Anathema
Alternative 4
(c)(p)1998 Peaceville Records
Review by Neil St.Laurent
Thanks to Peaceville for the CD
Anathema has had a fairly diverse musical history over their past
several releases, from the powerful doomdeath of "Serenades" to the
highly melodic and approachable sound of "Eternity". Some still say
they enjoyed the "Crestfallen" era, while others maintain the bands
best work was with their transition album "The Silent Enigma". It
seems that with "Alternative 4", Anathema has solidified their style
to that which appeared on their previous release "Eternity". As
noted, that style of music was somewhat approachable, and when given
to non-metal listeners many people cited similarities to Pink Floyd,
and their covers on Peaceville's "X" compilation definitely confirm
that influence.
It is difficult to say that somehow Anathema has sold out to
something by the inclusion of keyboards, pianos, and other very
atmospheric soothing elements, for all that was present back when
they were still doing doomdeath. Even the lyrical content is still
very much similar, that is there is still nothing happy about them,
and they are still quite abstract in nature. Although the music
sounds much different than the earlier years, it is almost easier to
point out how much hasn't changed, rather than how much has.
Definitely though, Anathema has an excessively melodic and harmonic
sound that attempts to be layered with atmosphere. An atmosphere
created either by ambient keyboard sounds or soothing guitar
melodies. Not absent however is the hard edge, created by truly
original guitar fare, or by the less than refined vocals of Vincent
Cavanagh. It therefore cannot be said that the music has become
popular fluff, nor has it gone in a direction similar to what
Paradise Lost has.
Anathema has a very unique style at this point, and although it can
be compared to almost any band in existence in some fashion or
another, the root of this music is still somewhere within their
former style of doomdeath, it is just now a much lighter and refined
form of that. "Alternative 4" goes a long way to prove the value of
this form of music, and it should indeed manage to at one point or
another be enjoyable by anybody who listens to music.
Anathema is:
Vincent Cavanagh - Vocals, Guitar
Duncan Patterson - Bass
Daniel Cavanagh - Guitar
Shaun Steels - Drums
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