Downfall is a collection of all of The Gathering's early recordings, including unreleased songs, EPs, demos, rehearsal tapes (that's why you'll find some of the songs several times) that the band recorded before and just after their legendary debut Always, thus covering the period 1989-1993.

The Gathering's characteristic progressive, melodic approach to music already comes forth, and especially the rehearsal tapes are worth checking in this sense.
The Gathering's a rather strange band, slightly schizophrenic: they sometimes sound unfinished, somehow wrong, but one still feels compelled to listen to more of them. The songs collected on these records are well-arranged in the way that while the first one presents the more dreaming side of theirs, the second one shows them on a more doomish level, still experimenting, even if a bit amateurish.

I chose not to rate this album because of its too immature character; if rated, it would have been compared either to other novice bands or to their actual name, which might have been misleading.

This double CD ought to be of great interest for all of you who have followed The Gathering since the start.