Vocalist Silje Wergeland has announced she will be parting ways with The Gathering after 16 years with the band: “It’s time to move on to new ventures”.
Norwegian vocalist Silje Wergeland has announced that she has departed the Dutch progressive rock group The Gathering after a 16-year tenure with the band.
Wergeland would join The Gathering in 2009, replacing vocalist Anneke Van Giersbergen, but now says it’s time to move on to new ventures.
In a social media statement shared yesterday (December 29), the singer would write:
“It’s a new dawn and a new year. After 16 years of creating and playing great music with The Gathering, it’s time to move on to new ventures.”
“I have had so many awesome experiences and made great memories with this band that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
“I wish my band mates all the best for the future.”
“Thanks for all the great support and the lovely conversations with all you wonderful [The Gathering] fans around the globe.”
“Lots of love, Silje”.
Before joining The Gathering, Wergeland sang for the Norwegian gothic metal group, Octavia Sperati. The signer announced in 2015 that the band had reunited, but there were no further updates on Octavia Sperati’s status.
Meanwhile, The Gathering recently celebrated its 30th anniversary of their Mandylion album, and performed with the musicians who recorded the LP, including original singer Anneke Van Giersbergan. The band would perform a number of shows in their home country earlier this year, and have announced more shows for 2026, with dates set for Europe, South America and ProgPower USA in Atlanta.
Guitarist René Rutten had revealed in an intervie with Chile’s Radio Futuro that he was still in contact with Van Giersbergen after she had departed the band, and that it was only after Mandylion achieved Gold status in the Netherlands that they had started considering a reunion with the original lineup: “Only last year, the old record label, finally they said, ‘Okay, we can’t hold it anymore, but your album become a gold record here in the Netherlands.’ So we got a gold record last year. Then we saw all the band members again. And I keep contact with Anneke – sometimes we did some lunch, just meeting – and then one moment we said, like, ‘Yeah, let’s do something next year, if the album becomes 30 years old.’ And that’s what now is gonna happen with the five shows here in Nijmegen. But we had contact with all the other members as well. Hugo [Prinsen Geerligs] came back earlier already for being playing bass guitar. Frank [Boeijen, keyboards] was always there. And Jelmer [Wiersma, guitar], we asked him, like, ‘Hey, do you like to join us in this?’ And yeah, he loves it. So he also is very enthusiastic about [playing] this album, [Mandylion, in its entirety] and more.”
Van Giersbergen left the band in 2007, sharing in an interview with Pop Matters that the decision was influenced by feeling restless and needing a change: “I had been in The Gathering for 13 years, and I had never done anything for 13 years in my life. It’s been my whole adult life, so to leave that, on one hand, was a very clear decision and a very strong feeling, and I was ready. In 13 years, things had changed in my personal and musical life. It was difficult as well, because the guys, they were like brothers, so to leave that and to change that relationship has been a long process and was probably one of the hardest things I did.”
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