spielwiese. (Posts about nighttime birds.)https://spielwiese.fontein.de/tag/nighttime-birds.atom2019-11-17T10:45:17ZfelixNikolathe gathering.https://spielwiese.fontein.de/2008/02/23/the-gathering/2008-02-23T18:16:28+01:002008-02-23T18:16:28+01:00felix<div><p>yesterday i stumbled about <a href="http://www.gathering.nl/">the gathering</a>‘s latest live dvd, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Noise_Severe">a noise severe</a>, recorded in march 2007 in chile. a few months later, their singer, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneke_van_Giersbergen">anneke van giersbergen</a>, quit the band. (which, in my opinion, is the end of the band; if they will continue, they will be something very different…)<br>
the dvd contains a lot of songs from their older albums, like the “debut” <a href="https://spielwiese.fontein.de/2007/10/18/mandylion/">mandylion</a> (their first album with anneke and, in my opionion, their best one), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighttime_Birds">nighttime birds</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_To_Measure_A_Planet%3F">how to measure a planet?</a> (which i don’t like too much) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_then_else">if_then_else</a>. the first two can be more categorized as <a href="https://spielwiese.fontein.de/2008/01/18/doomology/">atmospheric doom</a> with progmetal and gothic influences, while <i>how to measure a planet?</i> drifts off into a very experimental alternative rock/prog direction; the last, <i>if_then_else</i>, is more into a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_rock">trip rock</a>.<br>
well, so much about the facts.<br>
i’ve already mentioned <a href="https://spielwiese.fontein.de/2007/10/18/mandylion/">several</a> <a href="https://spielwiese.fontein.de/2007/12/26/best-albums-so-far/">times</a> that <i>mandylion</i> is <i>really</i> good. and i’ll do it again. it’s one of the few albums (next to <i>sentenced</i>‘s <i>frozen</i>) where i like every track, to which i can listen for hours, again and again. so filled with energy, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_%28music%29">groove</a>, raw power, emotions. so beautiful. (my favorite song is probably <i>leaves</i>, whose music video you can watch <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=5ZICzcPJjwk">here</a>.)<br>
well, <i>mandylion</i> is their best album, i’d say, but they also have other good ones. one which i don’t really know—shame on me!—is <i>nighttime birds</i>, <i>mandylion</i>‘s successor, which seems to be very good, too. and there’s <i>if_then_else</i>, which has several really good tracks, like the melancholic <a href="http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/thegathering/ifthenelse.html#9">saturnine</a> or a beautiful instrumental called <i>beautiful war</i>.<br>
somehow it’s <i>really</i> a pity that i never managed to see them.</p>
<blockquote><p class="quote">“the day you went away<br>
you had to screw me over<br>
i guess you didn’t know<br>
all the stuff you left me with<br>
is way too much to handle<br>
but i guess you don’t care”</p>
<p class="quoteorigin">from <a href="http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/thegathering/ifthenelse.html#9">saturnine</a> by <a href="http://www.gathering.nl/">the gathering</a>.</p>
</blockquote></div>