"Tagging The Gathering "gothic metal" is wrong.
Their music fits many different categories - their sound is atmospheric, trippy, sometimes psychedelic/avant-garde... sometimes heavy... progressive... sometimes touching alternative pop... "cosmic doom rock" that's an example of a good tag for The Gathering :)" honcuk on last.fm

They started as s death/doom metal band, and If they ever played something maybe a bit "gothic" it was on their second album "Almost a Dance" << but that's really not their most listened album... Yes, the may have influenced the genre. That's right.