 The Gathering decided to drop the use of male vocals altogether and instead brought in a lead female vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen for their third full length "Mandylion", an album that "saw the band adventurously breaking away from the Gothic Doom fare of previous works".The result was considered a "groundbreaking achievement" upon its release in 1995 with critics lavishly describing it as "the perfect pinnacle of gothic metal".The Gathering's "introspective atmosphere owed a creative debt to Dead Can Dance, and established them as a leading band in their native Holland [sic]".