\"Accessories - Rarities And B-Sides\" will be released by Century Media on August 22nd, 2005 all over Europe.

CD one offers “the b-sides” from all of their out-of-print CD-Singles – including rarities like “Adrenaline” and “Theme From ‘The Cyclist’”, as well as cover versions from Talk Talk, Dead Can Dance and Slowdive.

CD two is full of unreleased demo recordings. In the end of 1996, The Gathering did demos for their \"Nighttime Birds\" album with German Krautrocker and producer Eroc (Grobschnitt, etc.). For the first time ever you can hear all of the alternate versions as well as two instrumentals that were not used on \"Nighttime Birds\". Drummer Hans Rutten comments:

\"We love the sound of this demo Eroc mixed, crystal clear and with a lot of dynamics. Eroc had some great, crazy ideas, a pity we didn’t work together on the album.\"

Eroc agrees with Rutten and adds:

\"Quite often demos and pre-productions end up having a lot more of that \'special something\' as compared with the corresponding final results - where endless weeks of trying to \'get things perfect\' have a tendency to squeeze out every last drop of spontaneity from the music.\"

The other lost pearl from the band’s archive are the so-called “Texel Tapes” with pre-productions for \"How To Measure A Planet?\" including great alternate versions.

\"Accessories - Rarities And B-Sides\" also features detailed liner notes by the band, rare photos and a special packaging.

Starting as a raw, death metal influenced band, and creating what later should be called gothic metal, The Gathering have been an extraordinary group since the early ‘90s.

From their rough metal roots, to the atmospheric tunes \"Mandylion\" had to offer, to dreamy, profound songs on \"Nighttime Birds\" or \"How To Measure A Planet?\" to their latest adventures within the progressive/triprock field, the Dutch crew always remained true to themselves while building up a continuously increasing fan base.