The Gathering歌手简介:
The Gathering是荷兰最成功的歌特金属乐队，他们的每一张专辑都给听众带来新的惊喜，这支建队10余年的乐队，已经能够非常熟练把握他们在中音乐的情绪，每一张专辑的发表都给他们的音乐之旅填上灿烂夺目的一笔，带来了新的元素溶入，在获得高度赞誉的Nighttime Birds（深夜鸟群）之后，1999年Century Media Records再次为他们发行了概念专辑How To Measure a Planet?（怎样测量行星？）这张双CD专辑在保持乐队原有风格的基础上，加入了更多的变化，这支被人期待的乐队理所当然的再次成为全
世界注目的焦点。
1989年The Gathering成立，开始他们只是想做一支标新立异的死亡金属乐队，尝试一些别人没有尝试过的音乐和手法，发行了两张小样，歌特风格已经初露倪端。但在他们的内心深处永远不灭的Celtic Frost/Hellhammer（许多部分甚至和Hammerheart有着惊人的相似）给予他们灵感，1992年6月，他们发行了第一张专辑，这张专辑带有强烈的歌特风格，虽然比Paradise Lost的首张专辑要晚了一年，但在当时的启蒙性是不言而喻的，优美的键盘、浩瀚的和声运用让喜爱歌特和死亡金属的爱好者找到了共同点，这张专辑在欧洲的发行取得了空前的成功。1993年底乐队发行了第二张专辑Almost a Dance（飘飘欲仙），专辑中加重了吉他的成分，变的金属味更浓些，可这张专辑却反映平平，甚至有很多听众提出了发队意见。乐队经过反思，发觉自己很可能什么地方需要改进，很快一个21岁的天才Anneke van Giersbergen进入了他们的视线，这个美丽的女人的阴冷凄美嗓音与乐队要表达的意境完美契合，为低谷中的The Gathering重新带来了勃勃生机，在他们的音乐中能听到Dead Can Dance、Slow Dive甚至Pink Floyd…但这是一支金属乐队，你能想象吗？
乐队独特的风格被大厂牌Century Media发现，随之签约，他们有机会进入Woodhouse Studios录制他们的下一张专辑Mandylion（无意义，一种镇静剂的名字），得到公司众多名手的指点，为他们的风格做了更进一步的调整，Anneke的精神彻底溶入了乐队的音乐，此时女声已经不是点缀或者象其他一些死亡金属乐队干脆把女声做为一种乐器，而是真正意义上的主唱，一次偶然的灵感，一段对往事的伤感回忆或者一个阴沉的下午都成为Anneke的创作动机，由于她负责了全部歌词的创作，乐队的歌词也转变为探讨一些人性本质或者对神秘自然憧憬为主题的浪漫主义题材。另外要说的是这张专辑由著名的Waldemar Sorychta监制（他曾为Tiamat、Moonspell、Sentenced等著名乐队录制专辑），不难想象乐队的风格会有什么样的变化。随后他们在欧洲做了数以千记的演出，出席了包括1996的“Dynamo Open Air and PinkPop festivals”一系列由影响力的演出活动。
1997 年发行Nighttime Birds，专辑主题是对久远古代的追忆和对古代神秘魔法想象，许多片段很简单质朴，但确是The Gathering独创，每一首歌都包含有自己独特的思想角度和自己灵感。听这张专辑专辑的确有些不同的感受，对古老民族乐器的模仿和欧洲古代民族音乐的演化，都有自己的独到见解，因而这张充满了神秘的“Nighttime Birds”受到乐队有史以来最高的评价。
乐队的最新专辑“How To Measure a Planet?”在荷兰首都阿姆斯特丹的几个不同的录音室分别录制，录音和混音由Attie Bauw负责（曾为Fight、The Scorpions录制专辑），这次乐队决心突破传统，加入更多的现代感，为了表达一种自由想象的空间专辑的长度达到2CD长度，这是Century Media历史上第一张真正意义上的双专辑。具体到专辑的音乐中，“How To Measure a Planet?”中运用了更多元化的风格，时而轻松而缓慢，时而非常的沉重而强劲，充满迷幻色彩的吉他和强劲的键盘以及机械的采样效果贯穿全部14首作品。这是一张完美的概念专辑，专辑全部的主题都是围绕着太空旅行展开的，不但空间从大陆到太空而且涉及人类的意识及灵魂，整张专辑的结构严禁，而且内页的插图尽是火箭的太空舱图片以及外太空自然景观，甚至有详细的火箭设计图纸，这不象是在虚构而象一份完整的科学论文，听完这长度大约和一部电影般的专辑，你的意识就仿佛游离到体外经历了一场“意识太空旅行”。
The Gathering is a Dutch band which came to fame in the second half of 1990s with vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen.
Their first two albums, Always... (1992) and Almost a Dance (1993), which played a part in the formation of gothic metal, were recorded with four different vocalists. Their subsequent release, Mandylion (1995), featured the debut of Anneke van Giersbergen singing with the band for the first time.
Their following studio albums Nighttime Birds (1997), How to measure a planet? (1999), if then else (2000) and Souvenirs (2003) showed the progression of the band from gothic-influenced metal to a somber alternative rock. Sleepy Buildings, released in 2004, is a live semi-acoustic performance recorded by the band over a course of two nights.
The band's last album with Anneke was Home and was released in Europe and North America in April 2006.
On June 5, 2007 it was announced that Anneke is going to leave The Gathering in August 2007 to focus on a new project, Agua de Annique.[1]
On March 12, 2009 The Gathering announced that their new vocalist is Silje Wergeland (ex Octavia Sperati). And that their new album The West Pole will be released in May.
History
In 1989, brothers Hans and René Rutten and Bart Smits got together with the intention of starting a band. Soon after Hugo Prinsen Geerligs, Jelmer Wiersma and Frank Boeijen joined.
In those days they rehearsed once a week, near the small Dutch city of Oss. They had a desire to experiment rather than imitate, which would prove to be a fertile musical basis. In 1990 they recorded the rehearsal tape An Imaginary Symphony, which was sent out to all kinds of magazines. At that time, using keyboards in metal-oriented music was rather unusual, but still, most reactions were positive. Their first gig followed in January 1991, in a little town called Heesch, near Oss, opening for Deadhead and Invocator. In April 1991, the demo Moonlight Archer was recorded and picked up by several journalists. At the same time other people and bands started noticing the Gathering. Consequently, they were booked to open for bands like Samael, Morbid Angel and Death. The time was right to release an album.
After signing with Foundation 2000, Always... was released in 1992. On this album, Bart's grunts were accompanied by the female vocals of Marike Groot, who also joined the Gathering on stage for most of the gigs. This gothic/doom album was very well received and earned them many more concerts, including a few in Belgium and Israel. Unfortunately, due to a shady contract, the band would never know how many copies of Always... were sold. On top of that, the band parted with Bart and Marike because they weren't satisfied with the result.
In 1993, Almost a Dance was recorded, also on Foundation 2000. New vocalist Niels Duffhues and new female counterpart Martine van Loon turned out not to be the right choice for the Gathering. The band felt that both voices didn't really fit the music.
During auditions halfway through 1994, vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen was recruited into the band, and German label Century Media was willing to give the band a contract. The Gathering returned strong with Mandylion in 1995. The album was highly successful, especially in the Netherlands, where the single Strange Machines ended up in the Dutch charts, as did the album. Extensive touring brought them to all corners of their home country, as well as to Belgium and Germany. Expectations were high for a new album.
Nighttime Birds (1997) came into existence, but not without an effort. Writing new songs in between touring (and studying) wasn't easy, and neither was recording it. Nevertheless, the album, which was musically quite close to Mandylion, turned out to be another success. Reactions were positive and subsequent touring was even more intensive, taking the band to Eastern Europe, France, Italy and several other European countries.
At this time they started to long for something new. Jelmer even decided he didn't want to tour and play guitar as much anymore, so he left the band in July 1998. The other members wanted to try out new ideas, other instruments and different recording techniques. The result was How to measure a planet?, a varied and experimental double-album. It was harder to promote and more difficult to understand for some die-hard metal fans. Still, positive reactions came from all over the world, including the United States, where they played 14 shows during the summer of 1999.
The Gathering were also fed up with the music industry, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own label, Psychonaut Records. Always... was re-released on this label in 1999, followed by Almost a Dance in 2000, both re-mastered and fitted with new artwork. However, since their contract with Century Media hadn't ended yet, their live album Superheat (2000) was released on Century Media. Most of the songs on this album are from How to measure a planet?, the others from Mandylion and Nighttime Birds and they were recorded in several Dutch venues during 1999.
Another successful chapter in the Gathering's career followed with the release of if then else (2000). The album is filled with diverse, intense and emotional rock songs, more compact than its predecessor. Fifteen months of touring ensued, taking them to virtually every nook and cranny of Europe, with a little sidestep to Mexico, and ending with a small Dutch club tour in October 2001.
After this, the band members took a break and tended to their private lives. During this period, they ended their contract with Century Media. The Gathering had to run their new born label Psychonaut Records and their 12½-year anniversary was coming up. To celebrate this with their fans, they released the mini-CD Black Light District on their own label.
In early 2003, Souvenirs was released. Sleepy Buildings, a semi-acoustic live album, followed in 2004. This album was the last one featuring Hugo Prinsen Geerligs as the bass player. He was later replaced by Marjolein Kooijman.(Source)
The band released a DVD in 2005, entitled A Sound Relief. This contained more gentle semi-acoustic songs. But this is not their first DVD. Century Media had released In Motion without band permission at 2001. Nevertheless In Motion had an acceptable success. The next plan is to release in 2007 a second DVD (recognized for the band) A Noise Severe which features the more hard rock sound of The Gathering. This DVD was recorded in Santiago, Chile at March 24, 2007 at the Caupolican Theatre.
In April 2006 they released their 8th studio album called Home. They had toured in March in North and South America and, after a brief pause to let van Giersbergen treat a laryngitis problem, they continued their touring schedule with European dates and music festivals throughout 2006.
The Gathering toured throughout the U.S. and Canada with Lacuna Coil in the spring of 2007. On June 5, 2007, it was announced that Anneke will be leaving The Gathering to spend more time with her family and her own band, Agua de Annique. The band scheduled a final tour stop on August 4-5, 2007 at the Ankkarock Festival, Finland. The Ankkarock Festival was announced as the final performance with Anneke as vocalist.
In February 2008, The Gathering released a boxed set entitled Sand and Mercury - The Complete Century Media Years. This boxed set was limited to 3000 copies worldwide, and contained 10 discs including a selection of studio, live and compilation albums. The set also contained the audio from the In Motion DVD as a new live album, also entitled In Motion.
September 2008 The Gathering released a collection of all their old material from 1989 to 1993 on a double CD. The album contains the demos, the never released promo 1992, live tracks and the Celtic Frost cover 'Dethroned Emperor'. The songs were from the period of the first line-up with singer Bart Smits. All songs were restored and mastered by Mike Wead (King Diamond / Mercyful Fate) and was released by small Dutch independent label Vic Records.
Recently drummer Hans Rutten posted a statement on their forum giving details of what to expect in 2009. "Yes, we are working on a new album! Or actually, two new albums! Many of our new songs are very rock and guitar orientated and will end up on a heavy rock album for sure. The second album will be filled with more ’shoe gaze’, dreamy tracks." The album is expected in Spring 2009. Hans also mentioned they have been working with three singers, though the gender of these is yet unknown.
On December 20, 2008, the title of the Gathering's ninth studio album was announced as The West Pole.[2]
“ 12/20/2008 The Gathering strikes back: new album The West Pole
The waiting is over. Well ... almost!
We are very happy and proud to announce the release of our 9th studio album in April 2009! The album will be called The West Pole. You probably are curious who is singing on our new record. We have found a new [female] vocalist, and we will have two [also female] guest singers on The West Pole.
We can imagine people are anxious to hear some of our new music. However, we will not make it to put new songs online this year. The reason is that some of our [many] guest musicians still need to be recorded and we prefer to present only complete version of the songs. As soon as we have mixed and mastered the album we will put some tracks on the web and of course you will be informed with all possible details. We believe, after hearing the new songs, you will agree the waiting was worthwhile!
We are very, very proud and we feel we made something really special. The album is produced by René Rutten, it will contain 9 tracks and will be released on our own imprint Psychonaut Records. It will be a very extravert, rock orientated, alive album. Typically the Gathering, but with many new elements. This time it's absolutely guitar driven. For sure.
The West Pole will be available via our own webshop one month before the actual release date. Like our DVD A Noise Severe we will make special packages. More news will follow soon.
We wish you a very nice Christmas and a superb New Year!
Cheers, On behalf of the Gathering Hans Rutten
”
—Hans Rutten, gathering.nl
Since September 2008 there has been much speculation from fans that Octavia Sperati singer Silje Wergeland would be the new lead singer of the band. This was when a picture was forwarded by the band on their official forum site that looked very much like her. On January 7, 2009, an article in a local Dutch publication stated that new singer would not be Dutch.[3] There was much speculation that the new singer would be Norwegian before this statement after conversations with René Rutten.
On March 12, 2009 it was officially announced that the new vocalist is Silje Wergeland, And their new album The West Pole will be released in May.
Lineup
Current members
Silje Wergeland – vocals (2009–)
René Rutten – guitars/flute (1989–)
Frank Boeijen – keyboards (1990–)
Marjolein Kooijman – bass (2004–)
Hans Rutten – drums (1989–)
Former members
Anneke van Giersbergen – lead vocals/guitars (1994–2007)
Hugo Prinsen Geerligs – bass (1989–2004)
Jelmer Wiersma – guitars (1989–1998)
Niels Duffhues – singer/guitars (1993–1994)
Martine van Loon – singer/backing vocals (1993–1994)
Bart Smits – singer (1989–1993)
Marike Groot – singer/backing vocals (1992–1993)