Band:	The Gathering
Album:	Souvenirs
Style:	Experimental rock
Release date:	2003
Guest review by:	Manic

01. These Good People
02. Even The Spirits Are Afraid
03. Broken Glass
04. You Learn About It
05. Souvenirs
06. We Just Stopped Breathing
07. Monsters
08. Golden Grounds
09. Jelena
10. A Life All Mine

Step into the darkblue room, turn on the soft skyblue lights, sit into your new chair with remote control for even more comfort, take your favorite I. Asimov book and press the 'play' button of your CD-player. The CD should certainly be The Gathering ? Souvenirs.

The Gathering is getting more and more interesting. The new album Souvenirs is like an experiment. The Gathering is mixing gothic metal with trip-hop and ambient. Experimental Gothic - I would say. And indeed it is. "MassiveAttacklike" tunes and familiar gothic sounds drifting and floating on the background and the eversoft voice of Anneke Van Giersbergen just take you away. Take you onto some soft rainclouds. Everything is not bright and shiny.. but it's not bad either. It's the reality with its good and sad sides.

The album has this wicked emotion like peace and beauty is opposed by a troubled mind. 'Broken Glass' and 'You Learn About It' are the softest tracks on the album. Softest but not the most positive. Well to be true there's not much positivity on the album at all. And then 'Even The Spirits Are Afraid' and 'Monsters' are like rebels ? tring to fight against the peacefulness of the album. They manage to get some disorder but overall the album is soft and melanholic. And that's not bad. Actually it's rather good. On a cloudy night when the body is tired of a hard day - it's just the best to relax and enjoy some beauty of Experimantal Gothic and The Gathering's Souvenirs is perfect for this task.