You know, I came into Afterwords optimistic. I was already planning on writing a review that praised this album. It was going to go a little something like this:

It’s time we face the facts: Anneke van Giersbergen is not that amazing of a vocalist. She’s great at what she does, does it well, and there’s no doubt The Gathering recorded their greatest material with her. But her soft, pleasant voice is far from unique or irreplaceable. The greatest thing about Anneke’s voice was the fact that even when it was soft, it always had an usual sweeping power to it. That was something, and it added a lot to The Gathering’s atmospheric rock. The power may be harder to come across, but finding a similar tone isn’t, and I always felt The Gathering did a decent job with finding a replacement in Silje Wergeland. On the bright side, Anneke wasn’t even using her power all the time (or even often, especially by the time of her departure).

The decline in The Gathering isn’t because Anneke left, it’s because the band’s ability to write songs and create truly enveloping guitar and electronic textures diminished. Home was an Anneke album and the first sign of diminishing returns for The Gathering’s sound, and The West Pole went even further south (heh). With the previous album, Disclosure, The Gathering made a surprisingly very solid album that was definitely better than Anneke and co.’s Home and could comfortably sit alongside their other classics.

So I expected Afterwords to be more of the same quality, if not better. After listening to the album, I fear that this may have not been the best page to make my above point on, and I’m too lazy to go post it on Disclosure‘s page, and this album is newer and more people will read it and I want to have some semblance of relevance (something The Gathering have now shown they no longer have, bam!).

Afterwords is the cheapest kind of atmosphere. The kind that’s hard to put your finger on why it fails and is easier to just describe as simply boring. But I’m going to try criticism just a little bit more constructive, if I’m able. The Gathering go as far into post-rock as they ever have with Afterwords, even incorporating a transparently “deep” vocal sample into “Afterlights” that just screams Godspeed You! Black Emperor. All of the textures are composed solely by long, drawn-out sustained chords with Wergeland’s slow one-note croon above them, should she ever decide to show herself. Seriously, Wergeland barely seems here for this 40-minute album, and she’s often just crooning instrumentally—the usual “ohhhhhh”s and “ahhhhh”s.

I can’t forget the ham-fisted trip-hop beats that just have to be there because is an album by The Gathering, but they’re nothing to write home about and quickly vanish much like Wergeland’s vocals. I miss the sudden releases of emotion that older Gathering albums had either in the vocals or heavy guitar work that would show up to give the songs dynamics and strength. Here, everything is the most simplistic chord progressions. Bärenfels has a bit of strong dynamic to it, though—six minutes in, when the song is only eight minutes long. The vocals on the latter half of “Sleep Paralysis” sound like they belong on background music for Disney’s adaption of Tarzan.

Are you getting an idea of anything yet? This whole album just seems like an obligation. It’s like everything about Afterwords‘s composition was lifted from some kind of textbook. So methodical and basic.

Nothing to impress, just get a nice guitar tone that sounds pretty and strum a chord and occasionally scale two more on there and you got yourself something really pretty I mean sure it lacks depth but maybe that’s good enough for some people. But it isn’t good enough for me. I’m always willing to listen, so better luck next time, Gathering. If there even is a next time—you guys sound very tired.