When it was originally released, reactions about Planet fell into two camps: those who welcomed The Gathering's new tack with open arms and those who couldn't believe they had made such a diabolical mistake. The mistake, if you cohere, is to dispense with metal and create a new style of music which the band called 'trip rock' - this is basically rock with a few trip-hop break beats added, and to be fair, it's a style of music which is quite innovative and interesting, the only problem being that in order to make an album of such work [Portishead's Dummy being a perfect example], you have to have VERY different songs, and The Gathering slay themselves with the problem they've been suffering from ever since Nighttime Birds - it's just all too similar.

As if this weren't enough, the band have 'treated' their fans with two discs on this album, God only knows why, because by the end of the first one I'd had enough. Now, I shouldn't give completely the wrong impression because Frail, Great Ocean Road, My Electricity and Travel are actually quite good, Anneke sounding especially good on My Electricity, though the other tracks on the disc are nothing to write home about, and even if I were writing home, I wouldn't give them a paragraph. Disc two, however, is next to pointless, its only saving grace being Illuminating, and I would include Probably Built In The Fifties had they not put that silly effect on Anneke's voice which makes her sound like she's singing from the inside of a tin can. The most amazing thing about the second disc is the album title track which is something like 27 minutes'-worth of absolute tediousness: if you've ever heard of a composer called Gyorgy Ligeti [clue - he's on the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey - link - planets, geddit?!] it's that kind of style, just utterly inane sounds with the odd chord chucked in for good measure.

I won't say that this album is a complete failure - it isn't, and I appreciate the fact that there are many out there that love it. I can see where The Gathering were coming from with this one, it's just that something was lost in the translation from idea to execution and the result just isn't quite as good as it could have been. There are a couple of songs that raise this album above the level of pointlessness for me, but I know not everyone shares this opinion because I've read a lot of reviewers saying it's the best thing since sliced bread. The best way to make your own decision, of course, is to take the plunge and get it for yourself.