01	Shortest Day						04:13
	02	In Between						04:44
	03	Alone						04:56
	04	Waking Hour						05:38
	05	Fatigue						01:49
	06	A Noise Severe						06:06
	07	Forgotten						03:25
	08	Solace						03:51
	09	Your Troubles Are Over						03:46
	10	Box						04:43
	11	The Quiet One						02:16
	12	Home						06:58
	13	Forgotten Reprise						07:59

The Gathering - Home
The Gathering - Home
Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Format: CD
Record Label: Psychonaut Records
Catalogue #: N04182
Year of Release: 2006
Time: 60:28
Info: The Gathering
Samples: Click here

Tracklist: Shortest Day (4:12), In Between (4:44), Alone (4:56), Waking Hour (5:38), Fatigue (1:49), A Noise Severe (6:06), Forgotten (3:25), Solace (3:51), Your Troubles Are Over (3:46), Box (4:43), The Quiet One (2:16), Home (6:58), Forgotten - Reprise (7:57)
Christopher Frick's Review

The Gathering, one of the premier Dutch bands, helped lay the foundations of the female-fronted Gothic movement which branched out to influence bands from Lacuna Coil to Nightwish to Evanescence. Singer Anneke van Giersbergen, joining the band on their third album, Mandylion, set the standard for this entire genre, and continues to impress with her beautiful voice. I sadly am not acquainted with the material between Mandylion and Home, but Anneke's first and most recent album with The Gathering have one striking thing in common: There isn't much else out there quite like them.

The Gathering formed in 1989, and after two albums and some line-up changes released Mandylion in 1995. This is when Anneke joined the band, 11 years and six albums ago. The Gathering have made quite a name for themselves since then, and understandably so. They began the movement which was brought into the mainstream's consciousness over half a decade later by bands like Lacuna Coil, but the credit of origination goes to The Gathering. The Gathering today consists of Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals, Rene Rutten on guitars, Marjolein Kooijman on bass, Hans Rutten on drums, and Frank Boeijen on keys.

Home opens with Shortest Day, a good indicator of what this album will bring. It begins with an effects-laden guitar, and is soon joined by pulsating drums and light keys, giving a sensation of watching clouds rush by on the wind of a late Spring afternoon. Anneke soon joins them, her soothing voice doubled and harmonized for much of the song. I should note that Home is a blend of electronic and gothic pseudo-rock, featuring a lot of almost ambient and certainly mood-driven passages, a significant departure from the gothic-metal approach initially adopted by the band. There are industrial touches, mostly from the keyboards, and a few drum rhythms which would qualify as metal if the guitars were cranked up about three notches, but the overall combination of elements on this album keep it from ever getting too heavy or noisy.

In Between opens with airy keys and electronic drums, before assuming a "standard" rock feel (if anything about this band can ever be called "standard"). This song is reminiscent of parts of Mandylion, as well as fellow Gothic pioneers Tiamat's Wildhoney album. The layered wordless vocal ending to this song ranks among the most soothing and captivating moments on the album, almost a full minute of Anneke's voice over a background of haunting keyboards.

Alone opens with faux-piano, is joined by electronic, almost industrial keys and guitar, and brings in electronic drums with the vocals. This song is haunting, and conjures a feeling of distance, especially in the twisted hyper-effect guitar "solos." Alone also shows one of the widest ranges of genres coming together in a single song on Home, effectively demonstrating the excellent production and sound of this album across every blend of genres, all in one five-minute package.

The opening measures of Waking Hour feature a pulsing rhythm of electronic drums (sounding something like a twenty-megaton raindrop) and something between an alarm clock and a power drill. Without Anneke, this eerie and intriguing song could pass as a New Age or electronic offering, perhaps with a few industrial touches, but for a change Anneke actually adds the darker element to this song. The end of the song, the last minute or so, changes to an almost pop feel, reminding me of Sarah Brightman singing along with Mike Oldfield's The Songs Of Distant Earth.

The bridge between Alone and A Noise Severe is a two-minute interlude called Fatigue. This is mostly electronic fiddling around on the keyboard, with Anneke singing something vague in the very distant background for about a third of the piece. A Noise Severe starts off with a jazzy feel, with clean guitars and laid-back drums, again largely held in The Gathering's realm by Anneke's voice. Accents of fuzz-drenched guitar keep the song moving, which I'm afraid it needs...this is one song that could have probably been a little shorter, there just isn't enough going on at times to create a flow.

Forgotten is a beautiful, touching, and slightly haunting song, featuring Anneke and a piano. That's it. It isn't until the last minute of the song that the vocals even have any doubling, which makes Forgotten as intimate as it is captivating. Solace, however, opens with a woman speaking in a language which I can only vouch for being something other than English (my best guess, from the little I know, is Spanish), over a steady beat on what sounds something like a muted tambourine, which is suddenly joined with a slightly irritating and/or noisy drum. This song is probably the hardest on the album to "get into," as the raw techno/tribal beat is so aggressive and steady that everything else fades to the background and is difficult to sort out.

Your Troubles Are Over features a brief a cappella moment, in doubled harmony, before a much less dominating tribal-esque beat and soft keys form the rhythm of this song. Aside from the doubled harmony, this song flows well but doesn't offer anything outstanding or new. Box is not dissimilar to Forgotten, although the piano is replaced with a clean electric guitar. A minute and a half into the song the drums enter, but they stay in the background and let Anneke hold the front. The last minute of the track is a sequence of industrial noise keys and electronic drums.

The second instrumental track on Home, The Quiet One, features an acoustic guitar and Anneke's voice, later joined by jazzy guitar and drums, giving this song a very intimate and earthy feel. The title track, Home, opens with a muted wah-pedal guitar and static hum, giving way to an alternative-rock vibe and Anneke's ethereal, detached voice. Much of this song is reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan's work. Home is enjoyable, but not outstanding, a good and well-rounded track but lacking excitement and flair.

The final cut, Forgotten Reprise, is an extended reworking of Forgotten, as its name implies. This track opens with enchanting, bell-like keys, rather than the piano of the original, which quite honestly fit Anneke's voice a bit more fully for this song. The reprise puts the emphasis on "captivating" and "haunting," but suffers from the same technique Ray Wilson used on the last track of his Change disc - namely, a four-minute fade-out which, while appropriately closing the album, is a little clichй and not exactly the most interesting trick in the music business.

Overall, this is a really REALLY good disc, full of moody Goth-ish electronic-tinged rock, sure to please fans of The Gathering's former work and fans of anything unusual, as well as those who enjoy female-fronted rock bands. Anneke's voice is one of a kind, and, as this album shows, I doubt she'll be disappointing listeners any time soon. A couple of songs, most notably Solace, didn't impress me too much, but the entire album is very interesting and full of surprises, if not jaw-droppers. There is a formula here, with enough variations to keep listeners intrigued but not so much that each song presents a completely new side of the band. The Gathering have been doing this a long time, and they are very good at it. While they have continued to evolve, they haven't forgotten where, and what, they started.
Christos Ampatzis' Review

Before getting my hands on Home, I have to say that I was a little bit scared because I read some interviews where singer Anneke Van Giersbergen mentioned that the album rocks! Yeah! So I was kind of worried this marvellous band would turn to a commercial sound in order to appeal to a new audience. Obviously not targeting the same audience as Theatre Of Tragedy or Nightwish, I was scared that The Gathering would go for a type of Evanescence audience. The first relief came with the MP3 they gave on their website of Shortest Day. Well, it was kind of more mainstream but it simply did not "rock"! Now, after many many listenings, I regret not trusting the band, but I also have to disagree with the vocalist on this issue!

To me The Gathering have been basically using a kind of pair-wise strategy when writing albums. I still see Mandylion / Nighttime Birds and How To Measure A Planet / If_Then_Else as brothers (not twins though!). Home does resemble Souvenirs, but it still is different. Less trip-hop, darker, more coherent and mature, and yes, better (Souvenirs was a great album nonetheless).

The album treats every day life, its dead-ends, modern life and finding your way through it. The lyrics are exceptionally good, probably the best Anneke ever produced, but they also reflect in the music. The catchy Shortest Day manages to capture the rush, the (hard to get into) Solace the noise, A Noise Severe the lack of purpose and meaning in our lives. But the album is not about grief, to me it actually radiates hope, reflected subtly and indirectly after many many listens, through tracks like Forgotten, Your Troubles Are Over, Box, and even the doomy title track. Home is the best example of this duel between darkness and light: a very doomy song skeleton, and yet such a sweet refrain.

In this album one can find a couple of potential small hits, mainly the bombastic Alone. Actually the three opening tracks are easier to get into than the rest of the album. A glance into the earlier days is thrown with Waking Hour, in the middle of which Anneke carries you away with an almost solo performance. The backbone of the album is the beautiful piano-ballad Forgotten, which also closes the album, making this hidden and lurking optimism a bit more evident and easier to grasp. Your Troubles Are Over is obviously the brightest track of the album, followed by (at this moment) my favourite of all: Box. Experimentation once again is very visible (and may I add very welcome!), and this band proves once again that it is not afraid to explore, always within "rational" boundaries. Guitarist Rene has completely quit solos, but his presence in the song-writing is still very dominant, and if I can trace and isolate his ideas in the songs, they are brilliant. Beautiful and inspired keys and sounds effects adorn the music. The artwork is very well taken care of and fits together with the music. Anneke seems flawless, capturing and breath-taking at moments, revealing a very broad range of influences and voice potential. This time she does not go that loud, simply because this is not the goal of this esoteric and rather introverted album. I should mention here that the purchase of the CD gives the listener the access to bonus material on the web, but a little bit disappointing, some sound clips of previous releases and footages on the making of the album.

When maturity blends in with progress, we come to this kind of results. The album grows and matures with time and for sure requires the listener to devote several hours to it, sit back, relax and let go. Personally, Home shares the prize of best Gathering album together with How To Measure A Planet. Less trippy, darker and more mature than its predecessor, sensitive and balanced but ambitious, it will definitely appeal to fans of the band that accepted the removal of the metal veneer and the putting on of a new, more independent outfit. As for new fans? This is a tricky question. Such a pity they will always be promoted next to atmospheric metal and gothic bands...Once again, well done.

Conclusions:

CHRISTOPHER DANE FRICK : 8 out of 10
CHRISTOS AMPATZIS : 9 out of 10