As of 2024,

If you are exploring the album today, skip the compressed streaming formats and seek out the lossless digital rip, or support the band directly by purchasing the original media or high-fidelity digital releases via the Official Century Media Bandcamp or Psychonaut Records .

: Anneke van Giersbergen's legendary vocal versatility switches from soft whispers to powerful soaring rock hooks. MP3 compression creates pre-echo and metallic artifacts around her high frequencies, whereas FLAC keeps her vocals completely clean and intimate.

A faster, more rock-oriented track that showcases the band's ability to balance heavy riffs with melodic sensibility.

By the time "if_then_else" arrived, The Gathering had already established themselves as pioneers. After the genre-defining atmospheric metal of "Mandylion" (1995) and the experimental "Nighttime Birds" (1997), the band had begun to strip away the heavy distortion in favor of texture, mood, and melody. Their previous outing, the sprawling double-album "How to Measure a Planet?" (1998), had introduced space-rock and shoegaze elements.

Provides perfect compression without removing any audio data, ensuring the high-fidelity sound is preserved.

A dreamy, atmospheric track that epitomizes the band’s talent for creating "lush melodies".

Released on , through Century Media Records , if_then_else served as the Dutch band's sixth studio album. Following the massive, sprawling experimental double-album How to Measure a Planet? in 1998, if_then_else was a more compact, punchy, yet incredibly atmospheric effort.