The start of the Gathering roots back to the year 1989. Close to the Dutch small town of Oss, the brothers Hans and René Rutten founded the band that was later called the Gathering, together with Bart Smits and other friends. Right from the start they decided to avoid the easy and obvious paths and meticulously modelled the individual band sound. At weekly rehearsals, they worked their way from the mutual basis heavy metal to other musical styles until their first demo-tape An Imaginary Symphony summarised the early experiences in 1990. Their straight metal sound interwoven with keyboards was received with enthusiasm by the press even back then. More demos followed and in 1991 the band opened for high-calibre metal bands such as Morbid Angel and Death