Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Re-Issue!, October 23, 2007
Seems fitting on the 10th year anniversary to reissue this one from a band that was just ahead of the wave of female fronted metal bands of the late 90's. I started with Almost A Dance, then got Mandylion (1995), and now the new double disc package of Nighttime Birds is finally here!
One of the first so called female fronted metal bands of the mid 90's, the Gathering first featured vocals by Martine van Loon, who performed on Almost A Dance a few years earlier, but not really at the forefront of many songs, it was a brief tease of things to come perhaps.
Anneke van Giersbergen fronted the band for 1995's Mandylion, and this was to me just such a wonderful album with great passion and wonderful musicianship. 1997's Nighttime Birds, continues this formula and cements them to me as the first and best to perfect this style of haunting somewhat symphonic metal featuring female vocals throughout.
Faves include "Third Chance" (love this song), it has a more streamlined chugging vibe to it, and the alternate version featured on Disc 2 is just as good I think. "The May Song" is another one along with "Confusion", and I like the vocal delivery at times on the song "New Moon, Different Day", Anneke stretches her vocals here in a segment to a slightly opera style I guess you'de perhaps call it that raises any eyebrow, and it's a really good song of course.
That there is a second disc included seals the deal for me, some nice bonus material here, some Instrumentals and covers etc. that give a slightly different dimension to the Gathering. 10 years and still sounding better than any other clones to jump on the bandwagon over the years. I also recommend Lacuna Coil, Tristania, and of course can't forget Liv Kristine and Theatre Of Tragedy also along with the Gathering, these groups carved out a very important and exciting part of music history, and that it happened in the the hard rock/metal field is a wonderful accomplishment given all the styles that existed at the time.
Pick up any Gathering release from Mandylion on and you will be equally treated to some very fine music. Almost A Dance is a slight precursor to this style, but it's not even close to what they were doing on Mandylion and Nightime Birds.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An opportunity to review the early works of a fine band!, December 19, 2007
First we had the reissue of Mandylion with valuable bonus tracks and a second cd with alternate versions of the songs, and now we have Nightime Birds, also accompanied by a second cd bonus tracks consisting in radio edits and live versions of some of the songs. Given the fact that both cds inaugurated the band's period with fabulous singer Anneke van Giersbergen, who is now gone from the band, leaving them with a huge challenge of reingenering, we have with both albums the opportunity of reviewing the construction of an original style of rock music, defined first as doom or death metal, it turns out that the music offered in these cds defy those labels. Yes, there is a strong massive guitar sound that approaches the band to some sort of heavy metal, but it is accompanied by a fine work of keyboards that serve the purpose of creating a peculiar sound that at times nears an operatic quality, and other times it reaches a delicate cadence with soothing electric guitar atmospherics and even piano harmonic touches! The good thing is that the Gathering kept evolving from here without losing the seal that they managed to fabricate in these two albums. I remember that in an interview with Anneke van Giersbergen the expression "Dream Rock" trascended in order to define what they were aiming at musically. Labels will not represent fully the richness of a band's ouput that is so original. The second cd of Nighttime Birds brings two interesting covers: Dead Can Dance¨s "In power we entrust the love advocated", and Slowdive's "When the sun hits". These covers are interesting not only for the dexterity showed by the band and Anneke van Giersbergen of assuming with their style those two distinct songs of two definitive bands in the creation of a sort of "ambient rock", but also for showing the orientation of their music interest, that later would turn in an exploration of earlier psychodelia and progressive rock, such as the works the likes of Pink Floyd, Camel and King Crimson. Definetly, the price of this cd is too cheap to own such a gem.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Monumental, December 20, 2007
What a fantastic album. It bridges several genres, from metal to goth to shoegaze, in a wonderfully seamless way. The female vocals are superb and at times hauntingly beautiful. I only wish the recent plethora of this band's imitators was as good (only Leaves' Eyes comes close, and even they are more traditionally viking-metal oriented).
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