ACCESSORIES

It's actually strange that I ended up buying this special Gathering release and the main reason for this strangeness is that I'm generally not a fan of this subgenre. And The Gathering is a clear example of this subgenre. No spectecular riffs but more like laid back metal without significant melody which is a significant feature of experimental/post metal. In the past I also tried Anathema but that didn't work either.

So why buy this superlong double piece by The Gathering ? Maybe out of curiosity or with the thought of: you never know. There are 27 songs on this doubler with a total time of almost 2,5 hours. And also, well, it's a Dutch band and I feel almost obliged to check out my native progbands.

The slightly better B-sides disk starts promising with two very good songs (In Motion and Leaves) with the second as my personal highlight of all songs. The reason: it's the only song with an impressive guitar solo. And it made me think: why don't they make more like this ? Because this is what metal should sound like. But ok, just my opinion. The third very good song is no.8 from this same disc, called Confusion. The other 24 are at best good measured to my personal taste. The real fans of the genre will disagree here no doubt but I really can't figure out what the fun is of a metal song without a compelling guitar riff. So the best I can do is stay away from this kind of music because it only leads to frustration.

If I would be on my most negative it could even have ended up as a two star rating despite the fact there is nothing wrong with the musicianship or production. It's just that the compositions fall short for me. The ultimate reason that I still give this one three stars is the beautiful voice of Anneke van Giersbergen. To me she's right up there with the best in the business. So 3.