BANDS   Aesma Daeva After Forever Amaran Artrosis Assemblage 23 Arise From Thorns All About Eve Covenant The Crest Delerium Depeche Mode Delight Desdemona Diva Destruction Faith And The Muse Frontline Assembly The Gathering Inkubus Sukkubus Lacuna Coil London After Midnight Love Spirals Downwards Moon Of Steel The Mission Nightwish Paradise Lost The Shroud Sirenia Suicide Commando Switchblade Symphony Tapping The Vein Theatre Of Tragedy This Ascension Tristania Type O Negative Velvet Acid Christ VNV Nation Within Temptation   Welcome to the bands list page. Above I have listed most of those which I think are worth mentioning  - with links to their websites - and below I have included some comments about the most notable ones. If you haven't heard of any of these people, do check them out - if you find any of them aren't for you, at least you'll have broadened you knowledge.	READ SIGN   :GET A GOSTATS HIT COUNTER:

CORE/PERIPHERAL

  The Gathering

Easily the most inspirational and enriching band I have come across in recent years, the only other band that has impressed me so with their musical diversity and evolvement being Radiohead. The Gathering started out as a death metal band before recruiting Anneke van Giersbergen as their lead singer in 1995. Anneke has by far the most beautiful voice out of any band I can remember hearing, and hearing her alone can make listening to The Gathering an experience.

The Gathering's music has evolved greatly since 95. When Anneke started the band moved in to playing Gothic metal, but with the release of How To Measure A Planet [1998], it was clear the band had taken a different tack, to incorporating trip-hop-like drumbeats into their music, which with the heavy guitars became a kind of 'triprock', possibly taking influences from Portishead and indeed Radiohead [they are fans of both, apparently].

The band's most recent album, Souvenirs [2003] is starkly different from what they were producing back in 95. Though some songs are still reminiscent of the old style, The Gathering have also incorporated some completely fresh techniques into their music. The problem with a lot of Gothic and Metal bands is that after a few albums, their work becomes too similar. The Gathering cannot be accused of this certainly, and their work continues to be as diverse as it is beautiful.

Lacuna Coil

Few people will be surprised to see Lacuna Coil mentioned directly after The Gathering. Indeed, a lot of the time its hard to get away from these two being mentioned in the same breath. As to why has always been a puzzle to me. OK, the music is similar, but its not that similar. Maybe people link heavy guitars and female vocalists and they just think 'Hey - Lacuna Coil do that too!'. Yes......but there are so many others. Anyway.

Lacuna Coil is fronted by Cristina Scabbia, whose voice has become far richer and more confident with their last album, Comalies. Lacuna Coil also employ male vocals [Andrea Ferrera], and this is where they DO differ from The Gathering. What does seems to be concensus regarding Lacuna Coil is that most people agree that the music can be spoiled by Andrea's vocals. Sure he can sing, but as to why he is there at all is another matter. Like Nightwish with Marco, you think, 'well, he doesn't need to be there'. And he really doesn't. I can't believe he doesn't know that.

The only way I could fault Lacuna Coil is in the diversity of their music, that is to say, there is very little. Many of the songs are very similar. The albums do have slightly different sounds, but as one reviewer said, if you gave me a CD-R with tracks from all their albums on it, I couldn't tell which album was which. Nevertheless, some bands experiment and fail, but LC seem to have no danger of doing that, since they have ultimately hit on a winning formula

After Forever           

After Forever cannot be faulted when it comes to excellent song-writing and technical brilliance. The band have only produced two albums since 1999, Prison Of Desire and Decipher, but they have achieved their sound perfectly in this time.

The band is fronted by Floor Jansen, another of my favourite vocalists: her voice is fully confident and versatile in that it changes from 'clean' to operatic. After Forever are heavier than The Gathering, employing a wide use of extreme vocals along with the clean vocals of Floor

AF's songs are lush and fully-layered, and as a result it takes a few listens to become acquainted with them. The songs contain the tightest technical accomplishment of any band I have heard - the music demands so much from its performers that sometimes you wonder how they carry it off so confidently. Persistance certainly pays the listener well, since with each hearing you can discover more layers within the music.