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Three years ago, Liverpool's former power metal act Anathema issued A Fine Day To Exit, a wildly experimental change in direction from their gloriously punishing doom excesses. The set was a lushly produced nod to bands who explored the melodic fringes of dark, futuristic rock & roll -- Radiohead, Coldplay. While it took off from the tempered strategies of Judgement and proved an interesting ride, it ultimately failed to captivate not only the band's faithful, but also to win any new fans; it was lost in its excesses and unclear in its direction. On A Natural Disaster, Anathema looks down the road further, this time glancing back once in awhile to its strengths, and hones its focus. The end result is the quartet's finest outing since Eternity, which it touches upon in its quest for emotionally expressive music that doesn't shun experimentation, with the lush textures of keyboards and spatial ambiences, but embraces them as part of an expansive, gripping, and all-encompassing rock sound. This is the kind of genre-toppling ambition that Radiohead has been seeking to fulfill for a couple of years (how odd that something they inspired is the very thing they cannot seem to grasp) where a marriage between the textures and esthetics of Pink Floyd meet the modern weariness of British Isles melancholy, and the deep melodic richness of after-it's-over pop. "Are You There" with its gorgeous female backing vocals traipsing through Vincent Cavanagh's resigned, yet yearning croon is buoyed by keyboards, mirage-like single string guitar lines, and airy echo chambers, which open onto a vista that is open and broken, where guitars and drums skitter and shimmer in the muggy warmth of its grief-wrenched body. The gurgling electric piano that ushers in "Balance" is merely the warning shot before a thudding drum allows Cavanagh's vocals to soar and swoop -- á la Thom Yorke at his most expressive and unpretentious -- all before a bank of whispering keyboards opens out onto a wail of guitar fury complete with overdriven riffs. The vocoders in "Closer" might be disconcerting for a moment, until they are woven into a braid of ethereally heavy atmospherics where Danny Cavanagh's guitars course through the middle, lifting up everything in their path. The feminine Celtic blues of Leon Douglas on the title track allows the vocalist a languid space in the wondrously silky, yet bleakly seductive din woven by the Cavanagh Brothers' guitars. Simply put, these Liverpudlians know how to make a dark rock album; it's full of alienation, honest emotion, tense, suffocating theater, and stunningly beautiful textures. These are songs of longing, separation, loss, and blissed-out agony, played by a band who have arrived at single-pointed concentration and turn their heaviness inside out, never forsaking it, yet weaving it seamlessly into a new incarnation that would win legions of new "alterna-rock" fans, if the punters were given a chance to hear it. Misery has never sounded this beautiful. ~ Thom Jurek
Recorded at Parkgate Studios, Battle, England in 2003.
Personnel: Danny (vocals, guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Leon Douglas (vocals); Jamie (programming).
Anathema: Vincent Cavanagh (vocals, guitar); Danny Cavanagh (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Les Smith (keyboards, programming); Jamie Cavanagh (bass, programming); John Douglas (drums).
Additional personnel: Lee Douglas, Anna Livingstone (vocals).
it's a miracle... ...how these guys have been progressing their music. From the very beginning there were no musical boundaries for them, and there are none still. Which is fine, because an emotion needs an oceanic place to be expressed. And about the EMOTIONS this band is, about a pure refreshing colourful congenialy infectious catching and who knows what else sadness which urges on! I love them and always will. ...As steady as no one from the doom metal generation. Submitted by Mimozemstan ("xxx") Was This Review Helpful? YesNo 1 of 1 found this helpful.
Fantastic I absolutely loved this album, but there are definitely two different phases of Anathema. The first cd I picked up by this band was Judgement, and I adore it. Some fans of their heavier music may be disappointed, because this is definitely part of their ethereal/alternative music. I think this album has fantastic lyrics and has a very surreal feel to it. Harmonium, Are you there?, and Flying are must haves. Submitted by Emily (Ohio, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
masterpiece very very good album!!!!!!!!! Submitted by pkos76 (greece) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Slightly Disapointed Having own all their previous albums for a long time I just recently picked up this album and after listening to it the first time I was a little dissapointed I really liked their last album A Fine Day To Exit which growned on me after a couple of listenings I don`t think this will though. The majority of the song`s just don`t go anywhere, it feels empty. It`s not a bad album not all but it sometimes feels like Danny just had some left overs that didn`t make it on the previous album and decided to put it on this. There are some really strong songs here like: Closer, Are You There?, A Natural Disaster and Flying. All great classic Anathema songs that will stick with you for a long time. The other songs are mostly lacking and they sorta feel rushed through. But for those 4 mentioned songs it`s worth the price. 3 stars. Submitted by Solitude (Norway) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
... A Natural disaster is just another beautiful step in Anathema's evolution i think...The new soft songs are as good as the old heavy ones and Anathema can perform them anytime just as they should be;) Submitted by maharet8805 (Cluj-Napoca,Romania) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
it's a miracle...
Slightly Disapointed
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