| The Gathering | Willemeen-Arnhem | Nov 08, 2002 |
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It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a The Gathering concert. Last time was at the Lowlands Festival some time ago. This year the band decided to tour the Netherlands extensively. After their promise to sound more doom and gloomy it was time for my dark soul to get out to Arnhem to see the band once again. Unfortunately the weather felt the same way, so the rain was pouring out of the dark sky. Terranoid This Dutch band played a mixture of funky grooves and heavy hard rocking guitar. The grooves came from a DJ with a female bass player. I knew the faces from a bar I (and also some members from The Gathering) used to go a lot so I expect that these two guys and one female are originally from my hometown, Nijmegen. Although the band made some good and intriguing music it lacked passion. A direct hit to my nerve system. The man with the good voice was at his best when he put all his attention to his guitar. At those moments he reminded me a lot of ‘old’ guitar heros like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie van Halen. One of their influences could be Frank Zappa. This band was nice enough to be the opener of tonight. For more information (in Dutch) go to www.terranoid.com. The Gathering Now, many years later The Gathering is a well-oiled machine. The movement of Anneke is sometimes theatrical (at least with her hands), but never out of touch with the music. Her voice is mostly heavenly although my critical soul sometimes wonders why she always has to sing so difficult. All these high notes mixed with her normal – beautiful – voice. “Strange Machines” hasn’t become their breakthrough single for nothing. This song is relatively easy to listen to in The Gathering terms. On the other hand, who cares anyway? The Gathering shows that making good music isn’t about making new singles or creating the next hype. This band was ahead of the current Gothic Metal hype and has evolved into an alternative rock band with progressive influences. Musically the band now has some slower and darker moments than I heard on their earlier work during How To Measure A Planet and If Then Else. One of their new songs, ‘Debris’ (from Black Light District), sounded promising for their new album (early 2003). The band showed that they were in the right shape to keep the sold out Willemeen in a The Gathering trance.
And when we went outside the Willemeen we kept our gloomy state. The rain was still pouring down, but this time we didn’t feel it anyway...
(Review: Beautevil |
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© Rockezine.com Nov 08, 2002, viewed 1191 times since 666
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