Posted in Whathaveyou on May 27th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
As discussed before and after their set at Roadburn 2015, this is actually my favorite period of Anathema‘s work: the middle stage where the near-gothic death-doom dramas of their early days gave way to melodic Floydian spaciousness without letting go of its melancholic sensibility or emotional rawness that seemed all the more laid bare on songs like “One Last Goodbye,” “Temporary Peace” and “Flying” without waves of distortion to cover them up. Wider regard for their catalog before and after will be what it is — the ability to conjure opinions has always been a strong point for the Liverpool outfit — but this stuff is where my heart lies when it comes to Anathema.
As such, it’s with a somewhat wistful eye I look at the info below for 180g vinyl remasters and a box set compiling all of what I consider to be their best stuff, The End Records continuing to do well after having picked up the Music for Nations catalog however many years ago it was. Exclusive bundle, 3CD box, 180g vinyl, this one’s got all the keywords.
From the PR wire:
ANATHEMA REISSUES 3 TITLES ON VINYL WITH CD PLUS COLLECTOR’S BOXSET & EXCLUSIVE ALBUM BUNDLE
AVAILABLE NOW IN LIMITED EDITIONS VIA THE OMEGA ORDER
OUT 6/30 VIA THE END RECORDS/ADA
British rock group Anathema announces the remastered reissues of Judgement, A Fine Day To Exit, and A Natural Disaster on 180-gram vinyl and CD via The End Records/ADA. All three albums are also available as a 3-CD collector’s boxset, which includes the 38-song DVD mediabook, Were You There?.
This reissue makes available the first ever Anathema collector’s set, including an exclusive album bundle configuration of all three titles, boxset, and screenprinted slipmat. All Titles Limited Edition
AVAILABLE NOW ON THE OMEGA ORDER!
Judgement Remastered 180-gram LP + CD 01 Deep 02 Pitiless 03 Forgotten Hope 04 Destiny Is Dead 05 Make It Right (F.F.S) 06 One Last Goodbye 07 Parisienne Moonlight 08 Judgement 09 Don’t Look Too Far 10 Emotional Winter 11 Wings of God 12 Anyone, Anywhere 13 2000 & Gone
A Fine Day To Exit Remastered 180-gram LP + CD 01 Pressure 02 Release 03 Looking Outside Inside 04 Leave No Trace 05 Underworld 06 Barrier 07 Panic 08 Fine Day To Exit 09 Temporary Peace
A Natural Disaster Remastered 180-gram LP + CD 01 Harmonium 02 Balance 03 Closer 04 Are You There? 05 Childhood Dream 06 Pulled Under at 2000 Metres a Second 07 A Natural Disaster 08 Flying 09 Electricity 10 Violence
Fine Days: 1999-2004 3 Remastered CDs & DVD Mediabook Disc 1: Judgement (13 Songs) Disc 2: A Fine Day to Exit (10 Songs) Disc 3: A Natural Disaster (9 Songs) Disc 4: Were you There? (38 Songs – DVD)
Exclusive Reissue Bundle Screenprinted slipmat Judgement (LP + CD) A Fine Day To Exit (LP + CD) A Natural Disaster (LP + CD) Fine Days 1999 – 2004 (3CD + DVD)
Posted in Features, Reviews on April 12th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
04.13.15 — 00.21 — Sun. Night — Hotel
I did manage to get back to sleep this morning for a little bit after I finished writing the review and sorting pictures for last night, but first I went downstairs and took full advantage of the hotel breakfast. You get one free, and I wasn’t saving it or anything, I just hadn’t been up when it was served. Well, today I was. It opened at seven, I’d been up since four, so yeah. No problem. Some eggs, cheese, fruit, juice, bacon and sausage later, I was a new man. Who needed sleep. I got maybe half an hour before I needed to be up and out again to get to the 013 office and finalize the last issue of the Roadburn ‘zine, the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch, with Lee from The Sleeping Shaman.
We did it, put the issue out and everything. I folded paper like a champ and have the ink stain on my edge-flattening fingernail to prove it. Not the only mark Roadburn would leave on me today, but we’ll get there in a bit. In the meantime, check out the last Weirdo Canyon Dispatch of Roadburn 2015 here. Go on and give it a read.
Today was the Afterburner, which is Roadburn‘s traditional way of saying, “Sooner or later, you have to get back to real life.” It’s a transitional day. Less stages, fewer running back and forth, fewer people around, and so on. Band-wise, it’s usually a little more of Roadburn‘s roots: Heavy rock, psych, doom, though of course like the fest proper, the Afterburner has branched out stylistically as well.
One didn’t have to look much farther than Gnaw Their Tongues, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin or headliners Anathema — who, since they were playing a special set spanning their career, both fit a doomed aesthetic and pushed beyond it — to see that. Still, it was underrated New York space/psychedelic outfit White Hills who started the afternoon off at 15.00 on the Main Stage. An East Coast equivalent in my mind for L.A.’s Farflung — who also did quite well at Roadburn once upon a 2012 — they remain a much more popular band in Europe than in their hometown. So be it. For me, a little space is almost always welcome, but I wanted even more to see Pennsylvania’s Argus open up in the Green Room.
Riding the line between doom and traditional metal, the Brian “Butch” Balich-fronted Argus launched their set with “By Endurance We Conquer,” “No Peace Beyond the Line,” and “The Hands of Time are Bleeding,” the first three songs from their third and latest full-length, 2013’s Beyond the Martyrs (review here). The crowd knew the songs and sang along to the hooks, particularly in “No Peace Beyond the Line,” the five-piece of Balich, guitarists Jason Mucio and Dave Watson, bassist Justin Campbell and drummer Kevin Latchaw making the best case I’ve yet heard for their songwriting. With the two guitars, driving, forward rhythms, roots doom and NWOBHM-precision, Balich‘s powerful voice in addition to that level of craftsmanship, it was no challenge to see the appeal of Argus, and the Green Room certainly got into it. Heavy metal might be a subculture, but it’s one that crosses an awful lot of national borders, and I doubt if there’s any fist-pumping headbanger types who couldn’t get down with Argus. They’re as classically-styled as classically-styled gets, and they delivered in force at Roadburn.
They were dug into the particularly Trouble-y “Pieces of Your Smile” when I made my way over to the main hall for Chicago instrumental four-piece Bongripper. Now, it would’ve been awfully nice to see those dudes kick the living crap out of their latest album, 2014’s Miserable (review here), way back on Thursday night, but they were going on late and, well, you know the story, with the typing and the clacky-clacky and whatnot. Fine. No way in gosh darn heck was I going to miss my second chance to see guitarists Nick Dellacroce and Dennis Pleckham, bassist Ron Petzke — with whom I shared a cab to Tilburg from Schiphol Airport on Wednesday — and drummer Daniel O’Connor bludgeon all in their path with volume and raw, plodding riffs. With a formidable stack of amps and cabinets behind them, Bongripper tore into a swath of material, a crowd having shown up early to get a good spot for the punishment they knew was in store.
Seeing Bongripper live is like being swallowed by sound. Like if sound had a mouth — maybe the mouth from the front cover of Miserable would suffice, if you need an image — and that mouth ate you. A beastly barrage of riffs and tonal thunder, all of this maddening heft pushed onto the audience in an unrelenting assault. They ended by wailing on their instruments in time to O’Connor‘s crashes, a kind of violent assault on their equipment that fed into the thick wall of noise built up, the packed Main Stage room nodding in unison. The band stopped short of taking a bow when they were done, but no one would’ve been able to say they didn’t deserve to do so. It’s a primal element of doom and sludge and stoner riffing that Bongripper feeds into, fattens, and then slaughters, but the grungus is mighty in what they do and spread out on the wide stage, it was as much an art project as a wanton beatdown. Even their feedback was a weapon.
I’d run into Ohio’s Lo-Pan earlier in the day. They’re on tour with Abrahma now, have been for a couple nights, and like a lot of US heavy bands who come to tour Europe for the first time, I think they’ve been impressed at the show culture. People show up, bands aren’t treated like crap, and it’s a generally cared-for situation, something precious done in a general public interest. The crew working at the 013 as a part of Roadburn are second to none in professionalism or hospitality, and so it seemed reasonable to me the band would be singularly impressed. All the better for the show, which is both the intent and precisely how it worked out when they went on in the Green Room at 18.30. They were clashing with Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, but I’ve been itching for Lo-Pan to make a debut at Roadburn since they put out Salvador (review here) early in 2011. Let’s be clear: I wouldn’t miss them anyway. I’ll go see Lo-Pan just about any night of the week, but I knew this one was going to be special.
Of course, it was. “El Dorado” from Salvador opened and “Regulus” from last fall’s rager Colossus (review here) followed, the band immediately on fire. It was my first time seeing them with guitarist Adrian Zambrano, who came aboard in Nov. 2014 to fill the role formerly held down by Brian Fristoe. A new Lo-Pan, in a new place with new energy and even a new song in the set, there was nothing not to like. They were so tight it hurt With vocalist Jeff Martin set up in back behind drummer Jesse Bartz as per usual, Zambrano on stage left and bassist Scott Thompson on stage right, Lo-Pan were a heavy rock and roll force. Zambrano brought a little showmanship and style to the riffs and solos, and where Bartz and Thompson have always hit it hard on stage and the guitar was a more subdued presence (nothing against that whatsoever), having Zambrano headbanging away, tapping on the frets while throwing his pick-hand behind him, tossing a leg up on the monitor and so on both reinforced the energetic character of the band, as well as the material, and made it all the more exciting.
Speaking of headbanging, I did. It was among the best sets I’ve seen Lo-Pan play — lights, sound, performance, you name it — and yeah, I was getting into it a bit. I wound up banging my head into one of the monitors at the front of the stage early into the set. No blood, it wasn’t that bad, but I’ve got a bump sticking out of my forehead now and I expect by the time I get off the plane tomorrow in Boston it’ll be a good-size bruise. Easy enough to laugh it off and keep going, even if it’s a little sore when I raise my eyebrows, which I apparently do all the time. That’s how you find out that kind of thing.
Anyway, point is it was so, so, so, so good to see Lo-Pan. Not only because they’re one of American heavy rock’s best bands — I’ve called them the finest in US fuzz for pretty much the last four years — and not only because they killed it and put on a stellar show, but because they did it here, as a part of Roadburn 2015, looking across the stage at each other and challenging themselves to play better, harder than they have before. Their first European tour comes after countless US slogs and will hopefully lead to more, but it seems likely to me they’re going to remember this one, and I’m glad to have stayed through “Eastern Seas” and “The Duke” to watch them hammer down their victory. I’d been looking forward to it since they were announced, and it warmed my cold, dead heart to see them kick so much ass.
Their tourmates from Paris and Small Stone labelmates, Abrahma, were going on shortly down the block at Cul de Sac, which is right in the stretch of bars on Heuvelstraat adjacent to the 013 that for I don’t even remember how many years now I’ve been calling Weirdo Canyon (hence the Dispatch). The relatively small club is where the Hard Rock Hideout was held on Wednesday (review here), and I like the room a lot, so it seemed perfect to follow Lo-Pan with Abrahma and head over. Already they were on stage when I got there, dug into what turned out to be their soundcheck, but with the lights up, I snapped a few pictures just in case when they actually started they decided to play in the dark, as pretty much every band I’ve ever seen in that space has done. Abrahma, however, dared to be different.
In keeping, their upcoming second album, Reflections in the Bowels of a Bird (review/track stream here), does likewise, pushing into moodier, somewhat less psychedelic territory than their 2012 debut, Through the Dusty Paths of Our Lives (review here). Their set, which was actually just about split between the two records and leaned slightly toward the new one, was surprisingly heavy. Very riffy, very big in tone. Not quite to the level of Floor-syle bombdropping, but not far off either. As a frontman, Sebastien Bismuth was charismatic and engaging, banging his head harder than many and managing not to injure himself in the process unless you count an almost certain sore neck tomorrow, and joined by drummer Fred Quota for this tour along with bassist Guillaume Colin and guitarist Nicolas Heller, their sudden bursts of weighted groove hit with an impressive, genuine impact. As their songwriting continues to grow and become more complex, I’ll be interested to see how that impact evolves.
A prudent move would’ve been to stay longer, but even though it’s the Afterburner, Roadburn means time to move. Anathema would soon be on the Main Stage, playing a special set allotted 130 minutes that was being called “Resonance” and which started with the eponymous “Anathema” from last year’s Distant Satellites and working backwards through their discography. The Cavanagh brothers, Vincent (lead vocals, guitar), Danny (guitar, backing vocals) and Jamie (bass) were down front of the stage with drummer Daniel Cardoso and keyboardist/programmer John Douglas on risers behind, and over the course of their time, current vocalist Lee Douglas made intermittent appearances — a striking one for “A Natural Disaster” lit, at the band’s request, only by cellphone lights from the crowd, as seen on the cover of their 2013 DVD, Universal — and former bassist Duncan Patterson and former vocalist Darren White both showed up the farther along Anathema went, deeper and deeper still into their 25-year history.
They’re doing a short “Resonance” tour, are Anathema, but Roadburn 2015 was the first night, and the first time White had been on stage with the band in 20 years. Something special, no doubt. Here’s a fun fact, though: I love that band. Along with Amorphis, who were playing through the main hall P.A. just before Anathema went on, Anathema were one of the acts that led me into exploring underground metal, and ultimately — so the story goes — selling my soul to Tony Iommi at the expense of career, well-being and, this week, sleep. No complaints. But while Anathema are a pivotal band for me personally, a landmark act without whom I genuinely don’t believe I’d be the same person, I also fall into a rarer category of Anathema fan. It’s not their early stuff that I got into back when I was in high school. Not 1995’s Pentecost III, from which “Kingdom” and “Mine is Yours to Drown In (Ours is the New Tribe)” were aired at the start of what would be a third individual component set in the longer runtime, and not even the album The Silent Enigma, which followed it that same year, powerful though “Sunset of Age” and “A Dying Wish” were.
I have those records, and I dig those records a lot, but what got me into Anathema is their often-overlooked middle period: 1998’s Alternative 4, 1999’s Judgement, 2001’s A Fine Day to Exit and 2003’s A Natural Disaster. When I’m reaching for an Anathema album — as I invariably do in a depressive fit as I wallow in my own filth and worthlessness because I’m just the right kind of emotional cripple that music offers comfort I apparently can’t allow myself to feel otherwise; whoops — those are what I go for, and when Vincent led the way into “Pressure” from A Fine Day to Exit and “One Last Goodbye” from Judgement tonight, those were the songs that had me tearing up. No bullshit, bringing Darren White out was incredible. Clearly charged up to be on stage with the band in the context of headlining at Roadburn 2015, he settled in and nailed the dramatic chorus of “Kingdom” — shades of Fields of the Nephilim influence showing themselves — and led the band through the finish of their professionally polished but still emotionally potent set, “Sleepless” from Anathema‘s 1993 debut, Serenades, closing out.
This was the Anathema show I’ve been dreaming of, covering their whole career, but their mid-period, pre-prog, post-doom, was what hit me the hardest, the first four cuts from Alternative 4 played with Patterson on bass to morose and atmospheric effect. They could’ve done a third hour, easily, and I might have stayed for it if they did.
As it was, time was ticking away. One more stop to make, and it was back in the Green Room of the 013 for Brooklyn trio The Golden Grass, whose 2014 self-titled debut (review here) has only grown in my esteem since it was released. They’re a reminder of home for me, the East Coast, New York and all that, so they were perfect to close out my own little version of Roadburn. Guitarist/vocalist Michael Rafalowich, drummer/vocalist Adam Kriney and bassist Morgan McDaniel are on tour with Hypnos, who’d wrapped a bit earlier at the Cul de Sac, and though I knew I wouldn’t be there the whole time, I wanted to catch at least a bit of their sunshine boogie to help make the thought of walking out of Roadburn 2015, taking off my wristband and coming back to the hotel to put this last review together not quite such a bum-out. By the time they were through “Stuck on a Mountain” and “Please Man” and into a newer song I didn’t know, a bum-out was out of the question. Nothing but good vibes the whole way as I said a few quick goodbyes and walked down the stretch of Weirdo Canyon, a little quieter Sunday than Saturday, but by no means abandoned. I owe The Golden Grass one for that.
Strange to think that “tomorrow” (read: in three hours) when I get up to shower early and head out, it’ll be to the airport instead of the 013 office to bang out another issue of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch. Roadburn develops its own culture so quickly each year, and the more and more I’m fortunate enough to come see Tilburg in the springtime, the more it feels like home.
I’ll have another post up to close out this series and say thanks and whatnot, so until then, I’ll just say the same thing I always say: More pics after the jump and thanks for reading.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 10th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Excellent news today from the Roadburn camp for all fans of things melancholic and British in that Anathema will use the famed Tilburg festival’s 2015 edition as the launch point for a tour they’re calling “Resonance” on which they’ll play material spanning their entire career. To mark the occasion, they’re also bringing out founding vocalist Darren White and former bassist Duncan Patterson for a special reunion to take place headlining Roadburn‘s Sunday date, which may or may not still be the Afterburner (I’m not really sure). White and Patterson were last in the band together in the mid-’90s, and though Anathema have moved very, very, very far away from where they were at that point stylistically, they’ll look to tie it all together on stage at the 013 for those lucky enough to see it.
Announcement and comment from the band and fest follow:
Anathema To Play Special ‘Resonance’ Set At Roadburn 2015; To Be Joined By Former Members Duncan Patterson and Darren White
It is our honour to announce that Anathema will headline the Sunday date of the 20th edition of Roadburn Festival, at the 013 venue on April 12, 2015 in Tilburg, The Netherlands, with a special performance that will span the innovative British band’s 25-year career, and include special guest appearances by former bassist and songwriter Duncan Patterson and original singer Darren White. The Roadburn show will be one of just a few dates that will make up Anathema’s short 2015 ‘Resonance’ tour.
Anathema have steadily built a loyal following worldwide, and their career trajectory is unlike that of any other band in the last quarter century, and will be reflected and celebrated in reverse chronological order at Roadburn 2015. Starting with the anthemic progressive rock of their recent work (2012’s classic Weather Systems and 2010’s We’re Here Because We’re Here), the performance will gradually move back in time through the more gothic-oriented material of 1998’s Alternative 4 and 1996’s Eternity, all the way back to the pioneering work of 1995’s The Silent Enigma and the 1993 debut Serenades, with Patterson and White joining the band onstage for an historic reunion.
“Roadburn festival [is] a hugely respected institution and has to be the most fitting launch for the Anathema ‘Resonance’ tour, [It will be] a celebration of the band’s entire history, and to be joined by our old friends and comrades Duncan Patterson and Darren White for these exclusive shows will be a very special, potent and positive event for all of us. We hope you can join in this once in a lifetime celebration” – Danny Cavanagh.
This will be one of Roadburn 2015’s absolute highlights, and we can’t express how happy we are that the band has chosen Roadburn for such a once in a lifetime performance. Anathema’s early albums – the lineups with Duncan Patterson and Darren White – as well as the Judgement album have been a huge influence on many bands that have played Roadburn over the years, and they they are a blueprint for the festival itself as well. We’ve been in love with this band since the beginning, and their headlining performance on Sunday is Roadburn’s own tribute to Anathema, a unique opportunity for fans to see the band perform with two crucial early members.
The 20th edition of Roadburn Festival runs from April 9 to 12, 2015 in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Curated by Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) and Wardruna‘s Einar “Kvitrafn” Selvik, Roadburn Festival 2015 (including Fields of the Nephilim, Anathema, Skuggsjá, Enslaved, Wardruna, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin performing Dawn of The Dead and Susperia in its entirety, Zombi, Sólstafir, White Hills, Bongipper, Floor, Eyehategod and The Heads as Artist In Residence among others) will run for four days from Thursday, April 9 to Sunday, April 12 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 26th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
I know that given the atmospheric nature of both these bands, an Anathema and Alcest co-headlining tour isn’t the kind of thing one would usually go “Fuck yes!” about, but still: Fuck yes! No word on whose brilliant idea it was to team up the French and British outfits for a run of US and Canadian shows, but to whoever, well played. Alcest were killer at Roadburn this year and even in the we’re-a-happy-prog-band mode Anathema showed off on last year’s Weather Systems LP (review here), they’ll make a good fit, and with Aaron Turner‘s Mamiffer opening, it’s going to be a gloriously gloomy night.
Dig it:
This September and October, PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS artists ALCEST will take a break from work on their upcoming fourth album to embark on a co-headlining tour across the United States and Canada with masters of atmospheric rock Anathema. Founding ALCEST visionary Neige had the following to say about the upcoming tour: “We feel honored to tour with Anathema and [openers] Mamiffer. For years, Anathema have been making this unique mix of prog and emotional rock. Mamiffer is the post-rock/experimental band of Faith Coloccia and Aaron Turner, talented Isis founding member and founder of Hydra Head Records. Sounds like a diverse and attractive billing! And this will also be the opportunity for us to play a few songs from our next album. See you in a few months!”
The confirmed dates + venues are as follows: 9/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts 9/13 – Springfield, VA @ Empire 9/14 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater 9/15 – Boston, MA @ Middle East 9/16 – Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques 9/18 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House 9/19 – Flint, MI @ The Machine Shop 9/20 – Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s 9/21 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s 9/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Mill City Nights 9/24 – Denver, CO @ Summit City Music Hall 9/25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue 9/26 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory 9/27 – Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven 9/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater 9/29 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater 10/1 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Opera House 10/3 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater 10/4 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah 10/5 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee Theater
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 8th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Sorry, but there’s a blizzard on, and nothing says winter to me like Anathema‘s A Natural Disaster. I know anything to do with the long-running British genre-shirkers is an invite for contrasting opinions — this or that album is better, this or that era — and I don’t know if I’d say A Natural Disasteris my favorite of their records, but it’s certainly up there and it was the capping statement on their era of bleak atmospheric rock. By the time they got around to Hindsightin 2008, they were a different band entirely.
So for what it is, I dig it, and if you don’t, I hope you’ll indulge me anyway on account of the weather, which I’m told is quite severe. It’s dark here — darker than I expected from the awesomeness of hue that was twilight this evening — so I can’t see it, but I hear the heavier snowfall is still to come and that areas north of me, Connecticut, Massachusetts, are going to get even harder. I don’t envy anyone two feet of snow. I said it earlier on Thee Facebooks and it’s worth repeating: Please be safe. You guys in the south too. I hear there’s more than a bit of rain headed your way.
Speaking of south, if not of the South, my plan is still to point the car in that direction tomorrow morning and get down to New Castle, Delaware, in time for the start of The Eye of the Stoned Goat 2, which features Pale Divine, Iron Man, Beelzefuzz, Clamfight and others. I’d list them all, but what the hell, here’s the flyer:
A good bill is a good bill, so weather be damned. If I can get out of the valley tomorrow — for Sandy that big snowstorm in 2010, we had trees down, but I don’t think this is supposed to be that bad — I’ll be there. If not, well, there’s always YOB on Sunday in Brooklyn for a doomly fix. Actually, I’ll be at that gig one way or another, but wherever I end up, I’ll have reviews accordingly. Also look for an Archon disc review and maybe the new The Kings of Frog Island as well, and an interview with the dudes in Traveling Circle, and a special reveal from Blaak Heat Shujaa and much more.
For now though, I’m pretty much just waiting for the power to go out. Last I saw, the branches were hanging heavy on the wires, so if it’s to be sleeping around a bonfire in the living room this evening and eating everything out of the fridge before it goes bad, well, I think I can handle it. Again, if you’re in this area, I hope you’re safe and warm and that your lights stay on, and wherever you might be, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. See you on the forum and back here Monday.
Posted in Reviews on March 27th, 2012 by JJ Koczan
More than 20 years into their career since starting in 1990, Anathema are nothing if they’re not divisive. Even among the most dedicated, loyal members of their fanbase (more of a cult, really) one will often hear arguments in favor of or decrying this or that era of the band – their death/doom beginnings as one of the Peaceville three alongside My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, the semi-gothic dramatic melody of what’s now their mid-period work, or the melo-prog elements that have surfaced in their sound since 2008’s Hindsight found them revisiting and rearranging older material with a decidedly new look. Their new studio album, Weather Systems, follows another such revisiting, last year’s Falling Deeper (review here), which in a fascinating process took musical and lyrical pieces of their death/doom songs and breathed new life into them – somewhat more complex than the rearrangements of Hindsight, but also further from what the songs originally were as a result. Before Falling Deeper, Anathema had what was then their first studio outing of new material in seven years. That was the long-awaited We’re Here Because We’re Here, released through KscopeMusic in 2010 with eventual North American issue by The End Records last year. Kscope and The End align again with the band to release Weather Systems, as Anathema dives deeper into the rich melodic and progressive course that We’re Here Because We’re Here seemed to be steering toward.
And as ever, it’s an album that no doubt will spark and continue many a debate about which Anathema era is the strongest. Tracks based on the weather thematic like “Lightning Song,” “The Gathering of the Clouds,” “Sunlight” and the nine-plus-minute exercise in contrast, “The Storm Before the Calm” speak to some thread running throughout, but as much as guitarist Vincent Cavanagh’s vocals shine here as they always do and Lee Douglas has stepped up her presence in the band’s songwriting, there are parts of Weather Systems that simply sound over-produced and that ultimately take away from the emotion Anathema is trying to convey, which has always been at the center of what they do no matter what the material might actually sound like or which genre it might be aligned or not aligned with. On “The Storm Before the Calm,” for example, the first half – presumably “the storm” – features dated-sounding electronic drums that gradually build amid a cloud-swirl of vocals repeating the line “It’s getting colder,” reminding of something A Perfect Circle might have been able to convince themselves was groundbreaking more than a decade ago, building gradually to a mash of abrasive noise that eventually gives way to silence – i.e., “the calm.” That back half of the track is one of Weather Systems’ finest moments, with Danny Cavanagh’s piano backing his brother’s and Douglas’ gorgeous, lush and fully-engaged vocals amid strings, drum punctuation from John Douglas, a triumph of guitars and melodic delivery taking hold and swaying the song to its finish. It’s a beautiful, stunning stretch, and I’d gladly point to it as an example of the kind of dramatic potency this era of Anathema can produce at its best – one can’t help in listening but be affected by it – but the more I listen, the more I wish “The Calm” and “The Storm” had been two separate tracks so I could skip the one to get to the other.
That specific kind of unevenness persists, and Weather Systems seems to be executed in movements of it. Opening duo “Untouchable Part 1” and “Untouchable Part 2” offset overdone vocal arrangements in their first part (the “prog” influence comes out as well in fast-picked guitars and double-time drumming) with a simple, piano-driven hook in the second, Vincent and Lee turning in one of the album’s most impassioned vocal performances complemented by characteristically swirling guitar melodies and the effective underlying bass of Jamie Cavanagh. Right away, Weather Systems, like life, like the meteorology for which it’s named, has its ups and downs. “The Gathering of the Clouds” takes the frenetic picking of “Untouchable Part 1” and partners it with a more effective vocal build, layers piling on so that by the time John’s bass drum comes in to provide extra push, the song almost doesn’t need it for the energy it conveys, cutting with strings to the more subdued but still in-motion “Lightning Song.” Lee takes the fore on vocals here and proves able to carry the track on her own without any trouble, but when a distorted guitar introduces itself at 3:16 with two quick chugs before taking full hold of the song, the tone sounds thin and doesn’t produce the same kind of chill up the spine as it otherwise might, or as the subsequent “Sunlight” does almost with John’s drums alone as its build pays off toward the end. Nonetheless, that’s one of Weather Systems’ heaviest movements and something fans clamoring for that side of their sound – which so effectively propelled standout tracks like “Panic” from 2001’s A Fine Day to Exit and “Pulled Under at 2,000 Metres a Second” from 2003’s A Natural Disaster – will cling onto in listening.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 2nd, 2012 by JJ Koczan
I guess they’re making up for lost time, and who can blame them? It was seven years between A Natural Disaster and 2010’s We’re Here Because We’re Here, and with a label behind them that’s apparently willing and able to give the band some tour support (thanks, The End), no reason for Anathema not to put out a new record this year. I grew to appreciate We’re Here Because We’re Here over time, and since each Anathema album is nothing if not a progression from the last — it’s also usually masterful songwriting and gut-wrenchingly honest emotionality — I look forward to hearing what they do with Weather Systems when it’s released in April.
Dig the news and the art:
Anathema will return in April with Weather Systems, their brand new studio album. Weather Systems is the follow-up to 2010’s We’re Here Because We’re Here, which has been featured prominently in numerous end-of-year polls and the producer, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), has described it as ”definitely among the best albums I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on.”
The bar for Weather Systems has been set pretty high, but DanielCavanagh from the band is certain that the album will exceed these lofty expectations, stating, “it feels like we are at a creative peak right now, and this album reflects that. Everything from the production to the writing to the performances are a step up from our last album.”
He continues, “This is not background music for parties. The music is written to deeply move the listener, to uplift or take the listener to the coldest depths of the soul.”
The album was recorded in Liverpool, North Wales and Oslo, each place significant to Anathema past, present and future. The record was produced and mastered by five-time Norwegian Grammy nominated Christer-André Cederberg (AnimalAlpha, In the Woods…, Drawn), who Daniel has described as “a revelation. His calmness and brilliance has helped to bring about the greatest inter-band chemistry that Anathema have experienced together in their career.”
Weather Systems will be available on The End Records on April 24, 2012.
Weather Systems track listing: 1. Untouchable, Part 1 2. Untouchable, Part 2 3. The Gathering of the Clouds 4. Lightning Song 5. Sunlight 6. The Storm Before the Calm 7. The Beginning and the End 8. The Lost Child 9. Internal Landscapes
Posted in Reviews on November 10th, 2011 by JJ Koczan
If Anathema’s career has been typified by anything, it’s a definite progression. The UK outfit – now in their 21st year – released We’re Here Because We’re Here last year and showed themselves to be fully entrenched in melodic and progressive rock; much of the melancholy that had served as the emotional crux of past works had vanished, and it seemed like even in the album’s most painful moments, the band was aware of the beauty in their sadness. Their newest outing, Falling Deeper (Kscope), follows suit in terms of mindset and doubles as a companion piece for 2008’s revisitation of older material, Hindsight, as well. Falling Deeper, true to its name, delves even further back into Anathema’s formidable catalogue, providing new arrangements and takes on material from some of the band’s earliest releases: the Crestfallen EP (1992), Serenades (1993), and Pentecost III and The Silent Enigma (both issued 1995). But it’s not just new arrangements. Songs like “Kingdom” and “They Die” have been given new life, reborn as gorgeously melodic excursions distilled from their original melodies, which seemed buried at the time under an ash cloud of despair. Dave Stewart, who arranged the strings for We’re Here Because We’re Here exceeds expectation on Falling Deeper, working with the London Session Orchestra, and together with the vocals of Daniel and Vincent Cavanaugh and Lee Douglas, the strings turn the beautifully wretched into just the beautiful. There are those whose sentimental attachments to the original incarnations of these songs will prevent them from enjoying the new versions, but as Anathema’s stylistic development has seen them long since move past their death/doom beginnings, nothing here should really come as a surprise to fans of the band on a conceptual level.
Interesting to note that as Anathema reworks these older songs, they do so with four-fifths of their original lineup intact. Daniel and Vincent Cavanaugh both handle guitar and vocals (the former also keys), brother Jaime Cavanaugh is on bass, and John Douglas drums. Long gone is the forlorn growl of Darren J. White, but with Lee Douglas (sister to John) taking a prominent role here among Daniel and Vincent, and a guest spot from Anneke Van Giersbergen on “Everwake,” there’s a lush complexity to these songs that lacks nothing in its presentation. Still, much of the material has been boiled down from its original form. “Alone” and “Sunset of Age” are the only two inclusions from The Silent Enigma, and as that album could be considered the launch point for the melodic growth that came to bear in the band’s sound over the course of subsequent albums Eternity (1996) and Alternative 4 (1998), it’s not necessarily surprising that they’re some of the most recognizable here. On the other hand, lines like “Is there a reason why you punish our children?/And rape our sisters?” are gone from “We the Gods,” which arrives as an instrumental toward the end of Falling Deeper and is truncated from its original 10 minutes to just over three. Likewise, opener “Crestfallen” plucks the album’s title line from the original version of the song and sweetly repeats it over piano and strings. In less gorgeous arrangements, the entire proposition would be offensive, but as they seem perpetually able to do, Anathema prove that nothing creative is sacrosanct. “Crestfallen” moves smoothly into “Sleep in Sanity,” which was already lyrically minimal in its initial form. Douglas’ drums provide a base for the layers of strings and vocals to triumph without being a complete wash of melody, and together with “Kingdom,” which follows, mark some of Stewart’s best work on the album.
There are ebbs and flows throughout Falling Deeper, and at times like the beginning of “Kingdom,” it feels like the band is hardly there. The song gradually builds though into one of the collection’s most satisfying, a steady undercurrent of percussion reminding of the plod of the original without being out of place, adding to the linearity of the structure. Electric guitar amp noise adds to the climax of “Kingdom,” and a long drone transitions into the piano opening of “They Die,” just 2:13 on Falling Deeper but no less melodically engaging than anything that comes before or after. One thing noticeable in listening is just how much Anathema is able to cull from what are essentially fractions of songs. Nothing here feels incomplete, nothing feels lacking. The songs here are completely different than what they used to be, but there’s a certain liberation in that. Van Giersbergen, whose voice defined in no small part a generation of female lead vocals in European melodic metal, seamlessly works through the verses of “Everwake,” and if anything on the album feels cut too short, it’s that. Fitting that at 3:07, this new take is longer than that which appeared on Crestfallen. It makes sense, somehow.
fit as I wallow in my own filth and worthlessness because I’m just the right kind of emotional cripple that music offers comfort I apparently can’t allow myself to feel otherwise; whoops — those are what I go for, and when Vincent led the way into “Pressure” from A Fine Day to Exit and “One Last Goodbye” from Judgement tonight, those were the songs that had me tearing up. No bullshit, bringing Darren White out was incredible. Clearly charged up to be on stage with the band in the context of headlining at Roadburn 2015, he settled in and nailed the dramatic chorus of “Kingdom” — shades of Fields of the Nephilim influence showing themselves — and led the band through the finish of their professionally polished but still emotionally potent set, “Sleepless” from Anathema‘s 1993 debut, Serenades, closing out.
