Can I chime in on The Gathering?
What an incredible and underrated band. I really need to get more of their stuff. I have Mandylion, Nighttime Birds, How to Measure a Planet?, If_Then_Else and the live album Superheat. There's not a single thing I don't love, and I have no idea why I don't own more.
Mandylion and Nighttime Birds are more metal, simple straightforward.
How to Measure a Planet is by far the most experimental of the bunch, and easily my favorite. Please find "Probably Built in the Fifties"...my favorite song from the album. But the album is full of mellow, experimental Pink Floyd-esque type material as well. If you want to hear that side, check out "Frail (You Might As Well Be Me)".
If Then Else is really cool as well. I think the sound shifted to a bit more of a blend between the experimental "Planet" and the more straightforward earlier albums.
(and I almost forgot...they do have two earlier albums with male lead singers. I own one of them, but it doesn't even sound like the same band. Doom metal with cookie monster vocals....stay away from them. I don't mind those type of vox...but even for that genre, they are not good albums. For me, the band did not really begin until they got Anneke (their first female lead singer))