HEROES FOR GHOSTS

My love for The Gathering has incredibly developed for the last couple of years, I like their different phases, from Mandylion to Home, everything where Anneke is featured, what a voice. But wait a minute, my love for this band does not stops there, because I do also love The West Pole, their first Anneke-less album in which we can still appreciate the band's essential sound, their metal/alternative/progressive moments but now with Silje Wergeland in vocals.

Now, a couple of months ago a friend told me about a new The Gathering song which was free-to-download, and I did not hesitate and downloaded it. And oh man what a fantastic surprise I found, an eleven-minute track that left me speechless and created an addiction in me, since then I frequently listen to it so now I am sure is one of my most-played tracks. My excitement towards this track was so huge that I even considered it as the best Gathering song I ever listened, or at least my favorite, now I share the same excitement but I don't put it as my favorite one, however it does belong to my top five without a doubt.

The song can be divided in two parts. The first one starts slowly with some atmospheric sound, later guitars, bass, drums and vocals enter and begin to build up a structure in a mid-tempo rhythm. The voice is sweet and delicate, and the guitars have also a wonderful sound that goes very well with the atmosphere created as background. After three minutes a beautiful string sound is added and gives a special flavor to the song, violin and viola appear and work as a complement of the already warm atmosphere. And now when the song arrives to the fourth minute we can say the second part has begun.

You can notice it by the addition of an electronic sound and the vocal-less passage. Here we have a surprisingly good, well structured and composed track (surprisingly not because they are not capable of, but because the sound here is different from what The Gathering sounds). Also, a beautiful trumpet joins the song and also puts its grain of sound, helping it to be even better than it already is. From this moment on the voice appears just in specific passages, in the right moments, when the music sounds stronger and the listener is already mesmerized (just like me). So this is a fantastic combination of electronic sounds, with an outstanding voice, great guitars, bass and drums, and wonderful violin and trumpet appearances.

Without a doubt a rich track, one of the band's best compositions ever, a highlight that we (the listeners) have to thank firstly because it was released, and secondly because the band offer it as a free download, so we have to be more than happy. The song itself is really awesome and in my book it would deserve five stars, but here, as a review I will give it three stars, because I don't think it is essential to any progressive rock fan, but I highly recommend it anyways.

Enjoy it!