As has been noted by other reviewers, modern black metal seems to be experiencing a widespread explosion in the popularity of dissonance and density. Bands like Veilburner, Teitanblood, Martrod and Lychgate all turned heads in 2025 with their at times punishing and flat-out weird interpretations of black metal. We love to hear it, folks, but sometimes we also love to hear tightly-crafted melodic black metal, don’t we? That’s why Gathering’s self-titled debut is a solid addition to any metalhead’s playlist.
Gathering is a four-piece melodic black metal outfit from the Cascade foothills of central Oregon. While this is their debut, it comes about a decade after the band originally penned six of the ten songs found here. Members moved away and the project was shelved until 2022 when the band reformed under its current name.
Gathering’s self-titled debut starts off with a hint of atmosphere before diving into the furious and blasty meloblack riffage found on ‘Blood Trails in the Meadow.’ While there’s hefty doses of Dawn and Dissection-inspired riffs to be found on this record, there’s also servings of melodic death metal and even NWOAHM garnish sprinkled in.
Punctuating the blasts are backbeat grooves and solos like on ‘Keepers of the Bog.’ That relative tranquility is often quickly ripped away, like when the following track ‘Dark Hours’ kicks right back into frantic and frigid meloblack tremolo picking. At times, passages on this album wouldn’t sound out of place on an early career The Black Dahlia Murder album, like on ‘The Gates of the Mountain’ or parts of ‘The Solstice.’
The drumming on this album is clean and pulverizing, frequently stealing the limelight while the mid-range growls deliver nature-centric lyrics not uncommon for the regional scene. The production quality heard on “Gathering” is astonishingly crisp and professional for an unsigned metal act. That polish transfers over to the band’s live performances where they sound like pros on stage, moving deftly from song to song.
This album similarly never lets itself linger for too long, but in some ways that leads me to my main criticism. While the riffs come hard and fast, I can’t help but feel like this album would have benefited from some breathing room and a chance for more atmosphere to really bloom. Packing ten songs into just under forty minutes, the album is an exercise in lean album structure. Normally that focus is a good thing, and I’ll take a tight album over a bloated and meandering one any day. Still, I wish the hypnotic Dawn-esque passages were allowed to drone on a little longer, and maybe hear a bit more variation in dynamics throughout its runtime.
That aside, this album is certainly an excellent debut and well-worth a spin. In my mind, it’s also cemented Gathering as a great meloblack band to keep an eye on over the coming years.
