The Gathering (band) - Misplaced Pages

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The Gathering

Musical artist

The Gathering is a Dutch band which came to fame in the second half of 1990s with vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen.

Their first two albums, Always... (1992) and Almost a Dance (1993), which played a part in the formation of gothic metal, were recorded with four different vocalists. Their subsequent release, Mandylion (1995), featured the debut of Anneke van Giersbergen singing with the band for the first time. It was also one of the first albums of its kind in respect to female fronted metal bands and it is still considered a standard by many.

Their following studio albums Nighttime Birds (1997), How To Measure A Planet? (1998), if then else (2000) and Souvenirs (2003) showed progress and maturation of the band. Sleepy Buildings, released in 2004, is a live semi-acoustic performance recorded by the band over a course of two nights.

The band's latest album is called Home and was released in Europe and North America in April 2006.

History

In 1989, brothers Hans and René Rutten and Bart Smits got together with the intention of starting a band. Soon after Hugo Prinsen Geerligs, Jelmer Wiersma and Frank Boeijen joined.

In those days they rehearsed once a week, near the small Dutch city of Oss. They had a desire to experiment rather than imitate, which would prove to be a fertile musical basis. In 1990 they recorded the rehearsal tape An Imaginary Symphony, which was sent out to all kinds of magazines. At that time, using keyboards in metal-oriented music was rather unusual, but still, most reactions were positive. Their first gig followed in January of 1991, in a little town called Heesch, near Oss, opening for Deadhead and Invocator. In April 1991, the demo Moonlight Archer was recorded and picked up by several journalists. At the same time other people and bands started noticing the Gathering. Consequently, they were booked to open for bands like Samael, Morbid Angel and Death. The time was right to release an album.

After signing with Foundation 2000, Always... was released in 1992. On this album, Bart's grunts were accompanied by the female vocals of Marike Groot, who also joined the Gathering on stage for most of the gigs. This gothic/doom album was very well received and earned them many more concerts, including a few in Belgium and Israel. Unfortunately, due to a shady contract, the band would never know how many copies of Always... were sold. On top of that, the band parted with Bart and Marike because they weren't satisfied with the result.

In 1993, Almost a Dance was recorded, also on Foundation 2000. New vocalist Niels Duffhues and new female counterpart Martine van Loon turned out not to be the right choice for the Gathering. The band felt that both voices didn't really fit the music.

During auditions halfway through 1994, vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen was recruited into the band, and German label Century Media was willing to give the band a contract. The Gathering returned strong with Mandylion in 1995. The album was highly successful, especially in the Netherlands, where the single Strange Machines ended up in the Dutch charts, as did the album. Extensive touring brought them to all corners of their home country, as well as to Belgium and Germany. Expectations were high for a new album.

Nighttime Birds (1997) came into existence, but not without an effort. Writing new songs in between touring (and studying) wasn't easy, and neither was recording it. Nevertheless, the album, which was musically quite close to Mandylion, turned out to be another success. Reactions were positive and subsequent touring was even more intensive, taking the band to Eastern Europe, France, Italy and several other European countries.

At this time they started to long for something new. Jelmer even decided he didn't want to tour and play guitar as much anymore, so he left the band in July 1998. The other members wanted to try out new ideas, other instruments and different recording techniques. The result was How To Measure A Planet?, a varied and experimental double-album. It was harder to promote and more difficult to understand for some die-hard metal fans. Still, positive reactions came from all over the world, including the United States, where they played 14 shows during the summer of 1999.

The Gathering were also fed up with the music industry, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own label, Psychonaut Records. Always... was re-released on this label in 1999, followed by Almost a Dance in 2000, both re-mastered and fitted with new artwork. However, since their contract with Century Media hadn't ended yet, their live album Superheat (2000) was released on Century Media. Most of the songs on this album are from How To Measure A Planet?, the others from Mandylion and Nighttime Birds and they were recorded in several Dutch venues during 1999.

Another successful chapter in the Gathering's career followed with the release of if then else (2000). The album is filled with diverse, intense and emotional rock songs, more compact than its predecessor. Fifteen months of touring ensued, taking them to virtually every nook and cranny of Europe, with a little sidestep to Mexico, and ending with a small Dutch club tour in October 2001.

After this, the band members took a break and tended to their private lives. During this period, they ended their contract with Century Media. The Gathering had to run their new born label Psychonaut Records and their 12½-year anniversary was coming up. To celebrate this with their fans, they released the mini-CD Black Light District on their own label.

In early 2003, Souvenirs was released. Sleepy Buildings, a semi-acoustic live album, followed in 2004. This album was the last one featuring Hugo Prinsen Geerligs as the bass player. He was later replaced by Marjolein Kooijman.

The band released their first DVD in 2005, entitled A Sound Relief. This contained more gentle semi-acoustic songs. The plan is to release in 2007 their second DVD A Noise Severe which features the more hard rock sound of The Gathering.

In April 2006 they released their 9th studio album called Home. They had toured in March in North and South America and, after a brief pause to let Van Giersbergen treat a laryngitis, they continued their touring schedule with European dates and music festivals throughout 2006.

Etymology

Frank Boeijen on the origins of the name of the band:

"The name the Gathering has been made like eleven years ago when we started this band. We were all between 15 and 17. We were watching a lots of movies those days. One of the movies spoke about immortality and that you could kill the immortals with cutting their head off . In the first part of the movie, they speak a lot about the gathering. There will be a gathering once with all the immortals. We thought it was a nice name for a band, and that's how we created this name. And you can feel it's a cool name for five people who come together to make fine music." (sic)

Lineup

Current members

Anneke van Giersbergen - lead singer/guitars
René Rutten - guitars/flute
Marjolein Kooijman - bass
Hans Rutten - drums
Frank Boeijen - keyboards

Former members

Niels Duffhues - singer/guitars
Jelmer Wiersma - guitars
Hugo Prinsen Geerligs - bass
Martine van Loon - singer/backing vocals
Bart Smits - singer
Marike Groot - singer/backing vocals

Discography

Singles

Strange Machines (1995) Century Media
Kevin's Telescope (1997) Century Media
The May Song (1997) Century Media
Liberty Bell (1998) Century Media
Rollercoaster (2000) Century Media
Monsters (2003) Psychonaut Records
You Learn About It (2003) Psychonaut Records
Alone (2006) I Scream Records - Split single with Green Lizard, 5,000 copies limited edition giveaway at Sziget festival, Budapest, 2006

Compilations

Downfall - The Early Years (2001) Hammerheart Records
Accessories - Rarities And B-Sides (2005) Century Media

Demos

An Imaginary Symphony (1990)
Moonlight Archer (1991)

Cover songs

Songs The Gathering has covered

"Life's What You Make It" (by Talk Talk)
"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" (by Dead Can Dance)
"When The Sun Hits" (by Slowdive)

Videography

Music videos

Videos were made for the following songs :

"King for a Day"
"You Learn About It"
"My Electricity"
"Leaves"
"Liberty Bell"
"Life's What You Make It"
"Monsters"
"Strange Machines" (Unreleased)

DVD

In Motion (2002)

Features live footage from two shows: Their performance at '96 Dynamo Open Air festival, and a concert they did in Kraków, Poland in 1997. Please note that this DVD is not considered as part of the official releases by the band, due to the contents and its quality, and the fact the band was not consulted for this DVD released by their former label, Century Media Records.