The Gathering
If Then Else

To the classic journalistic question: "what is music for you?" the answers are often similar and overused; in rare cases, however, they are original and still represent a truthful conception.

Whether they are clichés or premeditated to make one appear more interesting and innovative, when analyzing the various opinions, we cannot help but find the concept of "emotion" as a common denominator among them. There are different interpretations through which it is explained, but if I were to summarize them, I would say they can be identified in the following phrases: "Music as a container of emotions, music as emotion, music as a release of emotions." Each person's personal experience leads them to lean towards one or another view of this relationship, but it remains undeniable that it is accepted by everyone as existing.

This philosophical premise is to talk to you about The Gathering more than the album in question. This group has markedly changed its stylistic coordinates since its inception, creating albums that are sometimes quite surprising for fans and listeners. For instance, moving from listening to "Nighttime Birds" to "How to measure a Planet?" and enjoying both works certainly means having an open musical mindset, because even though there are only a few years between the conception of these two albums, the same temporal measurement doesn't seem possible to contain within it such a drastic musical variation.

From the stylings of death and gothic metal, the Rutten brothers and their associates quickly found themselves composing material influenced by Radiohead, Portishead, and Massive Attack without losing their distinctive touch that had made them stand out to critics as a more than interesting entity since their beginnings. Many have accused them of "commercialization" for lightening their sound, but I hope it's clear to everyone that a record is not "commercial" just because there are no distorted guitars; indeed, there are embarrassingly many heavy but "commercial" records!

If this consideration is not enough as an answer, it could be added that after the realization of the double "How to..." to continue the new musical path, made up of experimentation on melodic and never banal carpets, the group had to leave the record label that would have preferred a continuation of the much more lucrative gothic path given the popularity of bands like Nightwish and Evanescence, with their distorted guitars, yet decidedly more commercial in their presumed artistic intents compared to ours.

And it is here that "If_Then_Else" is placed, the last album before the split with the record label and the creation of their own label, Psychonaut Records. In the album, it's easy to notice an attempt in the production phase to make the sound heavier after the relaxation of the previous work, but no distortion can change the dreamlike sensation the notes attempt to gift us, even in their initial restlessness. Neither can the prominence of instruments, emphasized during mixing in the more relaxed segments (for example "Amity"), cancel the sonic blend laid like a warm silk scarf around the vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen's throat.

These interventions by the record label aimed at avoiding the loss of a certain trademark and a potential money-making machine are more than understandable if one considers a record as a mere object for sale. Still, in this case, those who composed it do not think the same way, and so, watching from the sidelines during the concretization of their own notes, during mixing and mastering while everything is reworked by others, these guys must not have liked it. Fortunately, I would add. From this need for freedom comes the break with Century Media and the unfolding of a renewed expressive freedom that since then has offered us three gems like "Souvenirs," "Black Light District (EP)," and "Home."

I know, so far I haven't really talked about the album, but I believe that neither the analysis of the tracks nor various comments are necessary in this case. In fact, it's much more important to understand, in my opinion, how much the situation experienced during the recordings counted in the choices that The Gathering made after this album. So, in addition to the information about the realization that I have mentioned multiple times, to give you a sense of a fleeting listen, I can tell you that this music manages to embrace like the hug of a loved one and with its sweet warmth cradles every little pain of the mind.

These are relaxed sensations, but studied in detail not to be prolix and redundant. Music for dreamlike journeys, but composed with one's head on the music sheets. A mystical experience more than a listening, but mysticism as a tension towards the divine inherent in nature. In short, here you breathe the reality of dreams and understand why my premise; I don't know what your opinion is on the connection between music and emotion, but, trust me, you'll surely feel the latter listening to The Gathering.

I add, with a few words, that if I could make a quantification, I would say that 85% of the credit for this emotional whirlpool and such a marked musical evolution goes to the singer Anneke van Giersbergen and that miracle of her voice (I deliberately decided to mention it only at the end, otherwise just mentioning her more often would have triggered in me the desire to idolize this woman, something I'm currently risking doing!).

To conclude, I would say this album is recommended to listeners of more melodic music, post-rock and trip-hop, and to those who want to feel their head lovingly cradled.

However, if possible, it is better to listen to it after becoming slaves of that masterpiece of its successor "Souvenirs," which in the production of The Gathering themselves makes its added value.