THE GATHERING Drummer Talks 'Disclosure' Album In New Interview

Drummer Hans Rutten of Dutch/Norwegian rockers THE GATHERING recently spoke to Greece's RockOverdose.gr about the band's tenth studio album, "Disclosure", which is scheduled for release on September 12 via Psychonaut Records.

"It's almost finished," Rutten said. "We mixed the album, and we're busy with mastering, which is a long process, to get everything in the right place, and of course, the mastering process itself, but it's almost finished. On and off, we worked two years on the album, and I'm really very, very happy with it. We've tried a lot of new things, but it's still THE GATHERING sound, and I think we've evolved, and I'm really happy. We had some ideas with this record. We wanted to make an album with more epic songs, longer songs, songs with dynamics, and also changes, like we did in the past, which we didn't do on 'Home' and 'The West Pole'. It just happened. We had some ideas lying around, we felt it would be cool to combine the parts we had. We had an urge to make a very atmospheric album. 'The West Pole' is more rock-orientated, it has some atmospheric parts of course. This time, it's way more dreamy; it's not ambient, because there's a lot of rhythms involved, it's more dream rock! We already used the term trip rock, it's perfect for it. It's still THE GATHERING, you can really hear it, but we tried, of course, a lot of new elements on it. You can also hear it on the last single we have released, 'Meltdown'. . . We have some songs which are six, seven minutes and there's one other very long song which is almost nine minutes, so yes, we have a lot of long songs. Also some small songs, but especially long songs. It's one of the strongest points of THE GATHERING. Of course we look at the past, and a lot of people really like the long songs, because we're quite good at making atmospheres; it's our strongest point. This is what we tried to achieve on this album. . . 'The West Pole', it was quite harsh, maybe. Rock songs now and then, it was really in the now. Right now, it's much more dreamy. It's the thing we wanted to do. It's a starting point with writing songs. We had a lot of ideas lying around, and we just picked up the atmospheric ones. But there's a lot of diversity in these songs, there's one song that's really industrial, kind of strange, a very slow, doomy, one song that's up-tempo - it's not happy, but there's a positive feeling going around. There's a very heavy ending of a song — of course, I can't talk a lot about it, but it also has a bit of surprise for listeners also. But it's a very diverse album. I think it's a good album, organic and electronic sounds. We worked a bit more with electronics, like we did with 'Souvenirs', and a bit with 'Home'. It's a bit back again, it just happens."

Rutten also revealed that THE GATHERING will release a 10-inch vinyl EP containing "some exclusive tracks." More details about the effort, which will arrive around the same time as the full-length CD, will be made available soon.

The "Disclosure" cover artwork was created by the Chilean artist Carlos Vergara Rivera. THE GATHERING keyboardist Frank Boeijen says, "The handcrafted cover art is inspired by our track 'Heroes For Ghosts', which we released last year."

"Disclosure" track listing:

01. Paper Waves
02. Meltdown
03. Gemini I
04. Heroes For Ghosts
05. Missing Seasons
06. See For Miles
07. Paralyzed
08. Gemini II

The new song "Meltdown" can be streamed below. According to the band, it is "an epic song with emotional atmosphere and a typical THE GATHERING touch. This time, though, the band also has a brand new voice coloring the song: Frank Boeijen!"

"Meltdown" lyrics:

(I)

It's time to leave - this eerie sound
I cared but failed - the ones I love
I guess it's just - what comes around

We try to bend - but then it breaks
What kind of mind - makes these odd shakes
I can't believe - it ends all here

You pull me down

You always failed

You pull me down - I fake a laugh - I sway
You broke my heart - I fell so hard always
Because of you I'm still afraid today

It's time to leave - this eerie sound
I cared but failed - the ones I love
I guess it's just - what comes around

You pull me down

You pull me down - I fake a laugh - I sway
You broke my heart – I fell so hard always
Because of you I'm still afraid today
Because of you I'm still afraid today

(II)

I will not give you what you think that you earn from me
I will not make the same mistakes you always made
I tried to show you that I cared although you always failed
I was too young to have known better - better than you

You could have kept all those stories to your self

I tried to show you that I cared although you always failed
I was too young to have known better - better than you (End of lyrics)

THE GATHERING's new CD includes the song "Heroes For Ghosts", which was made available for free download last year at the group's Bandcamp page. A video for the track was shot in Norway by the band's "dear friend" Marcus Moonen and can be seen below.

THE GATHERING's previous album, "The West Pole", was released in North America on June 2, 2009 via Season of Mist. The CD was issued in most of Europe on May 4, 2009 via the group's own label, Psychonaut Records.

"The West Pole" marks the recording debut of new THE GATHERING singer Silje Wergeland, who was previously in the Norwegian band OCTAVIA SPERATI. It also included two very talented guest vocalists, Anne van den Hoogen and Marcela Bovio (STREAM OF PASSION),along with other guest musicians.

Singer Anneke van Giersbergen announced her departure from THE GATHERING in 2007. She has since released four albums on her own and with her AGUA DE ANNIQUE solo project: "Air" (2007),"Pure Air" (2009),"In Your Room" (2009) and "Everything Is Changing" (2012).