The Gathering's Best

Review Score: (10/10)
While I enjoyed the Gatherings debut, Always, I was a bit irked by the constant growl vocals in which you couldn't always understand the lyrics. In Mandylion, the Gathering finally found their niche. The slower but just as heavy riffs, the more fluid keyboards, and the rapturous voice of the uber-talented Anneke van Giersbergen combine to make this one of Century Media's premiere releases to this day. Some of the songs are melancholy yet hopeful at the same time, and all are intriguing, no matter what shade of emotion they are exploring. Personal favorites are "Eleanor" and "Fear the Sea". I still much prefer Mandylion to the direction this band has taken on recent albums, and would place this in the top 10 of any list of albums of this genre made credible by the likes of Tiamat's Wildhoney. A landmark release.

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