The Gathering: Which CD to start with?

Soul_Schizm said:
Must have had my head in the sand, but I've never heard any stuff from The Gathering. Any recommendations which CD is their best??

--S
I'd go with 'Mandylion'. I believe 'Always' is their first, but they had death vox on that one and their sound was completely different. They did a comlete 180 when they got Anneke to front the group. A change for the better, imo. Mandyloin and Nighttime Birds are both great. I don't much care for the more recent stuff. I didn't like How to Measure a Planet at all. If_Then_Else was decent, but I still didn't like it nearly as much as M & NB. I haven't even heard their newest yet.