Wonderful! I could end here this review, as I think it's impossible to descirbe with
words all the emotions this great album can give. The Gathering have deeply changed since
the beginning of their career, and their songwriting suddenly reached a very high level
when the excellent female vocalist Anneke Van Giersbergen joined the band. The first work
of the new line up was "Mandylion", published a pair of years ago, and showing
many of the huge possibilities of Anneke's splendid voice. Now the band returns with
"Nighttime Birds", and it's really incredible to hear that the new are even
better than the "Mandylion" stuff! Believe me, you should have a heart of pure
stone to remain indifferent while hearing these nine ethereal tunes, all full of passion
and of an unbelievable maturity. Don't think this is one of those albums that could be
good to fall asleep, as The Gathering have the ability to play very dynamic yet extremely
warm and melodic songs, and if you're not convinced you just have to listen to tracks like
"On Most Surfaces", "Nighttime Birds", "Third Chance" to
leave every doubt behind. I personally thing that every single song featured on
"Nighttime Birds" deserves to be mentioned, so the best way to conclude is to
give you the complete track listing of this stunningly beautiful album: "On Most
Surfaces", "Confusion", "The May Song", "The Earth Is My
Witness", "New Moon Different Days", "Third Chance",
"Kevin's Telescope", "Nighttime Birds", "Shrink". One more
thing... Buy or die!!!
LINE UP:
Anneke Van Giersbergen -
Jelmer Wiersma - GUITAR
Renč Rutten - GUITAR
Frank Boeijen - KEYS
Hugo Prinsen Geerligs - BASS
Hans Rutten - DRUMS
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