The Gathering - The West Pole

\r\nThe change of a frontman is rarely a good thing. The only quick example of a change that stood the test of time is Bruce Dickinson over Paul Di Anno. But that‘s another story in different times.  The Dutch Goth-atmospheric-prog-rockers (Lets face it, they’ve distanced themselves from metal) are making their first move since the departure of frontwoman Anneke van Giersbergen in 2007.
\r\nFirst of all I‘d like to make clear that the only reason that you’re seeing A Gathering review here is their past and only. Gathering is a rock band but the excellence of Anneke voice and albums such as Mandylion and Nightime Birds still doesn’t allow metal press to ignore them. Anneke’s replacement, Silje Wergeland of Norwegian Goth-Doomers Octavia Sperati, has a fine voice indeed. I’ m cool with her voice. She’s quite similar to Anneke in breathy, yearning style too. This album musically follows its predecessor Home. Nothing new and to be honest I wasn’t expecting any. In every case you won’t find any serious flaw here. The power of Gathering was always Anneke‘s voice. They didn’t lose it with her departure. They wrote this album with the same principal in mind. Everything is written around vocals.The bad thing is that I cannot find in ‘’ The West Pole’’ any innovative ideas that they always had. Home was cute. I was listening to it for 2 weeks. Now I don’t remember anything from it. That I think is ‘’the West Pole’s ‘’ destiny too. Although its above average, it surely is another step down towards mediocrity. The Gathering lost their little uniqueness in their music. They still deliver good music but at the same time the competition nowadays is hard and I can find lots of fresh sound around. The songs are pleasant enough but nothing special. The band plays with ambient sound and flirts with alternative once more.
\r\n All in all The West Pole is an album that nobody will hate, its pleasant with nice production and if you like the 00’s sound of the band  there is nothing wrong with it. Additionally newcomers to the band may well love it. From the other hand this album fails hard if you compare it with past efforts.
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\r\nVassilis ’ fixxxer’ Tserpes\r\n

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