THE GATHERING

Beautiful Distortion PSYCHONAUT RECORDS

SOPHISTICATED, SPACEY, AND FULL OF UNDERSTATED FASCINATION.

Dutch group return revitalised from lengthy break.

Anear decade-long hiatus has undoubtedly provided The Gathering with the requisite breathing space to continue evolving and setting their musical compass on a trajectory towards an altogether more eclectic, electronically driven sound.

It was worth the wait. The Dutch band’s 12th studio album – the follow-up to 2013’s Afterwords, itself a continuation of the previous year’s Disclosure – carries them into a more immersive sonic sphere, further away not only from their beginnings as a black-clad extreme metal band but also from the wide-ranging sonic experimentations at the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s. The inherent beauty of the album’s hypnotic, haunting soundscapes places them in the space occupied until recently by Anathema.

The current line-up includes original members brothers René and Hans Rutten, and keyboard player Frank Boeijin, who were separated geographically during the pandemic from Norwegian vocalist Silje Wergerland. Among those contributing this time are the original bass player Hugo Prinsen Geerligs, who returned to the band in 2018, and producer Attie Bauw, responsible for their 1998 breakthrough

How To Measure a Planet?.

From the outset, there is nowhere for Wergerland’s silky, supple voice to hide within the lush electronic arrangements. On opener In Colour, her breathy vocals float like a cloud before the song hits a higher metronomic tempo, erupting briefly into a synth maelstrom.

There’s more of a Europop groove complete with infectious vocal hook line going on in When We Fall. René Rutten’s ethereal guitar introduces Grounded that then hits a heavier stride, hinting at their metallic past. The unremitting riffing that acts as undercurrent beneath We Rise is matched by Wergerland’s strident vocals, ebbing and flowing to a slower, more intense frequency and triumphant denouement.

Black Is Magnified initially delivers a more relaxed groove, Wergerland’s voice taking on an urgency over its rolling melody. On the aptly titled Weightless, the percussive rhythms and walls of synths producing a soul-stirring, meditative state. The huge, shuffling rhythms and washes of electronica push the Pulse of Life towards more psychedelic realms. On Delay’s majestic wash of sound heralds the start of a pulsating, trippy excursion that concludes the album.

Sophisticated and spacey, Beautiful Distortion is full of understated fascination. It’s an album whose subconsciously euphoric qualities become increasingly apparent on each subsequent play.