1. alternative… Read Full Bio ↴There are several bands called The Gathering is an:
1. alternative rock / progressive rock formed in Oss, the Netherlands, in 1989. Similar to: Anathema (mid/late albums), Pink Floyd, The 3rd and the Mortal (late), Radiohead, Portishead, Piano Magic, Talk Talk (late), Motorpsycho. However, in their first albums they were more similar to Anathema (early), Paradise Lost, The 3rd and the Mortal (early), Type O Negative, Dead Can Dance, Theatre Of Tragedy (early), My Dying Bride, Tiamat.
Initially, at the start of their career, they were a gothic metal / doom metal band. Their most successfull album in this period is their 1995 release "Mandylion". However, they shifted towards their current form, incorporating many influences from atmospheric rock, trip hop, space rock, dream pop, post rock, pop rock, alternative rock, with their 1998 release "How to Measure a Planet?" . Their historical singer was Anneke Van Giersbergen , who joined in 1995 for the album "Mandylion" but left the band in 2007 after the album "Home". She was later replaced by Silje Wergeland , who debuted in the album "The West Pole".
The band announced a hiatus in 2014, which was later interrupted in 2022 with the release of "Beautiful Distortion". The current line-up consists of Silje Wergeland (lead vocals), René Rutten (guitars and flute), Frank Boeijen (keyboards), and Hans Rutten (drums). The band had some line-up changes during the years, the most notable being Silje Wergeland replacing in 2009 the former singer Anneke van Giersbergen (who was a member from 1994 to 2007).
Initially they were in the vein of bands like Paradise Lost, Anathema or The Third and the Mortal.
Their first two albums, Always... (1992) in the death metal/doom metal style of the era and Almost a Dance (1993) that, though always regarded as a failure, played a part in the formation of gothic metal, were recorded with four different vocalists. Their subsequent release, Mandylion (1995), on which Anneke van Giersbergen sang for the first time, was a dark, haunting, and emotional piece of music. It was also one of the first albums of its kind in respect to female fronted metal bands, and it is still considered a standard by many female fronted metal bands.
Nighttime Birds (1997) continued in the same vein.
How to Measure a Planet? (1998) signed a departure from their previous style, while adopting an atmospheric sound with roots in space rock, shoegaze, trip hop, progressive and alternative rock. Their following studio albums if_then_else (2000) and Souvenirs (2003) showed progress and maturation of the band.
There is also an electro-acoustic live album Sleepy Buildings: A Semi Acoustic Evening, which was released in 2004, and was followed by a similar semi-acoustic tour.
Their 8th studio album, Home, was released in April 2006. The Gathering has promoted this album with a tour and festivals for the rest of 2006-2007.
Last March 24th, in Santiago, Chile, the band recorded a live DVD entitled "A Noise Severe" more rock oriented, to complete the previously released DVD "A Sound Relief", which featured a more acoustic set. It was released with little delay at the end of November 2007, together with live 2CD from same place.
On June 5, 2007 it was announced that Anneke is going to leave The Gathering in August 2007 to focus on her new project, Agua de Annique and her family.
After van Giersbergen leaving, the band started working on new songs and finding new singers. With finding Silje Wergeland from Norway the band again completed the line up. Silje has been the singer of the Norwegian band Octavia Sperati for 8 years including several other projects. 9th album The West Pole also includes two very talented guest singers: the Dutch Anne van den Hoogen and Mexican Marcela Bovio (from Stream of Passion). The West Pole is a very vital, atmospheric and extravert rock orientated album, with all the quality and power the band is so famous for, also with many new elements. The sound is guitar driven, alive and urgent; a strong and beautifully coloured album with haunting female vocals. It’s produced by guitar player René Rutten and mixed & mastered by Zlaya Hadzich, who also did the production of Souvenirs.
10th full length Disclosure was released in September 2012.
They released Afterwords in 2013. ]Marjolein Kooijman (bass) left only a few months later.
http://www.gathering.nl
2. Gothic Rock band from Pretoria, South Africa, active in the second half of the 1980s. The Gathering released the 7inch single "Night and Day/Falling Crimson" and a handful of compilation tracks, e.g. "Perfect Souls" and "Wooden Walls" in 1988. The Gathering’s only full-length album, titled 'In the End", is a labour of love that’s taken the better part of 23 years to realise.
Subzero
The Gathering Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Drain emotions from my bleeding soul
Tears that follow burn my skin
Dread to see myself, I ain't me
The sun encircles my shape on the ice
In my shadow I see people below
Their frozen faces staring blank
Thousand degrees below
Ice age has begun, Subzero
Emotions running low
My heart is so cold, Subzero
Hatred in words, spewing from their mouths
Verbal injection of a freezing void
Sunrise in three directions
As all the faces turn to laugh
Thousand degrees below
Ice age has begun, Subzero
Emotions running low
My heart is so cold, Subzero
The lyrics of The Gathering's song Subzero describe a deep sense of detachment and nihilism from the persona's own emotions and other people's emotions. The first verse describes the singer's mind as a cold lake, where all emotions (and perhaps, positive feelings) have escaped, and their soul is bleeding. The tears that they shed as a result of their lack of emotions and detachment, burn their skin. The singer is so critical of themselves that they dread looking at themselves because they can't recognize who they really are. In the second verse, the singer is surrounded by ice and the sun overhead. They see people beneath them whose faces are frozen, staring blankly, and crying without a sound.
The chorus describes the world around the singer, who believes that the Ice Age has begun, and the temperature is thousand degrees below zero. The world is empty of emotion, and the singer's heart is so cold, they feel nothing. The third verse describes people's hatred towards the persona. The world around them is so cold that people inject a freezing void with their words. Even when the sun rises, it doesn't bring any warmth or comfort. Instead, the people turn to laugh derisively, as if there's nothing that can warm their hearts again. Finally, the chorus repeats, emphasizing the emptiness and coldness of the world, and the singer's apathy and numbness towards everything.
Line by Line Meaning
The bowels of my thoughts, icy lake
My innermost feelings are cold and frozen, like an icy lake
Drain emotions from my bleeding soul
My emotions are draining out of me, leaving my soul wounded and bleeding
Tears that follow burn my skin
The tears I shed are so painful that they feel like they are burning my skin
Dread to see myself, I ain't me
I am filled with dread when I look at myself, as I don't recognize the person I have become
The sun encircles my shape on the ice
The sun is shining down on me, casting a shadow on the icy surface beneath me
In my shadow I see people below
When I look at my shadow, I see the faces of people staring up at me from below
Their frozen faces staring blank
The people below me have blank, frozen expressions on their faces
All crying without a sound
Despite their frozen expressions, I can sense that the people below me are silently crying
Thousand degrees below
The temperature is impossibly low, reaching a thousand degrees below zero
Ice age has begun, Subzero
The world around me is entering an eternal winter, reaching a point of no return
Emotions running low
My emotions are becoming numb and difficult to feel
My heart is so cold, Subzero
I feel like my heart has turned to ice, making it impossible to feel or care about anything
Hatred in words, spewing from their mouths
The people below me are spewing hateful words towards me, causing even more pain
Verbal injection of a freezing void
Their hateful words are like a shot of ice to my soul, causing me to feel even more hollow and numb
Sunrise in three directions
The sun is rising on all sides of me, casting an eerie glow on everything around me
As all the faces turn to laugh
Despite my pain and suffering, the people below me seem to find some sick joy in my misery
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Anneke van Giersbergen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind