Review Summary: The final Gathering album to feature the lovely Anneke Van Giersbergen. "Home" cements the Gatherings alternative status which they spent a decade evolving towards. Family orientated, hopeful and with a flair for the unconventional, a touching farewell.
When trying to come up with a consensus for an album which signifies the end of a era for a band as influential as The Gathering, "Home" is a difficult decision. To overate or underrate a record like this in such a situation is perfectly human. But as I have spent a fair number of sessions with it I feel compelled to stick to my final rating.
"Home" is an unconventional and once again highly creative piece of music from The Gathering . It works well as background music or on loud speakers, but most of all, it works best given the headphone treatment. 2003's Souvenirs was an excellent record but it was mired by its over baked production. "Home" ironically, is produced to an even larger extent yet this time producer Atti Bauw makes the production compliment the albums deep and expressive tone. There isn’t a moment here where some form of sonic texture does not seep through the music.
This album may come with a shock to some fans, even fans who The Gathering were courting with the exquisite 1999 release "How to Measure a Planet" but enough repeat listens reveal the band has now reached full maturity. The Gathering still embraces its progressive roots and Anneke’s vocal performances still shine as ever such as on highlights, the fragile "Box" and the dramatic ballad "Waking Hour" Furthermore Anekke's lyrical passages are far less cryptic, dealing with family and the rights of passage through age. It’s a confident and thought provoking record which has an emotional tone not heard in the bands work before.
Now production itself wouldn’t be enough to make a record great and at first it seems The Gathering have ran out of interesting ideas. Guitars are often clean, cold and atmospheric synth lines dominate half of the record and the drumming is set to a minimalist tone. Yet this adds up to a band deciding to do something very special, there creating music they want to create and ignoring audience expectations. Now this can mean total failure for some band’s with just as much talent as The Gathering’s but here, weather its fortune or weather its planned progression, the band still sound tight and innovative.
Founder of The Gathering René Rutten knows how to use guitar effects in aid of the already strong material and his brother, Hans drums at a primal pace, making sure he does not drown out the bands rich yet delicate music. Meanwhile, long time keyboardist Frank Boeijen creates the foundations for the music to rest upon and at times creates some beautiful skeletal melodies as heard in the elusive ballad "Forgotten" which appears in two interesting forms. The Gathering don’t "rock out" here as such but they have developed a unique style of complex rhythm structure for there more energetic songs as seen in the excellent opener "Shortest Day" and the subtly hooky "In Between" and "Alone"
All this dedicated work amounts to an Album fit to bookend a superb decade of music from a very fine band. "Home" is a touching farewell to an excellent line-up, Anneke will be missed.
