The Gathering are one of the greatest bands of all time. My first interview, in spite of being a seasoned writer for MetalTalk, should not have come with a band of such musical pedigree. And then, to have my 17-year-old daughter Raya on the interview, whose fandom goes deep into their catalogue, the whole experience felt truly surreal.
A large part of the greatness of The Gathering is that their music, especially their live performances, is a surreal experience of the mind. Raya, in her teenage exuberance, even blurted out, “That this is what being on acid must be like.” Ah, youth. Invariably honest with their emotions.
Given that their music is a deep exploration of human emotions and experiences, and that many of their tours have featured art/visuals/film with a dreamy, not-of-this-world feel, one can understand Raya’s quick leap into a hallucinogenic description.
In fact, The Gathering is beyond a listening experience. It is a feeling experience. And, in no uncertain terms, the band wants you to, much like the classic Peter Frampton song, “feel like the way we do.”
I have a license to speak about The Gathering with such loftiness, and this interview preamble you are reading is absolutely necessary. You want something short and concise? I am not giving it to you. I am not giving it to you because the band’s music doesn’t give it to you and never has.
I am 61. I know the catalogues of all the classic rock bands inside out. I saw every band of the alternative/Seattle scene on their first tour, except for Nirvana.
I wrote a 400+ page book tracing the history (ongoing) of the 30+ year stoner/desert/doom scene, the same amount of time The Gathering has been around.
It was important for Raya and me to frame our interview with them with the musical reckoning of the opening sentence of this piece, with the band being perched on the summit with any musical force you want to mention.
But, what sets this Dutch treasure apart from any band that I know of that has that kind of legacy is their unbridled devotion to leveraging mystery and mystical ideas of space and time and how it marinates with themes like our human wonder of the natural world that are both big and small.
The Gathering possess lyrical lenses that are metaphorically both telescopic and microscopic. And, sandwiching these lyrics are often moments of uncompromising heavy music. The healing power of nature and how we need to be aligned with its philosophical gifts are found in so many of their songs.
“It is all there
The earth and the ocean
Contain the power of our lives.” Great Ocean Road (1999).
“I am the snow falling on your face.” On Most Surfaces (1999)
“Mother Earth, look at her closely
She looks at her baby and she sighs
The slight breathing pause that she takes it builds her and
Makes her strong
She refuses to give her up” – The Earth Is My Witness (1997)
Their music is a testament to the motivation to explore, create, and connect while using every colour available to them.
“You have to learn to be strong and be glad to be alive. You have to take every colour available in the palette and make the best painting you can, while you can.” – Nancy Wilson
The Gathering has, staying with metaphorical wisdom of one of the most creative artists of our time and the artist who sang my favourite song of all time, Nada One, created some of rock music’s greatest masterpieces.
Here is a link to a YouTube playlist Raya and I curated.
So, with all that, you can imagine Raya and I were openly grateful for the opportunity to spend 45 minutes with Anneke Van Giersbergen and Hans Rutten of the band, as 2026 is special for them and their fans.
The band has reunited with their wildly adored singer, whose vocal range and interests are unmatched by any other vocalist on the planet, to celebrate the album that brought them together 30 years ago, Mandylion. They performed a run of five sold-out shows at the historic Doornroosje venue in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, last August
The Gathering’s live performances have become a yardstick for me and many others as to the sonic, visual, and emotional potential of a rock concert performance, stretching the experience of light and heavy in every song.
The quiet/moody moments rival those created by Pink Floyd or Genesis, and the heavy/doom moments land just as hard as any Nine Inch Nails or Soundgarden performance. And nobody dances, bangs their head, and makes beautiful hand movements, all fluidly, I might add, to this spectrum of music like Anneke Van Giersbergen.
It is in that statement of how Raya and I decided to couch our initial questions for the band.
Sunil: What is the inspiration/passion to have duality of emotions and sounds consistently in so many of your songs?
Raya: What have been your non-musical influences?
Anneke: Good question. I think it’s just all your experiences of everyday life, conversations, and travel give you this kind of inspiration. You are always taking a little bit of your life every day.
Without answering directly, Hans smiled and nodded in quiet approval.
Raya: What are some of your favourite songs to perform live?
Anneke: That’s so hard. It’s like asking to choose your favourite children. They are all special to us.
Hans: (after a delay, affirming Anneke’s response) Travel.
We thought it was cool that the band offered one song, after understandable resistance to offering any.
Raya and Sunil: We have to ask, who is the creative genius behind the visuals/films that are used in your live performances?
Hans: That would be my brother’s [Rene, the guitarist] wife, who is from Chile, Gema Perez.
Sunil: Mandylion is such a groundbreaking album, for all the reasons I stated. Did the band ever consider just playing the whole album live as other bands have done?
Hans: To be honest, no. We thought it would be boring to play the whole album. But we are playing many songs from it.
I really loved the candour in this answer, highlighting an idea of playing and creating music for themselves first and foremost. This was brought up a few times in the interview, which really felt more like a conversation by the end.
I shared with the band a few quotes that I knew would resonate with them.
“Never play to the gallery, other people’s expectations, as you will produce your worst work that way.” – David Bowie
“An intense obligation to the truth of your innermost self.” – Glenn Friedman, when asked to define punk.
Unfortunately, we had technical issues recording the interview, so the whole, robust affirmation of these quotes from Rene and Anneke is something you will just have to imagine, as I don’t want to shortchange their affirmation for those words of wisdom.
However, as I look back, I am kind of glad there is no recording, and that all these answers are from human recall and there is still mystery left with what is npt included here. And, this brings me to a more of a comment I gave the band to respond to.
Raya and I both contributed here:
I know we are more than 20 minutes into the interview, but I want to share something that Raya and I discussed prior to coming on with you. We both feel that we don’t want to know too much about the band, as so much of its music is filled with complexity and mystery. I just want to enjoy the band’s ‘soup’ without knowing how it’s made.
Anneke: It’s like they say, ‘never meet your heroes’. I completely understand that idea of wanting to keep your appreciation of the band at a certain distance.
Sunil: Who are some of your musical heroes?
Anneke: Mike Patton, Madonna, and Barbara Streisand.
Hans: Bands like the early U2, Rush, and out of the box Metal bands like Voivod were my heroes, and still are. I prefer to choose bands instead of individuals, as I like the synergy between bandmembers. 1 + 1 + 1 = 4. The sum is greater than the parts themselves.
Sunil: What was your first Metal show!?
Hans: That would be seeing Dio in 1986″ (personal note: my first Metal show as well in 1985)
Anneke: When I was younger, I went to see a few local bands in the town where I grew up. But the first Metal concert that truly left a mark on me was Dynamo Metal Fest in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 1991. The lineup was great, and that day, a few of my favourite bands stood out above the rest: Primus, Obituary, and Morbid Angel. Little did I know that one day, I would stand on that stage, singing with the Gathering.
Raya: Is there a concert or tour experience that had a lasting impact on you as artists?
Anneke and Hans: We have so many great memories of our early tours when we were first starting out. The 1996 tour with Moonspell and 1998 tour with Lacuna Coil and Seigmen were very special.
Sunil: I know that Rene has a close affiliation with Roadburn, one of the greatest heavy music festivals in the world. Did anyone go to this festival as fans, given the fact that it is in your home country of the Netherlands?
Anneke and Hans: We actually know Walter Hoeijmakers(founder) very well, but strangely, we never attended the festival ourselves. However, we are quite aware of the cultural and global significance of Roadburn.
It is fitting that our conversation concluded with a heavy music festival and the relationship that the band has with Walter, who is so well known by bands and fans, that “Walter” is all he goes by, because warmth and kindness became the lasting idea.
I brought up the idea that listening to the heaviest music must have this neuroplasticity effect on our brain to not only become more open to all kinds of music and experiences, but to be gentler humans.
If there is ever any serious scientific study undertaken, the first case study should be the music of The Gathering and the impact that it has on their worldwide fans.
And the fans are all eagerly awaiting this magical and mystical energy on this very special tour, continuing the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Mandylion.
The heavy music world changed forever with that album, which sounds as potent and relevant today as it did all those years ago.
There was a large, cloth sign that was draped over the balcony at The Capolican Theatre in Santiago, Chile, in 2007, when the band played their final show with Anneke, who was departing to pursue a very successful solo career, and had just released the first EP of an ambitious trilogy, La Vie, La Mort, L’Amour.
On that cloth sign were the words honouring the song Travel.
“Your Musical Will Last Forever”
Indeed, it will.
The Gathering will play their second 2026 show on 19 May at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Tickets are available from gathering.nl.
