ALWAYS

Rating the first two studio-albums by THE GATHERING is a difficult thing to do. Everyone should be aware of the fact that changing the vocalist (Anneke van Giersbergen from the third album to present) transformed THE GATHERING into a completely different band. I apologize to all fans of Death-Metal and a-like, but me ... I'm sorry, I fail to be able to relate to this kind of stuff. What waits for you here is dark, heavy, with lots of those trademark male vocals (maybe growling is better a word than singing) occasionally lightened by thrown in bits of female vocals that do have a melody. If you're into this music, then check it out, because seen for what it is, it is definitely not a bad album. But if you don't dig the combination of non-melodic metal with neanderthal growls - like me - it's a waste of time. PS: -> in this specific case, the rating can cause misunderstandings, so please note that POOR, ONLY FOR COMPLETIONISTS doesn't really fit. It is not poor for the genre (seen as a stand-alone work of it's own, assuming that this is the kind of music you like, the 3 stars would not be wrong) and it is definitely not for completionists of THE GATHERING. Rating it with one star only means more like: IT'S DIFFERENT AND NOT MY CUP OF TEA