It's a rainy Sunday, and I'm bored enough to give you another TWP review. I discovered The Gathering right about when Home was released, I was a Nightwish fanatic (yeah, I know) back then. I saw "Gothic metal" tag on lastfm and searched for their videos on youtube.
The first one I clicked on was In between...and frankly, I thought it was boring and turned it off after about 10 seconds.
The chorus got stuck in my head, for some reason. I caught myself singing "Heavenly, heavenly..faithfully, faithfully."
I gave it another listen, bought Home and the rest is history.
The Gathering is now by far my favorite band, I listened to all of their albums and prefer the softer, shoegaze-y post "Nighttime birds" era.
When Anneke left, I wasn't exactly happy, I can't say that I was ever one of those "Anneke fanatics", but to say that her voice is anything but amazing would be a lie.
I was looking forward to see what will the Dutch geniuses do next, one their own. There were rumors of Trickster G doing the vocals, I was counting the days.
In 2007 Agua de Annique's debut record is out, it's not bad, it definitely has it's moments, but the lackluster, uninspired instrumentation left me craving for the new gathering record even more.
I was looking for something breathtaking, inspiring, amazing, life changing....blah.
Something that only The Gathering can deliver.
My first impression on The West Pole was that it's much more approachable than the older albums. Perhaps they will finally appeal to a broader audience, what they really deserve.
I remember my reaction when I was listening to the Souvenirs for the first time...."What the hell, this is just noise".
Well, The West Pole is anything but that, one listen and it will be stuck in your head for weeks
I played the title track to a friend of mine, who mostly listens to black metal, Rotting Christ and such. I was expecting her to mock me (like she usually does), but to my surprise, she called it "something magical". Few weeks ago, on a bus ride, I was listening to her mp3 player and found that masterpiece among all the "hurr I'm brutal" music. You could imagine my smile.
My boyfriend, who's mostly into indie rock, said that he loved No one spoke...but that was probably just to please me :p .
Musically, the album is next to perfection. It has it's share of fast, upbeat songs, something I haven't heard from them in years, and slower, relaxing tracks for "psychonauting"
.
Bass was a pleasant surprise, Marjolein with her groovy lines has significantly improved over the last record.
Slije's soft voice gives me shivers, especially in brilliant "No Bird Call". Frank never disappoints, I'm interested to hear more from his side project "Grimm Limbo", those three tracks on myspace are really not enough!
Capital of Nowhere is probably the best track I've heard in years. Beautiful vocals, with perhaps Pink Floyd inspired instrumentation leaves me speechless and sounds better every time I play it.
I'm not getting into "deep analysis" of every track, that was already done on the last few pages, I don't have anything smart to add :p .
I feel that Slije is the perfect fit for the band, I saw some interviews with her, she seems like a very nice, positive person.
My expectations for the next record couldn't be bigger. This time they "played it safe", what is understandable with the new vocalist and all, but the next album...that will be something truly new and amazing.
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