The Gathering: Biography

    Holland's most successful band, theGATHERING have managed to pleasantly surprise the listener with every new album. Throughout their ten years together, theGATHERING have managed to deliver an aurally-extravagant listening experience with each album adding numerous pages to their musical journal, something most other groups strive for but fail to accomplish. One-and-a-half years after the highly-successful Nighttime Birds, the band has released their third album for Century Media Records, How To Measure A Planet? Delivering a greater sense of atmosphere, while still maintaining songs, they have released an album that will gain them the world-wide attention that they so deserve.

    Formed in October of 1989, theGATHERING began their career as a Celtic Frost/Hellhammer-inspired act before changing their direction towards a more experimental, atmospheric approach. Issued in June 1992, their debut album, Always..., became a great success on the European continent. Following the debut in late 1993, Almost A Dance featured a less guitar driven sound, resulting in a mixed response from the public. Disillusioned by the group's vocal direction, theGATHERING sought out to find a suitable vocalist with whom they could fully realize their musical goals. Enter Anneke van Giersbergen, a gifted 21-year-old female whose personality and musical vision perfectly complemented that of the rest of the band. Anxious to incorporate new influences from groups as diverse as Dead Can Dance, Slow Dive and Pink Floyd into their unique brand of atmospheric metal, theGATHERING opted to allow Anneke's emotional delivery to be the main vocal focus in the band. After signing with Century Media the band entered Woodhouse Studios to begin work on Mandylion, an inspired creation that melded their unique talents together with the exceptional skills of producer Waldemar Sorychta (Tiamat, Moonspell, Sentenced). At once inspirational, reminiscent and somber, Mandylion served as a wake-up call amidst a sea of music bereft of passion. They shared their aural experiences with thousands of others throughout live performances around Europe, including appearances at the 1996 Dynamo Open Air and Pink Pop festivals. 1997 brought the revered Nighttime Birds, a journey of countless transcendental moments which individually conjures the imagery of long-ago memories, long-abandoned goals and long-forgotten loves. Songs are not something that can simply be created by theGATHERING, they must develop over time -- each track has a purpose and its own inspiration.

    Taking advantage of several studios in Amsterdam, Holland and working with producer Attie Bauw (Fight, The Scorpions), How To Measure A Planet? was created in an unconventional, yet modern way. The freedom given by working within a more or less "virtual studio" led to constant revision and reinterpretation of each song, giving theGATHERING the inspiration to come up with enough material for two complete albums, making it the first-ever true double album in Century Media's history (which will be sold for the price of a single disc). The atmosphere on How To Measure A Planet? is very diverse, sometimes slumbered and laid-back, sometimes extremely heavy and driving. Incorporating more ethereal and dramatic elements with inspiring hooks, How To... is a musical vacuum that is as beautiful as it is euphorically rocking. Of the fourteen tracks offered, some are very guitar-oriented while others lean strongly on keyboards and mechanical-like samples. Without labeling the CD as "conceptual", an overall theme of traveling (not only over land and through space, but also through the growth and maturing of one's mind and soul) is readily apparent in all of the album's textural and musical forms, with each track having its own place, and its own space. So buckle up and prepare for an out-of-body experience that will tingle your sensed and trip your mind.