Review of the Album "How to Measure a Planet?" by Dutch Metal Band The Gathering

“How to Measure a Planet?” is the 5^th studio album by Dutch metal band The Gathering and this one was released way back in 1998 but since I felt that former vocalist of this band Anneke Van Giersbergen needed to be given more credit for the work that she has done in the music industry, there will also be a review of this album. The Gathering for some reason is classified as a metal band but it seems to me that they should be classified as alternative metal but regardless of the classification, this is a band that with Anneke provided some solid atmospheric music.

This album however is two discs and almost 2 hours long so if you want to get through this album, patience is especially important. Anneke Van Giersbergen does not have the towering kind of vocal range that you would hear from singers such as Cristina Scabbia or Tarja Turunen but rather she has one of those pleasant voices that you can easily listen along with and her pitch is just right. She does not try to overdo it when she sings. Let’s give credit where it is due. Anneke was the right vocalist for this band and this band wasn’t fit to be a death metal band their whole career.

This album is pretty much of an atmospheric metal type with some feel of doom metal but thankfully when Anneke came along, she made these guys better as a group too. Liberty Bell has some distorted guitar in it and then the chanting style vocals by Anneke which can be heard in the background. And is it just me or is Anneke really that gorgeous? She is really quite attractive and her pleasant voice adds to her appeal.

“Great Ocean Road” is a song that starts the alternative rock feel of this album. “Rescue Me” is a song that further solidifies the slow nature of the songs early on. Lyrically the song is about seeking to be where someone or something is because the person is seeking more wisdom. “Liberty Bell” is a song that discusses the change of seasons, light and darkness as if it tries to describe the day. “Travel” is a 9 minute plus song in which there are touches of that electric guitar and as Anneke says and we can say, The Gathering’s music was here to stay forever. The song fades out as there is the lyrical line of “I wish you knew.”

There is even an instrumental song in this album called South American Ghost Ride. It took me a while to get into the music of this band because they just felt like they were a little too weird for my tastes but they certainly give your ears a wonderful break from all of the heavy, pounding of thrash metal bands for instance. Illuminating tells the story of exploring stars and other planets. When we are in space, we will weigh less than on Planet Earth. Will we ever discover life on other planets such as Mars? Probably Built in the Fifties is a song that I heard the LIVE version of a long time ago. Lyrically it is about going on a long run until we have done all we can. In this search for our higher self, it is imagination that can take us anywhere instead of logic. Logic will only take us from A to B but imagination has the power to take us anywhere we want to go to. Musically, this album is a very good atmospheric rock album and it probably isn’t as good as Mandylion as of this first listen but the album’s music is an indication that this band needed to have someone like Anneke there not just for her excellent pitch of vocals but also for the fact that she soothes music listeners like me worldwide!

Musically as we look back on this album in 2024, it is clear that The Gathering reinvented themselves in a way with this album and they made it work out just fine.