The Gathering is obviously a very…extremely talented band, you can’t dispute that, but they seem to overwhelmed you to the point in which you just want the music to stop, not because is bad, is just that they elevate everything to such a high level that their music becomes more like an statement to other musicians than an actual album done for normal people to listen (hell maybe I’m just to ignorant to understand their music!).

This is not a “best of album”, this is just like the title implies, a rare songs and unreleased versions album; so if you have never heard The Gathering, don’t pick this album up, because it may ruined the whole experience of actually discovering the band by your self.

The first cd The B-Sides, is compose of some songs the band recorded between 1995 and 2000, there are only a couple of them that really makes this worthy (again to a die hard fan, every single song will be a gem). Adrenaline is a great song, is a little fast, just a little, and it has some electronic sounds on it that makes it more interesting; Third Chance is another good, entertaining song, in this one you can really hear Anneke van Giersbergen give everything she has, amazing vocals.

Strange Machines is a song in which Anneke is joined by The Metropole Orchestra from Netherlands; the song is interesting because you can hear a nice dynamic between the orchestra and the singer. In this first cd there is a lot of live songs as well as some cover songs like In Power We Trust The Love Advocated (Dead Can Dance cover version), When The Sun Hits (Slowdive cover version) and Life Is What You Make It (Talk Talk cover version).

The second cd, probably lives up to its name, because many songs are real rarities for the fans; the first 8 tracks where recorded at Woodhouse Studios in 1996, and the last five songs are a demo session for “How To Measure a Planet?” in 1998.

All the songs are beautiful and sort of raw, because everything sounds so natural and spontaneous; my favorite has to be Nighttime Birds, a very deep and heavy track that pulls you inside this slow motion universe that seems so pleasant.

So if the musicianship is so dam good, and the songs are so dam nice, why a 7? Simple, because it’s a fan album, and probably only the fans are going to enjoy it, the rest of us normal humans, are going to get bored after a couple of tracks and forget this great production.