THE GATHERING

Three decades and change since its release, Mandylion still exerts a singular gravitational pull.

- JONATHAN SELZER

Before tonight’s commemorative gig, the crowds packing the bars around the Shepherd’s Bush Empire feel like a genuine community, bound by an understanding of what the album means to them, swapping stories of first hearings and a devotion that’s been fixed ever since. It’s not so much a case of a band peaking early — Mandylion was the Dutch band’s third album, and one can make a case that subsequent releases grew more refined and expansive in their scope — it’s one of those rare instances of an album proving utterly transformational. The introduction of singer Anneke van Giersbergen turned an insular-sounding death/doom outfit still seeking an identity into a band steeped in dark grandeur and inhabiting an emotional landscape both stately and dispossessed — a show of resilience from a place of exile. Mandylion was a moment of unfathomable, redefining magic that mapped out a whole new set of coordinates, not just for the band, but for the underground metal scene they emerged from. Anathema were surely paying attention, soon to take a very similar route, others like Ulver and Opeth would also relinquish their metal past for fresh new pastures, and a host of later standout singers such as Evanescence’s Amy Lee and Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia can trace their DNA back to van Giersbergen’s debut.