Gig review: The Gathering + Habitants 22-06-2018

I am a lucky guy sometimes, not only was I there four years ago when The Gathering played their very special 25^th anniversary shows. I also was there when they played their first show in four years on the 22^nd of June. Now the The Gathering, for who are not familiar with them, are a band with a long history of many twists and turns. Supposedly during the very beginning they played something crusty before turning into a doom/death pioneer. Not done with changing styles once they would change their act up again and again, from doom to something akin to trip rock to post-rock. Personally I think their debut and How to Measure a Planet are their best albums. Now like I said four years ago they played two very special 25^th anniversary shows and I have to say that was one of the best gigs I've ever seen. For the 22^nd I knew we were not going to get a repeat of that special night yet still at the very least a reignited band.

First up however was Habitants the new band featuring the mastermind behind The Gathering itself René Rutten. Habitants already have dropped a few things here and there on the internet. However on this evening they would play their very first show. Based on what I heard online I expected a post-rock like version of The Gathering. My predictions turned out be mostly accurate. Habitants only was a more minimalistic than I expected. I caught myself thinking of slowcore bands like Codeine. Unlike Codeine however I found myself thinking that went too far with minimalism. The best songs in the set were the more dynamic ones with more elements from the crescendo oriented side of post-rock. I also wonder if the band is stylistically distinct enough from The Gathering. I did notice that the band has a different aim than The Gathering yet might still take too much from the same sources of inspiration.

Before The Gathering started playing I expected a greatest hits set with maybe a guest appearance by a former member. Nothing as extravagant as with the 25^th anniversary shows but at least something due to it being their first gig in almost four years. Instead we did not receive anything of this sort. Not only was the last album before the hiatus the focal point of the set, we also saw a sonically retooled The Gathering. This new version of The Gathering is darker and especially more brooding. Furthermore they skipped quite a few of their biggest hits, they even went as far as skipping their albums Mandylion and Nighttime Birds completely. They did not stop there, while they two played fan favorites from How to Measure a Planet, these two songs were played in the brooding vein of what currently the band seems to be. I did really enjoy this turn of the band, it felt like a natural development yet also not something that strikes me as complacent move. It remains to be seen if this was just an isolated occurrence and that this gig actually showed us what new material will be like, if of course they even are writing new any new material.

Even though its both too early to call and Habitants is not as brooding as the new version of The Gathering, it does make me wonder if René isn't tapping too much from the same well of inspiration for both bands. As for the return of The Gathering itself, that was very much a success.

Setlist