MANDYLION

A friend of mine gave me this album one year ago, because she got tired of it and when i asked to her if i could listen to it a couple of times, she decided to give it to me, and that was good, because i enjoy this album. The Gathering is a Ducth band of progressive metal , i thin this is not a clearly example of what prog metal is, but it has its moments, it sounds a bit like Lacuna Coil, maybe because i find pretty similar the incredible voices of Anneke van Gieerbersen ( you can also hear her voice in Ayreon`s Into the Electric Castle, she is "The Egyptian"), and Cristina Scabbia, but i think tha music could be similar too, but in other ways are different.

This album is good, i enjoy to listen to it, but maybe could be a bit boring, i think some of the songs have similar tempos and similar guitar work in the most of the songs, one good point is that the songs are performed with emotion and thats great because the music change for better when it has emotional sound. I like the atmospheric synths in some songs, it is a good point for this metal band, and another good thing is the instrumental tracks, Mandylion starting with a great flute, and maybe with some medieval influences, and for me the best song is Sand and Mercury, an almost 10 minute song, which mix metal with good changes in time and tempo, and a nice music around the song. Im lucky to have this album, i think it is good, i recommend it to you, but of course if you are expecting for keyboards and strong guitars ound and solos, this is not the choice, but you can try it, maybe it could like you. For this reasons im going to give it 3 stars!