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Always is THE GATHERING's debut album & is something of an aquired taste & the least typical of their sound, mostly due to the fact that the lead vocals are the provence of Bart Smits - this is supposedly a 'death metal' album, though l'd disagree with that, the band sound that has all the makings of the song structures that would come to define them is more in the style of PINK FLOYD/GENESIS & it's only the vocal that might qualify it as in this style - death metal can be deliciously sexy when done by the likes of SAMAEL or ROTTING CHRIST, but Smits' style sounds more like a health warning against consuming cigarettes & just doesn't work for me & only serves to deaden the music, which only comes alive during the soprano sections, but these pretty moments are all too few - this is my least played album by THE GATHERING, simply because, though all their promise as songwriters & musicians is evident, the unsympathetic lead vocals make it all so heavy sounding & fail to give any 1 song its own identity, so it's rather an exhausting experience to endure - to be fair to Bart, he did write some memorable lyrics for this set & his liner notes to the album are profound enough, but l just don't go for his style of delivering his feelings, so only for the curious & the completist as far as l'm concerned...
Rating:  [2 of 5 Stars!] |
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![Always... [CD]](images/disco_always.jpg "Always... [CD]")
