My first encounter with The Gathering was through “The Mandylion” album which caused such a furor that I had to buy it in order to see what all this huge fuss was about. I did like it, a lot at that, since it was a fresh new form of doom metal put in a more flexible, mouldable frame with progressive and gothic additives, very well fitting the music tastes at the time. I was particularly impressed by the gorgeous melodic guitar interplays and the far-reaching progressive vistas they had managed to “paint”; and by Anneke van Giersbergen’s deeply passionate vocals with this unique ethereal, dreamy blend. I naturally tracked down the band’s previous two albums, and I found a unique entity whose first three works belonged to different styles, each of them of a very high quality. I can’t think of another band right now who have achieved the same feat...
So the band started as an atmospheric doom/death metal act with the excellent “Always…” the guys one of the pioneers of the movement which became quite big in their homeland with talented outfits like Orphanage, Asphyx, Beyond Belief, Creepmime (the debut), etc. The doom/death hybrid was becoming more and more popular, but there’s no end to evolvement, and here they were, with this affair which I had problems placing initially. Since this was my second The Gathering effort that I listened to after “Mandylion”, I had to get used to the main differences: the vocals; the guy is an impersonation of the ultimate dark wave singer with a slightly less passionate alternative, shall I also say punkish, flavour. He’s the absolute opposite to the deep soulful baritone associated with the gothic/doom metal wave (think Peter Steele (R.I.P.) from Type-O-Negative), and his thin ephemeral, nearly child-like, croons may have been a pullback for quite a few fans, and even nowadays they may be an acquired taste since at times the man sounds as though he’s gasping for breath unable to cope with a more dramatic, higher-pitched line.
Yes, the guy’s very characteristic vocal approach will take some time getting used to by all means, but the music largely compensates for this unmitigated “inconvenience”. Again, it wouldn’t be easy to categorize the delivery; based on “On a Wave” it could pass for a more aggressive form of gothic rock with more ambitious, progressive embellishments. “The Blue Vessel” hardens the course towards more metallic sounds by retaining the progressive additives, and also introduces these inimitable melodic lines courtesy or Rene Rutten, the band founder and the main axeman. “Her Last Flight” is a progressive metal “beauty” with a quiet balladic beginning and a nice chorus the latter partially botched by the singer. “The Sky People” notches up the use of the keyboards and consequently loses the edge the sound moving towards the dark wave field with echoes of acts like Secret Discovery and London after Midnight.
“Nobody Dares” is a short tender acoustic ballad which warms up the scene for “Like Fountains”, a progressive doom metal masterpiece, the closest soundalike to the style on “Mandylion” also featuring great angelic female vocals providing the memorable chorus. “Proof” is deeply immersed in doomy balladisms the more hard-hitting riffage rising gradually from the mellower background, but never reaching very aggressive waters staying more within the dark wave confines again. “Heartbeat Amplifier” provides cool “duels” between the guitars and the keyboards as the delivery balances between doom and gothic rock “bathed” in a lot of atmosphere that is passed on “A Passage to Desire”, another more engaging progressive saga with the female vocals emerging again for the production of the next in line nice chorus; the riffs bite more turning this epitaph into a compelling metal opera with an imposing serene operatic ending.
For 1993 this recording was pretty much one-of-a-kind, a captivating blend of gothic wave/rock, doom and progressive metal these styles dexterously stitched together by Rutten’s great melodic guitar pirouettes. The guys were by all means looking at wider audience than just the metal one, and must have stirred the spirits, at least on an underground level, as both gothic rock and doom metal were rising in stature worldwide. However, those who had fallen for the debut must have been horrified hearing this; this new “dance” is far removed from any dark cavernous death metal-ornated doomisms. The guys sounded like an entirely new outfit, and may have not become the fanbase’s instant favourites as now no one was able to predict their next step. Well, at least on “Mandylion” they didn’t go very far; if we exclude the main female vocals and the more pronounced doom metal flair the delivery wasn’t radically different. I find it hard to decide which album is better… I would probably give more points to “Mandylion” due to the better vocal performance, but music-wise “Almost a Dance” matches it almost note by note. That same “dance” a logical step from the evolution of one of the most innovative and forward-thinking acts at the dawn of a big transformational campaign on the metal arena.
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