Subtly Creeps on You

Review Score: (8/10)
Of all the Gathering's albums, If_Then_Else seems to be the most immediately accessable, with less experimental tracks - but at the same time it's perhaps hardest to judge.

The song structures are much more straightforward than say 'How to Measure a Planet', but this album serves up the best melodies than any of their previous releases. This doesn't mean the composition is any less complex - lots of various string-instruments, over-driven,electric,distorted,acoustic and 12-string guitars and some innovative percussion - even though the songs do come off more chorus-driven than before.

Even after several months of listening, the album still remains fresh, thanks to different themes and sounds on every track. 'Rollercoaster' and 'Shot to Pices' - the openers, sound the most familiar, but 'Amity' is a dreamy, catchy ballad, Saturnine a real rolling rocker but still containing the goth-roots that ensures that the Gathering is compared to other ethereal female-vocal bands like Lacuna Coil and Nightwish...

It's an album for every mood, any situation and works very well on the level it was endend for - a delicious soundscape that takes you on a journey and deposits you (with the fittingly titled 'Pathfinder') in another world...

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