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Are you lovers of gothic and romantic sounds and, at the same time, do you like slow and rhythmic guitar passages in full doom style?
Well, if you mix it all with one of the most enchanting female voices ever heard, you get “Mandylion” by the Dutch band The Gathering.
Anneke Giersbergen's voice is unique and different from many of her colleagues devoted to the same music genre, characterized by a more classical, almost chamber approach to their vocal tones. Anneke, instead, excels in qualities such as sweetness and softness in her vocalisms, without exaggerating her tones to the point of self-indulgence, but maintaining her gentle grace in all sound passages, both high and low.
This difference, perhaps, finds its reason in her different repertoire compared to other vocalists from many other bands who grew up studying opera and classical singing. The singer, in fact, was recruited by the members of the band at that time after watching one of her concerts held in a pub, where she played together with her jazz group. This, mind you, happened around the mid-90s and not recently. This just to say that The Gathering is one of the first shining examples of a band led by a woman in a universe, that of gothic metal, later gothic rock, characterized, as in all rock and metal in general, by a crude and closed chauvinism.
“Mandylion”, besides being perhaps the masterpiece of their discography, is certainly one of the most beautiful albums of the last decade in the genre. An album in which melancholic and romantic atmospheres created by keyboards echo in the background, where slow riffs of the rhythmic parts insert themselves, never monotonous and heavy, but always pleasant. Starting from the opener “Strage Machines”, the listener is captured by the melody of Giersbergen's singing, by the poetic background atmosphere produced by the sound of the keyboards, and by the cadence of guitars and basses that accompany it throughout the album, reaching its peaks in the following “Elèanor”, characterized by a masterful bass line and an incredibly suggestive instrumental part, in “Motion # 1”, where the delicate progress of the keyboards strikes as a counterpoint to a very cadenced rhythm, in “Leaves”, distinguished by a dreamlike atmosphere that is hard to forget, especially in the arpeggios and guitar solo, and in “Fear the Sea”, a song that stands out from the others for a faster and heavier approach. The highest point of the album, in my opinion, is to be found in “Sand and Mercury”, where a faster first part particularly enhanced by the contribution of the piano is followed by a slower and psychedelic one in which Anneke's poignant voice emerges.
In conclusion, this album is an excellent recommendation for those who want to approach a genre that is currently, unfortunately, experiencing an unhappy and uninspired period.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Strange Machines (06:04)
it has always been in the back of my mind
dreaming about going to the corners of time
i always wanted to fly in strange machines
i wanna do centuries in a lifetime
and feel it with my hands
touch the world war II and Cleopatra
flying...
could it be that my dream would come true
building a machine that would actually do
what i want it to do
russian revolution, let's do that in one day
Beethoven and Gershwin i think that would be o.k.
more than anything i wanna fly in strange machines
i wanna do centuries in a lifetime
and see it with my eyes
watch Jesus rise, if he ever did
flying...
i wanna do centuries in a lifetime
and feel it with my hands
touch renaissance and Chaka Khan
flying...
02 Eléanor (06:41)
underneath the mask you've buried yourself into
it's coal-black
i am tired of the gulping that you do
every day a new face
what if i unscrew
your own identity
wouldn't you guess there's nothing left of you?
the quicksand of life drags us
down into the circle
one day. we might not catch you
i feel sorry for what you try to do
breaking others down. to try and to pursue
your own selfish interests
i am starting to get sick of you
whatever happened ever since you left
you make yourself and me look like fools
03 In Motion #1 (06:56)
Kill me with your thoughts
Use your mind
Hand me over to this world
Into death...
Into death...
Make me cry in vain
Leave one tear
Touch my face with your sigh
Leave me against the stream
One hundred worlds will see me
Passing by...
Kill me with your thoughts
Use your mind
Hand me over to this world
Into death...
Into death...
Make me cry in vain
Leave one tear
Touch my face with your sigh
Leave me against the stream
One hundred worlds will see me
Passing by...
Kill me with your thoughts
Use your mind
Hand me over to this world
Into death...
Into death...
Make me cry in vain
Leave one tear
Touch my face with your sigh
Leave me against the stream
One hundred worlds will see me
Passing by...
04 Leaves (06:01)
i close your eyes with my mouth
now you don't see anything
but you feel my breath all over
i can feel you too
although i don't really know you
i don't really care
cry with me, make my day
tomorrow all will be gone
all the sweetness and all the fun
no, i don't wanna know...
although i don't really know you
i don't really care
now that you're gone i don't know
how to really feel inside
baring the hope to see you again
i guess i never will
now that i do really know you
yes, i really care!
05 Fear the Sea (05:49)
water travels by itself
inspires us to fear the sea
when it affects our state of mind
we drown in our make believe
those little drops that cover two thirds
eventually there will be nothing left
but water, this water
it rules but even so
it tears apart around us
throws itself high up in the sky
never will be able to tame
07 Sand and Mercury (09:57)
My dear, don't leave me now
close at the edge of my end.
All this time you have been my friend.
Don't go, stay for a while.
My dear, you're losing me now;
this will be my last hour.
Hear my voice, see my face
see how sick I am,
how I long for your embrace.
"Nothing that happens to man is ever natural. As his presence calls the whole world into question, all man must die, and for every man whose death is an accident, and even if he knows it he senses an unjustible violation. You may agree with these words or not, those are the...the keystring of the laws of the living"
(spoken words by J.R.R. Tolkien)
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By sly
Anneke's voice, as soothing as a siren’s, celestial and pure like an angel’s voice.
This is a beautiful CD that magnificently represents musical art.
