute of silence, the album closes with the instrumental "Pathfinder", made up entirely of soft, lulling melodies and a nocturnal atmosphere well suited to bringing the record to a close.

As with its predecessor, many longtime fans turned up their noses at the time of its release, struggling to digest the direction of this new chapter, too far removed from the tastes of the band's original audience. But if_then_else flows smoothly and is thoroughly enjoyable, less "revolutionary" but also more cohesive in its composition than its predecessor, and as ever it's full of highly melodic tracks marked by undeniable refinement.

The Psychonaut Records era

Meanwhile, relations with the record label grow even more complicated. Century Media is unhappy with the Gathering's approach, questions their artistic freedom for commercial reasons, and tries to push Anneke as a sex symbol, a role that made her herself uncomfortable. The band finds itself in financial difficulty and for a while even considers calling it quits. The Gathering therefore don't renew their contract and focus on their own label, which they had already founded back in 1999 with the aim of producing their own music with full control: Psychonaut Records (a name that seems to pay homage to psychedelia), the only possible path to full creative independence.

The debut for the new label comes in 2002 with a thoroughly accomplished EP, Black Light District: it's made up of "Debris", a catchy, heavily effected and compelling rock track built around a hallucinogenic riff, modulated synth bass à la Muse, and a visceral, irresistibly sweeping chorus; "Broken Glass", a moving piano piece that puts Anneke's voice front and center, later revisited on the following album with a different arrangement; and the title track, a long and evocative suite weaving together hushed piano notes, post-rock crescendos, jazzy touches, progressive eclecticism and noisier, more distorted moments. There's also a hidden track, "Over You", with acoustic guitar, alienating effects reminiscent of Radiohead's Amnesiac, and a filtered vocal that gives it a retro feel.

The real new full-length arrives in 2003 after a grueling two-year gestation: softer, darker and more intimate than its predecessor, Souvenirs marks yet another shift. The sound sets aside any riff-centric tendencies to focus instead on the balance between instruments, vocal dynamics and atmosphere. The textures grow more subdued, but also darker and more psychologically tense, especially in the lyrics. Anneke remains the key figure, further heightening the emotional potential of the music with vocal lines that have evolved even further: gone are the powerful, steady tones, replaced by an increasingly wistful delivery. The opener "These Good People" is a genuinely aching, moving gem, with atmospheric keyboards, pained guitar reverb, a cadenced drum pattern inspired by Bristol trip-hop, and subtle bass lines accompanying the piano. The mood turns darker on the anguished dark-rock of "Even The Spirits Are Afraid", with rivers of tense notes, a driving rhythm section close to Porcupine Tree, a dub bassline at the close, and atmospheres that take on spectral shapes. The version of "Broken Glass" featured here differs from the one on the previous EP, opening in a dazed, depressed mood with a synthesizer that recalls Portishead's "Wandering Stars", before growing ever more poignant and bittersweet, building through voice and bass up to a shoegaze-style tremolo guitar climax.

The following "You Learn About It" is more relaxed, a Radiohead-esque pop-rock track laced with celestial enchantments worthy of the Cocteau Twins, while the lyrics wistfully describe the split from their former label, Century Media. A certain tension builds throughout the album, peaking in the aching title track and above all in the pulsing electronics of "Monsters" (of which two different versions exist, a promo and an album cut, with the former being the more successful one in our view): a track that's fierce in its atmosphere, sinister and taut, culminating in a chorus where deafening guitars and intense drumming hit like a jet of flame that nearly burns straight through the listener; the vocal lines are chilling, following allusive, alienating lyrics written by producer Zlaya Hadzich.

"We Just Stopped Breathing" is softer and more hazy, filtered through urban electronic textures reminiscent of Massive Attack, enriched by the presence of Mathias Eick of Jaga Jazzist on trumpet. "Golden Grounds" brings to mind Pink Floyd, but grafted onto a far darker, more alienating foundation, at times almost claustrophobic, mainly due to the reverb effects applied to the drums and the background sonic textures. "Jelena" opens with a series of reverberated chords that give rise to the darkest, most spectral moment on the whole album. It quickly turns into a slow, foggy, dense and surreal march, accompanied by chilling distorted guitars similar to what Antimatter did on their debut released the year before, ethereal vocal lines, a pulsing background beat and alienating atmospheres. The closing "A Life All Mine", written in collaboration with Kristoffer Rygg of Ulver, is instead a track halfway between minimal electronics, ambient-pop and trip-hop, where you can feel the hand of the Norwegian composer (fresh off the experimental "Perdition City").

Souvenirs is perhaps the darkest and most inspired album the band had made up to that point, a dark, multifaceted art-rock record, half alternative in terms of sonic exploration, half progressive in terms of its drive to innovate, further enriched by minor guest contributions alongside those already mentioned. In its own proportion, it's also the Gathering album most influenced by the atmosphere of a certain urban, anguished and dark strain of trip-hop, even though it doesn't fall directly into that genre. The songwriting is more measured and restrained than its predecessor in terms of standard instrumentation, but more colorful when it comes to effects and post-production work. Anneke's role within the songs is now more central than ever, lending full shape to tracks built to showcase the magnetic appeal of her voice, between velvety verses and heart-stopping choruses. More than once it's clear that the arrangements are extremely refined and evocative, yet without her they would lose much of their bite, since they were conceived in symbiosis with her. The album's title seems inspired by "Memoirs" by 3rd and the Mortal, released the year before, though there's no comparison in quality. The Norwegians had lost their creative spark and put out a trip-hop record that was too bland and uneven, while the Dutch band had by then long surpassed what had once been one of their sources of inspiration, stringing together a series of highly accomplished works. Meanwhile, that same year their friends and colleagues Anathema released "A Natural Disaster", a vibrant mix of pop/rock, prog and downtempo, while a splinter project of theirs, Antimatter, made their debut blending acoustic-rock, ambient, gothic-rock and trip-hop.

Meanwhile, Century Media works through the remaining Gathering releases owed under the previous contract. Setting aside various unofficial compilations and DVDs put out in these years, which the band promptly disowned (and which amount to largely negligible material), the label releases the interesting b-sides and rarities compilation Accessories (including the aforementioned covers of Dead Can Dance, Slowdive and Talk Talk) but, above all, the excellent live album Sleepy Building – A Semi Acoustical Evening. This documents a concert held in summer 2003 in which the Gathering performed material spanning their entire career up to 2000, plus the then-unreleased title track, but completely rearranged and rebuilt in a semi-acoustic, minimalist style. The approach reveals an affinity with bands like Pink Floyd and Slint, yet remains strongly personal throughout. The whole record sounds tight and essential, stripping the instrumentation down to bare essentials. The result is to showcase Anneke's voice even more, which shines precisely because of this. Everything is slowed down, thinned out into gentle piano chimes and soft guitars accompanying Anneke. The effect is even more striking and astonishing on the older songs, and the class on display is sublime: "Like Fountains" becomes a wonderful, moving, achingly sweet ballad carried by piano and percussion; "The Mirror Waters" and "In Motion # 2" turn into a mesmerizing gothic-rock piece enriched with shoegaze tremolos; "Stonegarden" edges close to slowcore. But really, the whole album is a gem.

Right after this live album was released, a new departure from the line-up was announced: this time it was bassist Hugo Prinsen Geerligs, who felt he couldn't keep up the heavy commitment to the band given his many personal obligations.

His replacement was the young bassist Marjolein Kooijman, and the way she was "hired" at just 24 years old is a curious story: in 2004 she was working in a record and musical instrument shop and for a music fanzine, while in her spare time she played in a blues band called leDimanche (who would go on to release an interesting record with jazz, trip-hop and post-rock influences in 2009). One day an interview with René Rutten was arranged, conducted at a small café table. While the two were chatting, René told her the bassist was leaving the band and, on the spot, without even thinking twice, asked young Marjolein to take his place.

With the renewed line-up, in 2005 the Gathering collaborated on the debut album by acid rockers Drive By Wire; after which they released the DVD A Sound Relief (their first official one, though not their very first overall, as already mentioned), which picks up where Sleepy Buildings left off and would get a follow-up in 2007 with A Noise Severe, showcasing instead the band's more rock-oriented side.

Then there's what is, to all intents and purposes, a "lost" album: Passengers in Time: The Musical History Tour. This album is practically unknown to many, partly because the band doesn't consider it one of their official releases and it didn't even appear on their website for many years. Released to accompany a history treatise by professor Wim Kratsborn, who is credited on the record, and written together with Anja Sinnige, it's a work that tries to set to music the various historical milestones covered in the book's chapters. It opens with the ambient-folk of "Deer Hunter" representing primitive man, then moves through the ages with effects reminiscent of early Goldfrapp on "The Philosopher and the Soldier", the bleak piano of "Everyday Is Like a Thousand Years", the melancholy acoustic folk of "Mediaeval City", the piano melodies of "New Horizons", the baroque harpsichord of "Golden Age", the psychedelic effects of "Talking About the Revolution", the dissonant piano of "Lost in Munch's Scream", the bleak and desperate "Thunder Without Frequencies", the Kraftwerk-esque electronics of "Coldwar Child" and the upbeat rhythms of "Anachrone Circles". All in all, the project doesn't seem to suit the Gathering, who come across as simply going through the motions, without much inspiration or spark. But it probably makes little sense to judge it apart from Kratsborn's written work.

In 2006, once again under the guidance of producer Attie Bauw, their eighth studio album Home sees the light of day: less anguished, though still touched by melancholy moments, it leans even further into melody without shortchanging either the more intimate or the more effects-laden side of the band. The approach to arrangements still builds on what was introduced with Souvenirs, but the Gathering evolve once again toward a more open, "pop-rock" melodic vein, giving birth to a singular, multifaceted work. Evocative atmospheres take shape, trading the urban gloom of its predecessor for sunnier tones that, in their most intimate and bittersweet moments, come closer to Piano Magic (compare, for instance, "The Quiet One" with "Password" or "Your Troubles Are Over" with "Incurable" for the melodic and emotional kinship between the two bands). Anneke's clear voice shines throughout: the Dutch singer now frequently sings in a kind of half-voice, brushing against high notes with delicacy. Her recent motherhood also plays a part in this, influencing lyrics that grow more hopeful and positive: Home is an album that radiates positivity, hope and comfort in every note, like a definitive, proactive answer to the loneliness and fragility touched on in previous albums. There are few moments where Anneke Van Giersbergen tackles the songs head-on with full force, but it's always thanks to her that the Gathering's music can reach its fullest expression. Rich in sonic detailing, the tracks appear sparse in structure at first glance, but in fact put forward simple, direct interplays of notes, polished with evocative effects or supporting melodic touches. Once again, even more than on its predecessor, Anneke takes on a leading role, with songs built around her and for her, where both aspects — vocal and instrumental — elevate each other to reach full realization.

Opening the album is a pop-rock hit like "Shortest Day", catchy, simple and direct, in contrast with less immediate tracks like "A Noise Severe" (with melodic trills joined by slow, massive distorted background riffs and almost drone/post-rock atmospheres), "Solace" (steeped in hallucinogenic guitar effects, martial rhythms carried by drums and the muted final strums of electric guitar) or the superb title track (a dense journey through dreamlike keyboard layers, noisy distortions and reverb-drenched effects). The darkest moment on the album is the lysergic "Alone", with a stronger electronic component expressed through shadowy synth refrains and electronically filtered drums backing the acid guitars. The closing section shifts gears, starting with a trance-ambient interlude that raises the Gathering's dreamiest side to the nth degree and sets the stage for Anneke's voice, which sings out at full force a message of optimism and hope. The sweetest moment is split between "Forgotten" (built around nothing more than a timid piano carrying the whole melody and Anneke's gentle singing, later reworked in a more electronic, dreamlike and moving form as "Forgotten Reprise") and "Box", shyly played on lightly distorted guitars and a muffled piano, closing with the band's trademark lysergic-trip effects. "In Between" combines more progressive ideas and odd time signatures with a strongly melodic, especially vocal, component, the brief "The Quiet One" is a delicate acoustic track with melodic guitar trills and acoustic flourishes, "Fatigue" is an ambient/noise interlude, "Your Troubles Are Over" is catchy and ethereal. The album's masterpiece is perhaps "Waking Hour", a melancholy duet between Anneke's voice and Boeijen's piano that reaches its peak in the soaring middle section, the piercing bass lines, the emotional weight of the lyrics, and a closing passage worthy of Pink Floyd.

During this period and the tour that followed Home, the Gathering were at the peak of their popularity after the change of direction: they contributed to the soundtrack of a Japanese short film titled “The Quiet One” and were rediscovered by the very audience that had once snubbed them, while also tentatively beginning to expand their fanbase into indie-alternative circles. Unfortunately, it's a dream from which the Dutchmen would wake up abruptly, because after this album there would be yet another departure – the most significant of them all – and this time it wouldn't be so easy to find a replacement.

During the summer of 2007 the unexpected happens, and the Gathering announce, not without regret, on their website that Anneke Van Giersbergen would be leaving the band to focus on her private life (touring is exhausting and keeps her away from her family) and on her solo career, which she had long planned to start but never had time for: “After much consideration and serious personal reflection, I think the time has come for me to change the direction of my life and set new goals to pursue,” the statement reads.

The announcement catches everyone off guard, especially the band members, who absolutely did not expect Anneke's decision and had to rework the final dates of the summer tour; but above all they didn't expect that she already had a solo project ready, with an album close to release (on which her husband Rob Snijders, from Celestial Season, plays drums). The others don't take it particularly well, especially the two Rutten brothers, Hans and René, who had already sensed for a year that Anneke seemed worn out and no longer had the old rapport with the band. In an attempt to fix things, they had offered her all the support and personal space possible, including the option of putting the band on hold for 3-4 years before returning to the studio together, so as to give her time to rest and pursue her solo work. But Anneke no longer wants to play with them. Despite their disappointment, the Dutchmen accept the split anyway and wish their now ex-bandmate good luck.

Either way, the event leaves a twofold question hanging in the air: what would Anneke do without the Gathering? And what would the Gathering do without her?

The singer's solo debut is titled Air and retains some traces of the Gathering sound, though it settles into far more conventional, much less adventurous territory. On the whole it's a modest, essential pop-rock record, intimate and tinged with dark undertones, with no great pretensions or ambitions beyond expressing Anneke's most personal feelings with a largely minimalist approach. Anneke's golden voice is beyond question, but the record as a whole doesn't excel and could have used sharper compositional focus. We'll leave Anneke's solo career here, covered in her dedicated profile.

The Gathering, though shaken by the loss of their celebrated voice and icon, don't give up, convinced that what made their music special had no reason to vanish entirely along with her. “Anneke contributed a great deal to making the Gathering what they are, but the Gathering are not Anneke” is, in essence, Hans Rutten's view on the matter.

So the Dutchmen put out an online call for auditions, listen to hundreds of tracks sent in by aspiring new singers, and eventually choose Silje Wergeland, formerly of Octavia Sperati (a decent Norwegian goth band), whose voice has a clear, enveloping timbre. For her it's a career turning point, even though the judgment of fans and critics will be brutally hard, since comparisons to Anneke will loom over every single note.

The lineup heads into the studio to record the EP City From Above (featuring the previously unreleased “Miniatures”, an atmospheric track with pulsing bass, and the less successful title track, a long, spectral ambient rarefaction), and then The West Pole, the ninth entry in a now two-decade-long career, produced solely by René Rutten. Given the circumstances, one might have expected their most ambitious and experimental work yet, but in fact the Gathering go the opposite way, aiming instead for something much simpler, more ethereal and melodic, with greater room given to the guitar side (which edges toward shoegazing with its distorted tones, without ever fully crossing that line) compared to their most recent predecessors. This last point is in fact the key to understanding the record, since the album represents, in part, a break from the compositional style of the previous two albums, in which the guitars were diluted, more space was given to atmospheric digressions and heavier effects, and the arrangements were built around Anneke's voice.

The West Pole retreats into the band's more intimate dimension, almost as if looking back at their own past to take stock of the situation and lay the groundwork for a new chapter. As though playing it safe, without taking risks, before having properly digested the change, and keeping Silje's vocal lines close to Anneke's own template (also for this reason, she's probably absent from a few tracks, with two guest vocalists stepping in). What mainly emerges is a split between a more distorted, immediate side, found chiefly in the opening songs where a “riff-centric” element dominates alongside flourishes that bring out the band's more dreamlike side, and a more psychedelic/atmospheric side, concentrated instead in the album's middle section, which reaches its darkest peaks. While the former sounds pleasant but predictable (with the highlights being the sun-drenched “Treasure” and the weighty title track), the latter shows greater depth and character (“No Bird Call”, dark and chilling; “Capital Of Nowhere”, which revisits Home's arrangements in a more dream-pop vein, with vocals very close to the Cocteau Twins; the mesmerizing, psychedelic “Pale Traces”), even if it never reaches the heights of earlier work. Holding it all together, in any case, are the Gathering's endless class and all their studio expertise – from the crisp presence of the bass to the production itself – as well as small surprise touches, like strings added sparingly at various points on the record to heighten the songs' emotional impact (with results that, admittedly, aren't always convincing and occasionally verge on mannerism). In short, the Dutch band's comeback, though catchy and easy on the ear, proves less rich and expressive than one might have hoped. The sense that the Gathering have regressed undermines the overall result, making the weaker tracks sound like b-sides from if_then_else and limiting the impact of the stronger ones. The West Pole is thus a transitional album, by necessity a “checkpoint” before looking ahead.

After a brief hiatus and a mini-reunion with some of the original members for a run of shows celebrating the band's early years, the group's tenth studio album, Disclosure, comes out in 2012. The “star” album marks, overall, a notable departure from the more guitar-driven approach of the previous The West Pole (which in turn had departed from the more atmospheric, introspective records immediately before it). The album leans more heavily on a melting pot of compositional ideas drifting between dark, electronic, pop, progressive, and at times ambient and psychedelic textures. But it's also at times a bit mannered and contrived, and that's the thorn in its side preventing it from reaching the peaks of expressiveness and innovation achieved in the past; indeed, in some respects The West Pole, despite being less rich and polished, sounded more spontaneous, direct and engaging. Moreover, the presence of just 8 tracks (two of which are suites, plus a rearrangement of another track), despite being stretched out over 51 minutes, gives the impression that something's missing, leaving a slight sense of incompleteness.

This isn't really an experimental work; if anything, it nods to two bands that have been important to the group, Pink Floyd and Dead Can Dance (whose more exotic, mesmerizing influences, somewhat lost over the years, resurface here); but the result certainly sounds more varied and hazy than its predecessor. In fact, it should be said that more often than not the guitars on Disclosure step aside, except to contribute atmospheric notes and phrasing around the edges. You won't find a strong central riff around which the songs are built; instead, the album as a whole is very balanced and meticulously arranged in richly varied colors, while the reins are held by atmospheric layers and Silje's beautiful voice, which sounds more at ease within the band and has taken on a more personal character in her vocal lines.

The opening “Paper Waves” is very catchy and engaging, with its exotic notes evoking journeys to distant lands, the (somewhat trite) strings adding emotional color, driving drums, and a melodramatic finale. “Meltdown” is a heavily effected, intentionally urgent pop-rock track, with piercing bass and a propulsive synth, somewhere between '70s prog, Sonic Youth and British britpop's taste for effects. Notable is the appearance of keyboardist Frank Boeijen's male voice, the first duet since the archaic early days, perhaps a first “experiment” for some future exploration. From the midpoint on, though, it all dissolves into a faint, dreamlike, dark-tinged electronic ballad. The overall result isn't something unheard-of or especially striking (except perhaps when guest Noel Hofman's trumpet kicks in), but it carves out its own small space, neither good nor bad. The following “Paralyzed” combines the atmospheric dark of early Antimatter with dream-pop. But the result is a bit bland, saccharine and formulaic. The multifaceted “Heroes for Ghosts” is a wonderful homage to Pink Floyd, both in its title and in its psychedelic arpeggios, all fused with a dreamlike, exotic atmosphere. Then come the usual strings, introducing the evocative trumpet… the track is, in all likelihood, the most intense and captivating on the album, a long suite that sums up the record as a whole, as well as one of the band's most effective songs ever and the one that most revives their progressive influence. “Gemini I” is a melting pot of acoustic dark surges, emotional climaxes in its effective chorus, minimalism echoing How to Measure a Planet?, and moods as penetrating as they are passionate. The ballad “Missing Seasons” is a brief nod to Mike Oldfield, weaving together mournful piano accompaniment and velvety acoustic arpeggios, though it's a bit anonymous compared to the rest of the album. “I Can See Four Miles” (a title quoting the Who) is an epic suite halfway between jazz touches, symphonic rock and post-rock crescendos, moving though slightly repetitive. The closing “Gemini II” doesn't add anything new and sounds flatter and more saccharine, which is a shame, since as the closing track it adds to the sense of incompleteness mentioned earlier in an album that, nonetheless, has many excellent moments.

Alongside the album, the Gathering also release the EP Afterlights, limited to just 1000 copies and containing 3 previously unreleased tracks, which a year later would be gathered, together with some reworkings of songs from Disclosure, on the final full-length Afterwords.

Afterwords feels almost like filler in the band's discography. Compared to its predecessor, it shows greater ambient, electronic and partly trip-hop contamination, with interesting experiments in building soundscapes, but it's permeated by an even stronger sense of incompleteness. “S.I.B.A.L.D.” is a dreamlike, psychedelic ambient piece that expands into a post-rock enriched by trumpet and layers of electronic keyboards accompanying the drums. “Echoes Keep Growing” is a remake of “I Can See Four Miles” that combines an electronic beat with strings, but feels more like a repetitive, emotionally thin b-side (save for the heavily distorted closing riff) by Lamb. The electronic ballad “Areas” has its most interesting moment in the duet between Silje and Frank Boeijen, but otherwise drifts by without leaving a mark. The title track sees the return of an old friend: none other than Bart Smits (pictured alongside Silje), one of the band's founders, back after about 20 years, now wielding his clean voice (similar to Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance) over minimal downbeat electronics. He proves to be a skilled performer, and during 2012 he was also seen reuniting with the lineup of the band's debut album for a series of “nostalgia” shows marking the anniversary of their first record. Silje nonetheless returns on the exotic “Tuning in Fading out”, while “Gemini III” rearranges “Gemini II”, and the brief instrumental interlude “Afterlights” is a pleasant bed of minimalist keyboards and synthesizers that partly recalls the atmospheres of Mogwai and Sigur Ròs; enjoyable, but without really offering anything new. “Sleep Paralysis” reworks “Paralyzed” in a more dreamlike, lysergic form, while the closing “Bärenfels” is a more atmospheric, stretched-out version of “Heroes for Ghost”, close to space-ambient and the expansive tones of “How to measure a planet?”. Overall, a less inspired step backward; many fans of the band prefer to consider Disclosure the band's true final LP – which, in some respects, would be true regardless of the difference in quality.

And here ends the story (at least in the studio, for now) of Gathering: right after the release of Afterwords, which as its name suggests serves as an epilogue and postscript to the band's career, Marjolein Kooijman reluctantly announces she's leaving the group to pursue her own independent path (she has since released the debut album by leDimanche, titled "Colours of Shade", and joined the noise-pop band The Sugarettes, a buzzing project with which she recorded "Destroyers of World" in 2012), while the band announces on Facebook that it's taking a long, indefinite break "to reconsider what shape the band's future should take." Frank Boeijen, meanwhile, has had his own side project, Grimm Limbo, for several years now, and also collaborates with the electronic collective Glaxclock; while the two Rutten brothers go through happy changes in their personal lives and launch the project Habitants, which sounds very much like Gathering and makes its debut in 2018.

The last two albums will probably disappoint anyone looking for more rock-oriented work. Could they have done more? Perhaps not. As already mentioned, Disclosure and Afterwords sound more varied than The West Pole, retaining the band's compositional class, maturity and careful arrangements. Either way, they're still superior to most of Anneke Van Giersbergen's recent solo work, which seems to have gotten stuck after the disappointing "In Your Room", only to inspire some hope of a comeback with "Everything Is Changing".

So, what ever happened to Anneke?

Together one last time

Anneke didn't limit herself to releasing solo albums (four more, during which time the monicker Agua de Annique had been replaced by her own name on the cover), but also threw herself into various collaborations and guest appearances on records by artists from more or less every corner of the world. Whether appearing on just a few tracks or an entire album, in the studio or live, we count her alongside more than 15 different artists between 2008 and 2015 (names of the calibre of Arjen Lucassen, Danny Cavanagh and Devin Townsend), spanning the most disparate musical genres. Not bad for an artist who in 2007 felt so weighed down by commitments and the absence of family that she had to leave the band that had brought her to stardom.

Among all these appearances, it's tempting to speculate about a possible reunion with Gathering, even just for a single track. Anneke herself raised the possibility in a 2009 interview, stating that anything is possible, but René Rutten's reaction was, in no uncertain terms, one of closed doors for her. After all, it wouldn't make sense to treat the band as a divertissement to return to at will after everyone had chosen separate paths.

But as we know, time heals wounds and nostalgia is a sly beast, so a compromise was eventually found: to mark the band's 25th anniversary, on 9 November 2014 in Nijmegen at the Doornrosje, Gathering reunited with Anneke and all the band's past members (except Duffhues, who after various collaborations went on to a niche solo career, and Martine Van Loon, who hasn't played since 1997) for a double birthday tribute concert. The event was a success, and Bart Smits stood out in particular, a charismatic frontman at the mic who, despite the huge time gap, drew the crowd in and blended seamlessly with a band that had gone down a different road for over two decades. Marike Groot, on the other hand, seemed less at ease on stage, more static and visibly more aged; still, she showed vocal abilities worthy of the evening, though somewhat dulled by a volume that could have been better. In any case, the whole audience's attention was on Anneke Van Giersbergen: she is Gathering's historic frontwoman, even after leaving the band, and it was for her that the loudest applause and the most heartfelt calls were reserved. Silje, however skilled and in great synergy with her during the duets, could never replace her in the audience's memory, and, perhaps aware of this, the two singers mostly tried to just have fun and share their passion for music and for the band, in perfect harmony with each other.

The event was immortalized on a double album titled TG25: Live at Doornrosje, officially released only on 31 January 2016, and this, for now, marks the end of a career built on experimentation and personality.

After 25 years of music, what lingers about Gathering is the regret over the ostracism they faced when they decided to shift stylistically and embrace new sounds. Despite works of undeniable value composed during the band's early phase, the legacy of their metal beginnings weighed negatively on their journey, both because of the coldness shown by the label and by longtime fans from 1998 onward, and because they kept being booked at metal festivals (on account of their past) where they often stood out like white flies, fish out of water, and where there was no shortage of bitter moments of indifference. These circumstances also meant that the band gained popularity among non-metal audiences only slowly and with difficulty, precisely because they were still perceived as a metal band despite having nothing left to do with the genre.

But looking at things from above, with the benefit of hindsight, one can also notice how, despite all the talk of "chemistry" among the members, or perhaps precisely because of that shared bond, Gathering became increasingly Anneke-centric over time. Once her exceptional, commanding voice was gone, the band lacked a replacement with the same personality capable of driving the emotional charge of the songs, someone who could enhance the other members' inspiration with a unique timbre the way she did on gems of melody and feeling like "Waking Hour", "Broken Glass" or "Amity". In this way, part of the ingredients needed to generate that fascinating "chemistry" was lost (the same thing happened on the other side of the coin, in Anneke's new career, where her voice shines amid otherwise unremarkable albums and collaborations). Without the old cohesion, having lost the drive and spirit that had long propelled the Dutch band, their inspiration suffered as well.

Silje Wergeland is a very fine singer, but she was parachuted in from outside, suddenly, into a band that had found its own balance, one whose components are hard to replace. The West Pole is a spontaneous, catchy record, but more ordinary than previous albums. Disclosure sounds richer and more distinctive, but also more contrived. Paradoxically, the very effort to keep Wergeland balanced with the other members holds back the Dutch band's compositional talent, and the various third-party vocal contributions are interesting taken individually, but within the broader context they only reinforce the void that was left behind.

Blueprints (2017) is a collection of unreleased tracks and demos from the 2002-2006 period. The release is of particular interest because it allows us to hear Anneke once again on the mic, on previously unheard songs. The unreleased material, i.e. the "outtake" tracks, is obviously the main draw. Most are melodic pieces that are ultimately enjoyable, though not all of them truly stand out. They are also largely instrumental, whether because they were conceived from the start as interludes, or because they weren't judged convincing enough to warrant sketching out vocal lines for them. The remaining demo versions are listenable enough, but overall this release is only really recommended to the band's collector fans.

In 2022, after almost ten years without studio news, the Dutch band returns with Beautiful Distortion. The album was preceded by the single "Stronger", a synth-pop/downtempo track with nocturnal tones and restrained effects, a decisive bassline and arabesque keyboards, not included on the full-length.

The band's "dreamy" side comes through prominently right away, entrusted mainly to the vocal lines and atmospheric effects, but very little to the guitars, which never sound ethereal or stretched out; instead they alternate between sweet filler melodies and harder background riffs, never actually steering the songs. Overall the record sounds like a synthesis of its immediate predecessors from the Wergeland era, combined however with a few touches in certain songs ("Grounded", to a lesser extent "Black Is Magnified" and, more notably, the weighty "We Rise", which sounds like a halfway point between art-rock, dream-rock and goth-metal) that harken back to nothing less than the distant 1997 album Nighttime Birds, as if the band wanted to reference its own past to sum up all the water that's flowed under the bridge since then. Then there's "Pulse of Life", essentially a post-punk song brushed with atmospheric electronic effects and a long keyboard coda; nothing groundbreaking in absolute terms, but it sounds like uncharted territory within Gathering's discography. The peak of the album, though, is perhaps the closing, aching "On Delay", punctuated by hazy nocturnal synths that fully capture its heartbroken emotions.

Beautiful Distortion is a fairly varied album, sonically very polished, certainly quite atmospheric, with melodic piano touches that stand out fairly prominently, even if form sometimes takes precedence. It proves to be a dignified closing chapter in Gathering's discography, within the niche they've carved out for themselves.

Despite everything, the Dutch band never cared about breaking through commercially: they preferred to stay true to themselves and write good music "straight from the heart". In doing so, they carved out their own niche of quality, earning praise from members of groups as different as System of a Down, Morbid Angel or Ignite, and inspiring acts ranging from Mexico's Elfonía to Britain's The Eden House, via Sweden's Paatos and Norway's Pale Forest (the latter in particular having been strongly supported by the band while on tour, alongside fellow Dutch acts TeNK, Green Lizard and Telefunk).

It remains to be seen whether The Gathering will ever return or will definitively give way to the different projects born from their ranks, such as Habitants. Only the band from Oss knows the answer.

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