by Tom Dang // Double Hockey Sticks, WKDU Drexel University
Howdy, WUSC listeners and readers. My name is Tom Dang and I host a little show called Double Hockey Sticks on your second favorite college radio station: Drexel University's WKDU in Philadelphia. I may be young, but I’ve heard one or two bands before, so today I’m gonna tell you about the second band. Gather ‘round everyone, and let me spin you a tale about The Gathering: an experimental dutch band that started back in 1989 when brothers Hans and René Rutten teamed up with vocalist Bart Smits to create some dark, atmospheric doom metal. Their sound, vocalist, and logo would change a few times over their 3+ decade career, but for the most part, their lineup would remain largely unchanged. The Gathering's foundational members are: Hans on drums and René on guitar, with the addition of Frank Boeijen on keys, Jelmer Wiersma on guitar, and Hugo Prinsen Geerligs on bass. Don't worry about keeping track of the vocalist changes, I make that pretty easy to follow in this list.
1. “Subzero” from Always... (1992)
The Gathering's debut Always... is a underground classic. A melodic mix of death metal, goth rock, and doom creating a one-of-a-kind listening experience that is simultaneously easy to leave on in the background and difficult to ignore. I could liken this release to Amorphis's Tales from the Thousand Lakes (there are plenty of synth organs throughout this album) but Always... exists in a realm of its own. The band switches between comfortable grooves and sections where the melody so frequently bounces between leading instruments/vocals that you might not even realize you’ve made it through a seven minute long track. I could go on about the tone or the pacing, but the real reason I chose to discuss this band is because I feel this album in particular is hard to describe, and it's best to just let it speak for itself. This is by far my favorite release from The Gathering's discography, but the band went much further into developing their sound throughout their existence. The vocalist who provided growls on this album, Bart Smits, recorded one more promo release with the band before departing due to creative differences in 1992. This marks the end of the strong death metal influence in The Gathering. If you’re looking for more of The Gathering that sounds like Always… check out the ‘92 promo, the 1990 demo, An Imaginary Symphony, and the 1991 demo, Moonlight Archer. In 1993, The Gathering released an unremarkable album, Almost a Dance, with a new vocalist, Niels Duffhues, whose shouty, ballad-style tone is the most probable cause for this album's poor reception. Duffhues did not stick around long after Almost a Dance was released.
2. “Leaves” from Mandylion (1995)
Mandylion marks an important turning point for The Gathering with a new vocalist, Anneke van Giersbergen, and the inclusion of shoegaze elements. The death growls are gone and the keys have become more subtle, but the doom motif is still very present in the song structures and rhythm guitars. Giersbergen shines throughout the album with her infectious blend of romantic and introspective lyrics projected in an almost power metal yell. "Leaves" would be the hit that solidified The Gathering's legacy. Full disclosure: my understanding of shoegaze (and, consequently, my understanding of which elements of this album are shoegaze-y) is hazy, but to combine all of these tones and influences together makes for an astoundingly bittersweet sound that felt just as fresh as Always… did during the first listen. The Gathering would never see international success or even a follow up hit to "Leaves," but the fans that accumulated after this album became a dedicated cult following.
3. “On Most Surfaces” from Nighttime Birds (1997)
The fourth album from The Gathering sees a return to focus on heavy guitar tone. The overall feel is still grunge but Nighttime Birds hits hard. Again, the keys are not nearly as present as they were on The Gathering’s debut, but they are crucial to connecting passages on this album. "On Most Surfaces," at least to me, stands out as a stronger track than the whole of the album but the experimentation makes for an educational listen, nonetheless. It's best enjoyed for the first time, so listen close if you're going to commit. While all the releases after Mandylion carry a similar energy as compared to Always…, I think Nightime Birds pairs best with Mandylion than any of the rest.
4. “Great Ocean Road” from How to Measure a Planet? (1998)
By this point, The Gathering is thoroughly reveling in hard goth grunge. This album has an industrial crunch in the production of the drums and guitars, and the keys have been supplemented with modular synths. All things considered, How To Measure a Planet? has a fairly young feeling for a nine year old band’s fifth album. If you started following them for some out-there death metal, The Gathering may have fully lost your interest by now. But from a retrospective view, the gradual shift in sound up until this point is impressive.
5. “Shot to Pieces” from If_then_else (2000)
What a remarkable sixth album with an especially dull title (I guess it was cool to reference computer logic at the turn of the century). The Gathering asserts musical expertise by this stage in their career. While keeping the more crunchy sound they had developed on How to Measure on Planet?, If_then_else had expanded to incorporate horns, woodwinds, strings, and noisy samples. It simultaneously screams a heavy metal past and a kraut rock edge. The energy is menacing at points and melancholic at others, speaking to the full range of The Gathering’s lyrical and melodic territory. If you listen to two albums by the gathering all the way through, let it be Always... and If_then_else. After this album, The Gathering settles into this tone, pulling out only a few surprises in later releases. Since 1989, they have released 11 studio albums, four EPs, and six live albums, but for now, this completes the beginners's guide to The Gathering.
Thanks for reading and thanks to Schuler of Death Drive 90.5 and the whole WUSC crew for including me as a guest professor in the WUSC 101 series!
Be sure to follow Tom's show, Double Hockey Sticks, on Instagram, @doublehockeysticks666, and check out Drexel's WKDU on Twitter, @wkdu.