Dutch/Norwegian rockers THE GATHERING will release their first studio album in almost a decade, "Beautiful Distortion", in April via Psychonaut Records. Produced by Attie Bauw, who previously worked on 2006's "Home" and 1998's "How To Measure A Planet?", the band's 11th studio LP will contain eight songs with a running time of nearly 50 minutes.
The official music video for the album's second single, "We Rise", can be seen below.
THE GATHERING comments: "'Beautiful Distortion' is a typical eclectic THE GATHERING album, although it may be our most dynamic and melodic album to date. THE GATHERING's signature atmospheric and electronic rock sound is topped with the warm Nordic vocal lines by Silje Wergeland."
Wergeland adds: "We wanted the artwork and title to reflect the times we have been in lately. Both with the pandemic, trying to be creative in isolation, all our everyday struggles, in private life, in relationships, and all that comes in life and with not being able to meet face to face. It symbolizes communication, or the lack of it, the interaction that has been out of balance. But at the same time, all the beauty that can come out of this distortion, such as new music, ideas and perspectives. It has been a long way, but we are so pleased and excited to soon reveal what we have been working on so hard for the past years."
The first single from "Beautiful Distortion", a song called "In Colour", was made available last October.
In February 2021, THE GATHERING drummer Hans Rutten told Portugal's Underground's Voice that he and his bandmates don't see 2013's "Afterwords" as the group's latest studio album. "We all see 'Disclosure' [2012] as our last studio album, and 'Afterwords' was more or less a 'Disclosure' after-party," he said. "Frank [Boeijen, keyboards] and René [Rutten, guitar] really wanted to do some extra things — to make remixes. We had some sounds going on and some ideas, so we devoped into a sort of — it's a mini album, maybe, but it's a long album. But that said, we don't see it as a full-length album of THE GATHERING, more as sort of an EP kind of thing."
Released in September 2013, "Afterwords" contained three songs that originally appeared on the "Afterlights" EP in 2012, two "Disclosure" remakes, three brand new THE GATHERING tracks and a cover version of a song called "Areas".
"Disclosure" arrived in September 2012 via THE GATHERING's own Psychonaut Records.
