ALMOST A DANCE

This is the last album I bought from The Gathering, basically to see what it would sound like without the voice of Anneke van Giersbergen. Well it's not a bad album, songs like "On A Wave" and "Like Fountains" are quite good, not to mention the beautiful ballad "Nobody Dares". The singer uses clean vocals (in contrast to the first album), and there are even female vocals on a couple of songs. However, many songs are repetitive and a little "flat", and clearly the band was still looking for their style at that time.

Rating: 71/100

I'm afraid that most of what I wrote about the first one ALWAYS is just as true for the second one ALMOST A DANCE. It's not to be compared with THE GATHERING of later days. Still, I think it already shows the very first small steps into a future direction. The songs are more refined than on the debut and, quite as a surprise, the first clean male vocals appear. The female counterparts in the vocal area also gained both space and substance. Therefore - even though it is not my kind of music - I rate it higher than their debut.

Since I believe that the first two works of THE GATHERING should be seen as a package and divided from their later works, please allow me to repeat the PS I wrote in reviewing the first: 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

Since I wrote a review for "Always...", I thought I'd do the same for "Almost A Dance". I got this album out of curiosity, since even die-hard fans on The Gathering's official forum advise against buying it. They said the male vocals, although non-grunting, are rather off key.

I'm afraid they were right. I've listen a couple of times, and I can't get into the voice of Niels Duffhues. It's clear, but I don't think it sounds beautiful at all. He goes off-key quite a bit, too...especially when he sings louder (with more passion) and extends words. You know, like "There's so much to discoooooooveeeeeeer".... the "o" and "e" sound... *shudders* Well, hear for yourself. The female vocals are good enough, but a bit soft at times and not very impressing.

The music itself is fun and good. It's not quite "Always...", but not quite "Mandylion" either. I believe this album, like so many of The Gathering, falls in its own category. It shouldn't be compared with any other album this band has released...it's simply too different for that.

A track-to-track analysis is something I probably won't do this time, since I'm really having trouble appreciating Niels' voice. All in all, this is a good album, but they should really have looked for a different male singer. There were plenty of them in 1993, I'm sure... oh well.

Conclusion? The music is good in its own right. A step forward from "Always..." (progress!), but the male vocals, which are used most of the time, kind of make it quite hard to listen to. 3 stars in general from me.

Yours, Tailscent

"Almost a Dance" is the second full-length studio album by Dutch death/doom/gothic metal (later atmospheric rock) act The Gathering. The album was released through the Foundation 2000 label in October 1993. It´s the successor to "Always..." from June 1992. The basic tracks were recorded live in the studio. Everything was recorded and mixed in September, 1993 at "Spitsbergen" Studio.

There have been a few lineup changes since the preceding album as lead vocalist Bart Smits has been replaced by Niels Duffhues and the band have also added Martine van Loon as a permanent female vocalist, making The Gathering a septet on "Almost a Dance". The departure of Smits has great impact on "Almost a Dance" as there are now no longer death metal growling but instead clean male vocals in the band´s music. Duffhues unfortunately has a pretty weak and unremarkable voice (he sounds like a strained Mike Patton with a cold...) and the melody lines he is given to perform aren´t particularly memorable. So the change on the male vocalist post is a definite step down in quality from "Always...". van Loon only performs vocals on four out of nine tracks on the 53:58 minutes long album, so she doesn´t have as much impact on the album as Duffhues does. When she does perform her ethereal atmospheric vocals it´s a welcome change from Duffhues tedious vocal style. The only time my ears are able to partially appreciate his performance is on the alternative acoustic rock ballad track "Nobody Cares" (which by the way interupts the flow of the album).

The instrumental part of the music is keyboard dominated doom metal and it´s generally atmospheric, melancholic, and epic music. The sound production is decent and slightly better balanced than the sound production of the preceding album, but when it comes to evaluating the album it´s impossible not to let the monotone and strained male clean vocals affect the rating. So upon conclusion "Almost a Dance" is an intriguing doom/goth metal album which is almost completely destroyed by the vocals. It´s not often a sophomore studio album is this much weaker than a band´s debut album, but that´s unfortunately the reality of things. Fortunately The Gathering would strike back with great force on their next album. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

What a let down after the exciting debut album Always.

The Gathering goes melodic on Almost A Dance with clean male vocals. Vocals that sounds like a male moose in heat, though. Frankly, they are that terrible. The guitars are melodic and the guitar solos is diddly-dei without much originality. The sound is faintly goth rock'ish. The keyboards is grandious as in goth rock.

This album may have been both good and exciting back in 1993 (??). But in today's standards, it falls flat on it's face. It is a massive step backwards from a pretty much genre defining debut album. The songs are terrible throughout. I am glad to report that Anneke saved the band on the next album. Almost A Dance is a turkey though and as bland as a bag of peanuts with all salt removed.

1 star