Not many bands can show twelve albums on the meter in ten years and demonstrate a constant evolution from album to album by reinventing themselves and by trying to tame different sounds and styles and to appropriate them successfully. THE GATHERING, renowned Dutch band, are however a part of this respectable category and « Souvenirs » is certain to run a lot of ink in 2003.

Trying to affix a label on THE GATHERING's music isn't an obvious task and that is why the band itself goes with the term "trip-rock" which images well enough this approach. Personally, it was from the third track « Broken Glass » that I really began to embark on this new release. René Rutten's flown away and intense guitar playing gives shivers whereas the beautiful Anneck van Gierbergen charms with her angelic voice. It is also a qualifier that I would apply to the song « You Learn About It », their first single, giving a spiritual placidity sensation and it is definitively being added in my pad of favorite songs.

THE GATHERING's music isn't played in a very conventional way so that we sometimes find sounds assimilated by melodies abounding in feelings. « We Just Stopped Breathing » is more than representative of this statement. There's a guest on the album that sings a duet with Annek on the song « A Life All Mine » and it is Garn (Trickster G) from Arcturus / Ulfer who brings a sumptuous melancholy at the end of the album which is brilliantly welcomed especially since the symbiosis of their voice bathes in a freeing harmony.

Some fans may have some reserves on this band's musical approach but nobody can deny the high degree of originality and perseverance that inhabits them. Just listen to it without any contradictions.

[ Discography ] 

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Label: The End | Item Code: TE 035 | Country: Holland | Year: 2003 | Genre: Heavy Metal

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