SOUVENIRS

By the time Souvenirs came out, The Gathering had been a surprising progressive rock band for more than ten years. This record was actually their softest to date and the label "metal" seemed more out of place than ever before.

Although I would be the last to argue that The Gathering lost their appeal after, say, Nighttime Birds, I must confess that this record does not appeal to me as much as their previous ones did, even though it's just a next step in their incredible musical journey. The typical very good tracks are still there (These Good People, Even The Spirits Are Afraid (that drumming... brilliant!), You Learn About It (easy but gentle ballad), Monsters and the eerie closing track with nice guest vocals from Trickster G. Some of the other tracks, however, I find to be a bit interchangeable, at least to the high standards we got used to with this band.

I'm tied between 3 and 4 stars with this record, but I'll go with 3, to emphasize my difference with the already quite numerous 4 star reviews I gave previous records from this amazing band. Let's not forget: in a more general context, this record is still good, almost very good.