With van Giersbergen, the band's sound shifted from gothic metal to one influenced by shoegaze, post-rock and trip hop, starting with their fifth studio album How to Measure a Planet?

Founded by brothers Hans and René Rutten and vocalist Bart Smits, The Gathering formed in the city of Oss in 1989.

[2] In 1990 they recorded a demo tape entitled An Imaginary Symphony which met some positive reactions from the underground metal scene due to their unusual use of keyboards in metal-oriented music.

[3] In 1992 both Smits and Groot left the group due to musical differences; the other members wanted to change direction towards a lighter, more progressive sound.

In 1995, The Gathering released Mandylion, their third album and first to feature lead vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen, through Century Media; proving to be their breakthrough and selling over 130,000 copies in Europe.

[6] Tours of Belgium and Germany, as well as appearances at the Dynamo Open Air and Pinkpop Festivals further established the bands presence in the European metal scene.

Upon release, the album received excellent reviews from critics who appreciated the band's absorption of new styles such as shoegaze and trip hop into its sound.

However, the band were still under contract with Century Media, they released a live album Superheat (2000) which was recorded in several Dutch venues during 1999.

This CD accompanied a history study book written by Professor Wim Kratsborn and the band did not consider it to be an official release of theirs.

The next plan was to release in 2007 a second DVD (recognized for the band) A Noise Severe which features the more hard rock sound of The Gathering.

In February 2008, The Gathering released a boxed set entitled Sand and Mercury - The Complete Century Media Years.

This boxed set was limited to 3000 copies worldwide, and contained 10 discs including a selection of studio, live and compilation albums.

The album contains the demos, the never released promo 1992, live tracks and the Celtic Frost cover of "Dethroned Emperor".

All songs were restored and mastered by Mike Wead (King Diamond / Mercyful Fate) and was released by small Dutch independent label Vic Records.

The Gathering's ninth studio album, The West Pole, was released in May 2009, shortly after they were joined by a new singer, Silje Wergeland.

On 8 December 2016, they surprise-released a double-disc of outtakes, demos & unreleased songs from the recordings of Souvenirs and Home, called Blueprints.

[11] In December 2024, the band announced that, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mandylion, they would reunite with van Giersbergen for five sold-out August 2025 shows in Nijmegen.