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| The idea of atmospheric symphonic prog-metal seems to breed a lot of watered-down prog "metal" bands whose music is prog without the complexity and metal without the power. There are a few bands, though, that get it right, and The Gathering is one of them, at least on this release (their third but first with vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen), which is usually regarded as their masterpiece. The musicians here combine crunching yet fluid guitar work with lots of spacy keyboards and powerful vocals. The group's selling point, of course, is van Giersbergen's voice, which is clear, assertive, and a far cry from your typical screeching metal vocalists. Overall, the feel created by this combination of spaciness and crunch is one of majesty. The last three tracks of the album express this perfectly: the title track is a mysterious instrumental that makes good use of exotic percussion sounds; "Sand and Mercury" is an extended track that builds beautifully to a nice climax; and the closer is the most overtly symphonic piece of the album. My only real complaint is that sometimes the high-flying wonder of the album is contradicted by the less-than-wondrous lyrics. I also wish the band had decided to do more compositions like the title track or "Sand and Mercury", rather than penning more simplistic song-form pieces. Despite my complaints, this is a very good album for prog fans who like some crunch to their music. review by Brandon Wu — 1-21-01 —
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