The Gathering
The West Pole

Three years have passed since the last studio album, "Home," and a lot has happened in the meantime; the most important: after thirteen years of partnership, singer Anneke van Giersbergen decides to leave the group to focus on her family and a new project of her own, Agua de Annique. A somewhat unadventurous choice by The Gathering, in hiring a replacement singer with a voice as similar as possible to Anneke's: the Norwegian Silje Wergeland, former vocalist of Octavia Sperati.

But let's move on to the album.

The first track, "When Trust Becomes Sound" seems to be a statement of intent, not surprisingly one of the most powerful pieces of their entire career; it's an instrumental track, reminiscent of the good old days of "Black Light District," with distorted guitars at the forefront and Hans going wild on the drums.

Guitars still take the lead in the next three tracks, "Treasure", "All You Are", and "The West Pole", which were already available to listen to on the band's MySpace before the album's release; they are pleasant and very catchy pieces, and the title track, in its six and a half minutes, has a really interesting evolution that eases the initial fervor and introduces us to the relaxing "No Birds Call", where Frank with his keyboards is the dominant force.

"Capital of Nowhere", another truly valid track, begins with a delicate guitar arpeggio accompanied by the voice of Anne von den Hoogen, the first of the two guest vocalists, then concludes with a guitar part initially reminiscent of the end of "Waking Hour" (from the previous album "Home"), but that resolves into a very compelling progression.

"You Promised Me a Symphony" is the classic piano and voice ballad, entirely written by the new singer Silje: neither praise nor blame, there's little to say. "Pale Traces", sung by Marcela Bovio, the second guest vocalist, partially echoes the structure of "Capital of Nowhere", and introduces violins in the final part that attempt to emphasize a song otherwise lacking really interesting cues.

"No One Spoke" brings back the strong presence of the guitars and connects to tracks like "Treasure" and "All You Are"; it's the last breath of fresh air before the final track, almost eight minutes long, "A Constant Run", where the chemistry between guitars and keyboards is perfectly balanced; the chorus is still catchy and then turns instrumental in the last three minutes of the song, although this time the risk of becoming boring is just around the corner.

In conclusion, a definitely pleasant album, but one that pays the price for all the expectations built over these three years; those who love The Gathering and have followed them for years know that originality and the ability to surprise their audience with every album are their winning card, but this time, it’s disappointing to admit, they really didn’t put much effort. Let's hope it's a transition album, and that next time they deliver work worthy of their name.