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Rating: A worthy successor to the (justly) acclaimed "Mandylion," this "Nighttime Birds" develops and expands its structures, adding to the occasional doom gloominess of the first with much more airy and ethereal melodic lines strongly indebted to the Seventies' psychedelia (already perceived beforehand, especially in some tracks). The album does not reach the depth of "Mandylion," which at the time was striking, especially for the surprise and fresh air it brought, but it certainly stands a little below it, gradually becoming appreciated and bringing with it, with each listen, slight flurries of snow (evoked by the masterful cover) and a general dreamy and chilly atmosphere, warmed only by the warmth of Anneke's splendid voice, possibly even more mature, powerful and crystalline.
The sense of balance, harmony, perfection in execution, and the skillful dosage of different melodic elements make this work a small gem, seemingly made to be listened to during those moments of reflection or when one needs for a moment that gentle sadness, a necessary element of stasis yet also of transition in our moods.
Difficult to list the most beautiful and significant tracks. The opening "On Most Surfaces" is striking, love at first listen. It starts immediately, slightly oriental, evolving quickly into a short but persistent arpeggio in the memory and then continues with marvelous electric walls between doom and gothic. Anneke welcomes the listener with her wonderful trills, a pure and angelic hand that seems to drag you out of a fiery magma in which you sink. The chorus is poetic and evocative, as is the break, at the peak of the song's intensity.
"Confusion" appears much more reflective and set to lower and melancholic tones, thanks in part to a present and extremely constructive bass that weaves rich rhythmic textures on which a melancholic guitar riff and a now more suffering and subdued singing climb. The second part of the song increases the tempo, with six strings now more airy and dreamy, projected in a leap towards nothing which then inevitably falls back into the marvelous torpor of the entire track.
"The May Song" captivates immediately with its seventies keyboards and atmosphere more distant from doom and closer to a refined and elegant gothic (although it seems somewhat forced to channel this song into any genre). Worth noting is again the singer, here engaged in an impressive rise and fall of tones, highlighting the elasticity and plasticity of her vocal cords. In my opinion, the best metal singer ever.
Very dark and dreamy is "The Earth Is My Witness," a track endowed with absolutely shadowy pathos and devastating cadence, heavily indebted to the slow and bone-crushing sounds found in "Mandylion," with an absolutely impressive chorus enriched by sublime keyboards.
"Third Chance" stands out from all the rest. The track is a frenzied and vaguely gothic ride that focuses heavily on the high level of involvement aroused by the chorus. One would think it's a breaking track, based on a strangely "lively" structure, certainly not typical for the Gathering heard so far, yet captivating enough.
"Kevin's Telescope" is the track that most recalls the previous work in terms of melodic and dreamy part. A soft and delicate keyboard carpet accompanies us through the entire song, a cloudy nighttime sky with some clear patches from which the stars peep through, yet occasionally streaked by flashes, electric discharges, visual messengers of a distant storm growing ever closer, of which we tangibly sense the tension accumulating in the air.
The title track is absolutely the most atmospheric piece, sweetly melancholic, wintery, and icy present on the album. Anneke's voice seems to come from afar, telling us of ancestral stories set in cold Nordic nights where the placid sea patiently breaks the ice that winter gradually forms, and a gentle breeze moves the frozen branches of the trees, from which flocks of dark birds rise in the sky, performing swoops in the starry sky, carried by the wind. The atmosphere is almost unreal, static, and metaphysical, full of incredible calm yet tinged with a very subtle and acute melancholy.
The journey can be said to conclude with the intense piano-vocal ballad "Shrink." This structure has been attempted by many in the metal field, often only copying a single molecule of the emotional universe one experiences in this track, through the powerful and evocative voice of the singer.
With this album, the group seems to open up to new paths, far from the initial doom-gothic yet no less evocative. It is true that with a singer of such stature, they can truly produce anything, but the experimentation is not blind (or exclusively mainstream), it follows a melancholic and psychedelic vein that from here on will be the band's trademark, excluding it from any genre and categorizing it into the pantheon of those "practically perfect" bands.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 On Most Surfaces (Inuït) (06:54)
The frost hits me in the eye
And wakes me
These are blury winters
And I cannot see
I walk into the white light of the snow
When the sun comes
I break it with my shadow
Which tales me where I go
The frost hits me in the eye
And wakes me
I am the snow falling down on you
I tear up your face with my frost
And make you run to somewhere warm
When I come I see you get away
I brust out about your emptyness
The frost hits me in the eye
And wakes me
These are blury winters
02 Confusion (06:33)
False eyes are staring
disrespectfully and untrue
The burden that we are carrying
is way too much for me and you
Sometimes it is better to lay
Don't you think?
I'm evaporating
A veil of smoke is what I am
Your thoughts will take on their way
To grow old and to be certain
03 The May Song (03:44)
I'm waiting for your hands
to fold around my wrist
I'm mellowing in warm grass
and the scent of you I've missed
And blue is representing
the draft in my heart
I'm wandering through thin skies
and the transparent air I've missed
Pale is my face
you might want to colour
while I breathe
I'm following large drops of rain
with my eyes on the sight of you I've missed
Pale is my face
you might want to colour
while I breathe
04 The Earth Is My Witness (05:31)
Mother earth look at her closely
she looks at her baby and she sighs
the slight breathing pause that she takes it builds her and
makes her strong
She refuses to give her up
and we close our eyes
Her hands touch the round stomach
and feel the kick
The eyes that have seen so much cry
with the water she starts to rinse her face
And refuses to give her up
And we close our eyes
And you close your eyes
05 New Moon, Different Day (06:06)
I'm at the waterside
my cold feet are numb
and I follow my dream
I want to cross
I want to get inside
The clouds make a circle
on the soil that I'm on
and I trust what surrounds me
I want to cross
I break the storm through the clouds
I'm on the other side
I watch time pass
and I see, I have to go along
with the water that will lead the way
and I feel, the rain on my head
and the drops hit me one by one
I break the storm through the clouds
06 Third Chance (05:25)
Fear and sweat, my muscles ache.
I smile, but it's just a fake.
I fade away.
It troubles me, what you're gonna say:
Just a day away,
And you will be here to stay.
I wait and I wait,
And what I really hate
Is the panic that stops me from breathing.
My knees hit the floor
And I panic more,
Until you open my door.
This whole world could explode around us.
Will they ever know
We had a third chance?
I wait and I wait,
And what I really hate
Is the panic that stops me from breathing.
My knees hit the floor
And I panic more,
Until you open my door.
08 Nighttime Birds (07:02)
Their ways are open
they spread as their wings
they want to be certain
of a warm surrounding
When they fly
through the night as beautiful
nighttime birds
The warm wind picks them up
When they fly
through the night as beautiful
nighttime birds
09 Shrink (04:01)
To feel this great urge
To hold and embrace you
I slowly dry out
I shrink and shrink
Until I'm gone
Nothing to make out of me
Oh what the hell went wrong
My heart gets pulled out
Into your direction
It's no use
You have forsaken me
10 Strange Machines (06:50)
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...
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Other reviews
By aniel
Anneke's wonderful voice immediately strikes you with its expressiveness and sweetness.
"Nighttime Birds" is a pearl in the musical landscape of refined and remarkable beauty.
