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In an interview with Paolo Phoenix of Magenta TV conducted at this month's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, Anneke Van Giersbergen spoke about the ongoing reunion shows from her former band THE GATHERING to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Dutch rockers' "Mandylion" album. Regarding what it's like for her to  be back in the band that she played with for so many years, Anneke said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's quite special, because when we were young, we were young adults, and whatever you do then, you pick up like a sponge, and you take with you for the rest of your life. And we were always together in the studio, rehearsal room, on tour — day and night, we were together for so many years. So, obviously, then we were apart for 20 years, but when we got back together in a rehearsal room for this, it felt like yesterday. So it's so weird that you can feel the same feeling, and the jokes are the same... So we feel the same way. They feel like brothers to me. So it was very nice. On the other hand, you're more adult. Most of us have a family, and we lived life, and we're a little bit wiser, a little bit older. And so we also take that feeling into the rehearsal room and on stage with us, and it's quite special. But we didn't know. We didn't know how it would feel. But [it] could [have been] awkward as well. So you have this idea, 'Let's do this reunion,' but then you come together, and it's awkward. I mean, that was a possibility. But it wasn't. So it's quite nice."

On the topic of whether there are any aspects of "Mandylion" that she perceives differently now after more than three decades, Anneke said: "I guess, yeah. I don't know. When you're young, you have different emotions about subjects like love, and so when we play these songs now, sometimes you get thrown back into the same emotions that you had 20, 30 years ago. But they're not the same. You have different view of life — a little bit — when you're older. So I guess it's a two-part [thing]. You feel these same feelings and emotion when you sing these lyrics. On the other hand, you're kind of an adult and look at some things differently, which is nice, 'cause you can revisit these days."

As for the possibility of THE GATHERING carrying on with her beyond the "Mandylion" 30th-anniversary tour, Anneke said: "I don't know. We liked it to be special, right? If we would go on and on and on now, it wouldn't be special anymore, and it wouldn't have the impact that it has now. And on the other hand, to be perfectly honest, we didn't expect people to be so enthusiastic about us coming together again and celebrate this album. So we went from, 'Hey, let's do one show,' to, 'Hey, let's do a whole year of all the big festivals and clubs.' So it's super special, and we wanna keep it that way. So we have no plans for the future."

Asked what she would like THE GATHERING fans to walk away with after this special reunion tour, Anneke said: "Well, I like this question. We are enjoying so much playing these old songs. We're getting into these emotions and to the feeling and the vibe of the '90s, and I know a lot of people in the audience do, too. So this nostalgic feeling is very strong. And I hope people go away with, like, 'I felt 20 years old again,' and that was a great era, the '90s. So I hope people will get this feeling again and they walk away with that."

The "Mandylion" lineup of THE GATHERING kicked off its spring/summer 2026 European tour on May 19 at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London, United Kingdom.

THE GATHERING's "Mandylion" lineup played half a dozen shows last year to celebrate the classic album's 30th anniversary. The band is continuing the celebrations in 2026 with around 30 more shows in Europe, North America and South America, concluding with a headlining appearance on October 17 at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.

Due to "personal circumstances", THE GATHERING keyboard player Frank Boeijen has been taking a temporary break from touring with the band and is being replaced by Remco Van Zandvoort, who previously filled in for Frank in 2022.

THE GATHERING's third studio album, "Mandylion" was released in August 1995 via Century Media Records. It was the band's first LP to feature Van Giersbergen.

Asked in an April 2026 interview with Chile's iRock.cl what it was like to play with Anneke again after such a long time, THE GATHERING guitarist René Rutten said: "At the beginning, we just started with only the musicians, because it's a bit more difficult to figure out how the music works. And then Anneke came by, and then she was so impressed with hearing the old classic songs, but now with two guitars and really full force, amps on 11. So, yeah, that's absolutely fantastic to do again. And also on stage, the same kind of feeling, like how we did it exactly also 30 years ago."

Regarding how the idea of the reunion and the celebration tour came about, René said: "We got the ['Mandylion'] gold album two years ago in the Netherlands. And we had a meeting, and we had a lunch. And during the lunch I asked Anneke, like, 'Let's do something special with being this album 30 years old. And so it happened. Yeah. And that's why I'm now here giving this interview to you. So, yeah."

Asked if there are any plans for THE GATHERING's "Mandylion" lineup beyond the 2026 tour, René said: "No, we don't have any plans for the future. No. The last show will be in Chile, from this kind of 'Mandylion' 30th-anniversary shows. And after that I stay, of course, a little bit longer here in Chile, because I have my family here. And after that we will see — we will see what the future will bring. Anneke, of course, has her solo career and shows, and that's happening in '27. And we will see later what it'll bring and what it'll do."

The THE GATHERING's "Mandylion" lineup played five reunion shows at Doornroosje in Nijmegen, The Netherlands in August 2025. They also previously staged a kick-off "try-out" concert on June 29, 2025 at Dynamo in Eindhoven.

In November 2014, THE GATHERING celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-time special show at Doornroosje in Nijmegen. All past and present members of THE GATHERING — from 1989 until 2014 — appeared on stage and performed in this unique show together.

Van Giersbergen announced her departure from THE GATHERING in 2007. She has since released several albums on her own and with her AGUA DE ANNIQUE solo project.

In December 2025, Norwegian singer Silje Wergeland, who had been fronting THE GATHERING since early 2009, announced her departure from the band. She explained in a statement that "after 16 years of creating and playing great music with THE GATHERING" it was "time to move on to new ventures."

Prior to joining THE GATHERING, Silje sang for the Norwegian band OCTAVIA SPERATI.

In a new interview with the 100.3 The Bear radio station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, THE PRETTY RECKLESS frontwoman Taylor Momsen spoke about the band's fifth studio album, "Dear God", which was released in June via Fearless Records. Speaking about her mindset while working on material for the LP, Taylor said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I went into this album writing it with the same, quote-unquote, process that I always do, which is I write songs... I write songs for myself, so I write songs for me in order to kind of process my life and process me, 'cause I have something in me that I need to express. It's a tool that I've used throughout my entire life and has served me very well. But when I got into the process of this record, it very quickly became apparent that there was a directness to this record that we've touched upon on previous albums, but not to this extent. There's a brutal honesty to this album that is not guised in metaphor. It is just simply laid bare for you all to hear, which I think creates a very, very special record. It's intimate and vulnerable, but it's aggressive and brutal and loud, and it kind of does all the things that I want it to do. And the way that I've been describing it is it just ... I don't quite know how to, so the way I've been saying it is it feels like me. This record feels like me and us in the most genuine way possible, where it almost feels like the first album again, where there's this purely inspired thing to it that we had on 'Light Me Up' where there's nothing manufactured about it. It just is. There's an effortlessness to it. So it has that kind of same energy, but from a much more grown-up and mature perspective. I've lived a lot of life, and it's all in there."

After the interviewer noted that its "gotta feel very freeing" as she and her bandmates go out and you get on stage and start performing these songs live and see interactions with fans who might be going through some of those same things she did, Taylor said: "Oh, it's beautiful. It really is. And from a musical standpoint, this album is very unproduced. It's very basic as to what we sound like, so to take it from the studio and translate it into the live setting has been very simple. It just is. So that in and of itself makes a very fun record to play live because it's just what we sound like. There's no affect to it. There's no pretense. There's no, 'How do we take this and strip it back to a three-piece band?' It just is. And so that kind of raw connection, I think, that we've created in the songs themselves is palpable, and it's felt between me and the audience. And to see their reaction every night of seeing which song is touching which person and that kind of intimate relationship that we have has just been a really beautiful experience so far, and we're having the best time on this tour."

Momsen also talked about the differences between the writing and recording process and taking the music on the road. She said: "To me, there's stages of things. I always look at the studio — the studio is for me. The writing of the record and the recording of the record, that's mine. And then once you've released the record, there's almost this... I always say there's a moment on release day of very real but brief sadness, where I'm going, 'I'm giving a piece of myself away. I'm giving this collection of songs and this thing that was just mine away to the world, and it no longer belongs to me. What it means to me and what I was writing about and my story and my everything, it doesn't exist anymore. It belongs to the audience.' And that's the point. And so when you get out on the road and you start playing these songs and you start seeing the reactions firsthand, there's this very beautiful thing that happens where the songs transform themselves into everyone else's story. And it's just a very cool feeling that kind of never gets old, and it's never redundant because it's different every single night. And it's just awesome. That kind of circle of music is so cool to witness firsthand."

Momsen once again produced "Dear God" herself with Jonathan Wyman and THE PRETTY RECKLESS guitarist Ben Phillips.

This past April, THE PRETTY RECKLESS released the single "Love Me", while previous single "When I Wake Up" entered at No. 10 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart, and the album's lead single, "For I Am Death", became THE PRETTY RECKLESS's eighth Mainstream Rock Radio No. 1.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS is bringing its stage performance to fans across the world with the all-new headlining "Dear God" tour. This trek follows THE PRETTY RECKLESS's two-year-long run of shows the globe alongside AC/DC on the "Power Up" tour.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS performed at the prestigious 2026 MusiCares Person Of The Year Gala, where Taylor honored the legendary Mariah Carey alongside the FOO FIGHTERS, and played at the 2025 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame where Taylor performed with SOUNDGARDEN for their induction. Additionally, the band released their holiday EP "Taylor Momsen's Pretty Reckless Christmas", which features the revamped "Where Are You Christmas?" — the lead single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.

Since THE PRETTY RECKLESS's debut "Light Me Up", they've earned global acclaim with hits including "Heaven Knows" and made history as the first female-fronted band to score eight No. 1 singles on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

Image credit: Ben Wilson