Friday, May 27, 2022

The Gathering - How to Measure a Planet? (1998)


[I'm out of the US for the next week, won't be posting or responding to anything 'til I get back. In the meantime, here's another all-time favorite of mine.]

I've started and erased five different versions of this writeup. The first one was about first hearing The Gathering on a Century Media sampler that also introduced me to Emperor, Eyehategod, Trouble, Samael, and Moonspell; the second was about being temporarily immobilized while listening to How to Measure a Planet? as a severely stoned 17-year-old. Next I tried a different listening story, from a few years ago, when I listened to it while sitting on a log looking out onto Loch Raven reservoir, trying to feel my way through one of the bleakest points of my adult life. Then I tried to incorporate that story into a wider one about how I always feel drawn to How to Measure a Planet? during hard times. Finally, I talked about how The Gathering are clearly a big deal, but I don't know anyone IRL who gives a shit about them, and how I'm not sure if that means that they're big in Europe/elsewhere and not America or if I'm just hanging out with the wrong Americans. And while none of these attempts panned out, the fact that I actually took the time to write/rewrite/delete them -- as opposed to just shitting out a quick description or a tossed-off joke like I normally do -- speaks to how much I fucking love this album.

Track listing:
Disc One
1. Frail (You Might as Well Be Me)
2. Great Ocean Road
3. Rescue Me
4. My Electricity
5. Liberty Bell
6. Red Is a Slow Colour
7. The Big Sleep
8. Marooned
9. Travel
Disc Two
1. South American Ghost Ride
2. Illuminating
3. Locked Away
4. Probably Built in the Fifties
5. How to Measure a Planet?

All I want is to be where you are

Nothing else really sounds like this, but you could also listen to:

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I love them as much as The 3rd and The Mortal!
    I admit that I will pick up "Nighttime Birds" over this one but hell yeah Chef d'Oeuvre baby!

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  3. You need their album Souvenirs in your life ASAP...

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    1. Oh trust me, I've heard all their stuff. My favorites are this one and the two before it, but Souvenirs is phenomenal as well.

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  4. those century media/nuclear blast samplers killed me

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  5. It's great to see this on your blog. The vocalist, Anneke, is from my hometown of s'Hertogenbosch, a historic city in the Netherlands, but the band was established in a town named Oss. They were once quite popular in western Europe, as a German friend told me some years ago; but nowadays faded into obscurity. When they stopped the band in 2007, they received death threats. I haven't heard from them since, but maybe they still making music in other projects?.

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    1. They actually put out a new album a few months ago, with the vocalist that joined in 2009. First new album in almost a decade! A few of them also had/have a band Habitants that put out one record that I really liked a few years ago.

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  6. Nice post thank you Rodney

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