UMUR "Nighttime Birds" is the fourth full-length studio album by Dutch gothic metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The album was released through Century Media Records in May 1997. It´s the successor to "Mandylion" from August 1995, which was The Gathering´s big breakthrough album. "Nighttime Birds" marks the first time up until then that The Gathering recorded an album featuring the same lineup (and lead singer) as the album which came before it. They had searched for consistency and a sound they could call their own, and with the addition of lead vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen, they found that sound on "Mandylion".

So it´s only natural that "Nighttime Birds" is more or less a sibling release to "Mandylion". This was not the time to change a winning formula, but merely perfect it...and that The Gathering did. "Mandylion" is a great album in its own right, but when you listen to "Nighttime Birds", it feels like "Mandylion" was just an album where The Gathering were testing their new songwriting approach and then they went on to nail it 100% on this album.

Stylistically the material on "Nighttime Birds" is a melancholic and atmospheric type of gothic/doom metal with van Giersbergen´s strong voice and distinct sounding vocal style leading the show. She is thankfully not an operatic type female vocalist, although she can hit some pretty impressive notes, and she is generally very intense and has a personal singing style. To my ears all three previous album releases weren´t written with vocals being the priority in the songwriting process, although "Mandylion" certainly showed improvement in that department over the first two albums. "Nighttime Birds" is on the other hand obviously an album composed primarily to support the beautiful vocal lines. All instruments are composed to support and compliment the vocals and provide them with the best possible conditions to shine.

The keyboards which had been very much at the forefront of the band´s music up until then are much more tastefully applied here and often just add atmosphere or texture to the songs (as opposed to the lead instrument role they often played before), while the heavy distorted riffs and rhythms add doomy heaviness. There are however many sections without distorted guitars, which aren´t that heavy and add an atmospheric/dreamy rock element to the band´s sound. The simple melancholic melodic guitar leads deserve a mention too and the bass playing by Hugo Prinsen Geerligs is also an important element.

"Nighttime Birds" features a gorgeous sounding production. It´s dynamic, powerful, and perfectly suits the material. All details are heard in the music and the mix favors both mellow dreamy parts and massive epic heavy sections. I wasn´t surprised to learn that the album was recorded at Woodhouse Studio in Hagen, Germany with producer/engineer Siggi Bemm. That´s a name which is a guarantee for high quality sound productions.

So "Nighttime Birds" is everything a fan of "Mandylion" had hoped it would be. More dynamic, even stronger musicianship, superior sound production values, and vocal-centric songwriting which focus on The Gathering´s greatest asset, which in those days was arguably the voice and vocals of van Giersbergen. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Almost a Dance" is the second full-length studio album by Dutch death/doom/gothic metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The album was released through the Foundation 2000 label in October 1993. It´s the successor to "Always..." from June 1992. The basic tracks were recorded live in the studio. Everything was recorded and mixed in September, 1993 at "Spitsbergen" Studio.

There have been a few lineup changes since the preceding album as lead vocalist Bart Smits has been replaced by Niels Duffhues and the band have also added Martine van Loon as a permanent female vocalist, making The Gathering a septet on "Almost a Dance". The departure of Smits has great impact on "Almost a Dance" as there are now no longer death metal growling but instead clean male vocals in the band´s music. Duffhues unfortunately has a pretty weak and unremarkable voice (he sounds like a strained Mike Patton with a cold...) and the melody lines he is given to perform aren´t particularly memorable. So the change on the male vocalist post is a definite step down in quality from "Always...". van Loon only performs vocals on four out of nine tracks on the 53:58 minutes long album, so she doesn´t have as much impact on the album as Duffhues does. When she does perform her ethereal atmospheric vocals it´s a welcome change from Duffhues tedious vocal style. The only time my ears are able to partially appreciate his performance is on the alternative acoustic rock ballad track "Nobody Cares" (which by the way interupts the flow of the album).

The instrumental part of the music is keyboard dominated doom metal and it´s generally atmospheric, melancholic, and epic music. The sound production is decent and slightly better balanced than the sound production of the preceding album, but when it comes to evaluating the album it´s impossible not to let the monotone and strained male clean vocals affect the rating. So upon conclusion "Almost a Dance" is an intriguing doom/goth metal album which is almost completely destroyed by the vocals. It´s not often a sophomore studio album is this much weaker than a band´s debut album, but that´s unfortunately the reality of things. Fortunately The Gathering would strike back with great force on their next album. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Always..." is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch death/doom metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The album was released through the Foundation 2000 label in June 1992. The Gathering formed in 1989 and are widely considered one of the seminal death/doom metal acts from The Netherlands, although they would later considerably change their music style. Before being signed by Foundation 2000 for the release of "Always...", The Gathering recorded and released the two demos "An Imaginary Symphony" (October 1990) and "Moonlight Archer" (April 1991). The tracks from the latter have been re-recorded and included on "Always..." ("Second Sunrise", "Subzero", and "In Sickness and Health").

Stylistically The Gathering play a relatively unique death/doom metal style, which have some similarities to artists like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, but because they use keyboards/piano as a dominant instrument in the music still sounds vastly different from the early releases from other contemporary death/doom metal artists. I´ll mention the articulate and brutal growling vocals from Bart Smits as one of the great assets of the this album. They are very well performed and provide the music with some death metal authenticity. The rare spoken word sections provide the music with a slight gothic edge. "Always..." also features the occasional female clean vocal part performed by Marike Groot. They are in no way a dominant part of the soundscape but primarely used to color the music and provide some variation and an epic atmosphere.

The whole thing reeks melancholy but also a strange romantic and epic atmosphere (in the case of "The Mirror Waters" there´s even a few nods towards middle eastern music). An atmosphere often created by the omnipresent keyboards/piano. The guitars play slow- to mid-paced doomy riffs and are complimented by the heavy drumming. The bass is quite audible which isn´t always the case on death metal oriented releases, but here it´s audible and makes a difference. There are lead guitar parts on the album but they are actually not a dominant element of The Gathering´s sound as most lead parts and atmosphere enhancing parts are created by the keyboards/piano. It´s quite unusual for the time, and definitely what makes The Gathering stand out on the early 90s death/doom metal scene.

The tracks are generally interesting and feature enough sections and ideas (other than regular vers/chorus parts) to keep the listener entertained and intrigued throughout. The sound production is decent but not great. There are some issues with the balance between the instruments with especially the guitars often being drowned in the soundscape and the keyboards being very loud. It´s not a major issue and "Always..." is still a listenable release, but it could arguably have been better sounding.

So that minor issue out of the way "Always..." is overall a good quality death/doom metal release and it´s quite unique too because of how dominant the keyboards/piano are. Not all artists are able to create such a unique sound on their first album. The Gathering were of course far from being finished developing their sound and style and the next many albums (including this one) can be viewed as transitional releases. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Moonlight Archer" is the second demo recording by Dutch death/doom metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The demo was independently released in April 1991. It´s the successor to the October 1990 "An Imaginary Symphony" demo and just like that release this demo was also recorded live although this time at a studio (at Caveman Studio on the 1st of April 1991).

The demo features five tracks and a total playing time of 29:47 minutes. "Second Sunrise" and "Downfall" also appeared on the "An Imaginary Symphony" demo but were re-recorded and included here too. "Second Sunrise", "Subzero", and "In Sickness and Health" would eventually make it unto the band´s 1992 debut full-length studio album "Always...".

Stylistically The Gathering play a relatively unique death/doom metal style, which have some similarities to artists like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, but because they use keyboards/piano as a dominant instrument in the music still sounds vastly different from the early releases from other contemporary death/doom metal artists. The vocals by Bart Smits are articulate semi-growling vocals. Unfortunately he hasn´t completely left behind his throaty and sometimes hardcore influenced shouting/singing and the odd uplifting "Anthology in Black" song is marred by that vocal style but also a generally odd atmosphere and some thrashy riffing. It makes the demo an inconsistent listen and it´s a weird choice to include a track like that.

In fact it´s obvious upon having listened to the full demo that The Gathering still had a way to go maturing their songwriting and honing their skills before they were ready to record and release an album...but that´s what demos are for right! The sound production is decent considering that this is a live in the studio demo recording, and although the material is inconsistent in style and the band still needed to weed out the weakest parts of their songwriting ideas, "Moonlight Archer" is still an interesting death/doom metal demo. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "An Imaginary Symphony" is the first demo recording by Dutch death/doom metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The demo was independently released in October 1990. It´s a live rehearsal demo recorded on the 18th of October 1990. The Gathering formed in 1989 and are widely considered one of the seminal death/doom metal acts from The Netherlands, although they would later considerably change their music style.

The demo features five tracks and a total playing time of 23:41 minutes. Opening track "Second Sunrise" and the third track "Downfall" would be re-recorded and included on The Gathering´s second demo recording "Moonlight Archer" from April 1991. "Second Sunrise" would even subsequently make it unto the band´s 1992 debut full-length studio album "Always...".

Stylistically The Gathering play a relatively unique death/doom metal style, which may have some similarities to artists like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, but because they use keyboards/piano as a dominant instrument in the music still sounds vastly different from the early releases from other contemporary death/doom metal artists. On this demo they also play considerably faster than they would on subsequent releases (a track like "Six Dead, Three to Go" is almost melodeath before such a genre term was coined), making this an occasionally relatively energetic release. Lead vocalist Bart Smits´s vocals are semi/growling or throaty shouting (even some hardcore tinged cleans) rather than his later brutal deep (yet intelligible) growling vocals.

The sound production is pretty decent considering that this is a live rehearsal demo. It´s almost a matter of course that not all instruments are equally well balanced in the mix, but to my ears The Gathering have managed to record a very well sounding rehearsal demo. Upon conclusion it was probably for the best that the band opted to cut the faster paced tracks from their repertoire. It´s not that tracks like "Six Dead, Three to Go" or "Another Day" are awful or anything like that, but it´s definitely the slow and epic death/doom metal tracks on the demo which make most impact (I´d say "Downfall" in particular). A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.