I never thought the Gathering or other early work from Andy would sound dated, but I totally agree with where he's coming from. I think his current work is such a perfect balance of old school vibe with modern detail - its true to what the essence of that music is about, and less reliant on any particular production style or technique. I think the recent albums will really stand up well in 20 years time.
And I still absolutely love how the Gathering sounds, it has its own character and it sounds way beyond what anyone else was really putting out at that time.
Really interesting to hear how much he loves the mic clones, I've heard good things about the Advanced Audio mics and I wonder how many of the clones he mentioned are theirs?
Also great to see he still loves the RNC.