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 Kscope Music 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.

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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 Daniel Cavanagh 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 (Animal Alpha, 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

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.

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After nearly missing this show because I thought it was last Saturday and not Friday, I showed up early to NYC‘s Irving Plaza to be sure to catch Anathema‘s set. I know they’ve traveled a great distance from their doomly beginnings as one of the “Peaceville three” — the other two being My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost — but hell, I’ve wanted to see them for at least 14 years now, so yeah, you’re god damned right I’m showing up before doors.

It was just the two bands on the bill, Anathema and Blackfield, which is the kind of high-minded pop project of Porcupine Tree‘s Steven Wilson and Israeli singer-songwriter Aviv Geffen, and that suited me just fine. As a veteran of Porcupine Tree‘s many prog indulgences (some might call them “albums”) and someone who saw Blackfield on their first American run — when most of the band couldn’t get their visas in time to tour and it was just Wilson and Geffen accompanied by Dream Theater‘s Jordan Rudess on keys — it was interesting to see him tackle what’s ostensibly a simpler band with simpler material in a live, full-band setting.

Coincidentally, it was Anathema this time who couldn’t get the whole band into the country — doubtless they were detained at the border and profiled for all their melancholy — so it was just vocalist/guitarist Vincent Cavanagh and guitarist/vocalist Daniel Cavanagh playing acoustically (Rudess was at the show, but didn’t join in). For what Anathema lacked in lineup, however, they more than made up for with excitement and gladness to be where they were. Granted, Daniel had some technical problems before the set got going, but I don’t think they’d have been able to start the set anyway for the cheering and back-and-forthing with the crowd. One guy bragged loudly that he’d seen them the last time they were in the US, for the 2000 Milwaukee Metalfest, impressing Vincent a bit but probably not as much as himself.

Their set was short, woefully short (which is appropriate in a way, given the mood of the bulk of their material), but they made the most of it nonetheless. They started with some newer songs from the most recent release, We’re Here Because We’re Here, opening with “Thin Air,” the first song off the album, and including “Angels Walk Among Us” as well with “Deep” from 1999’s Judgement between. These were well received, but the big guns came out later into their time, when they hit up 1998’s Alternative 4 — as far back as they could feasibly go — for “Lost Control” and “Fragile Dreams,” both of which were subject to epic sing-alongs.

With the crowd sufficiently melted already, “One Last Goodbye” and set finale “Flying” — from Judgement and 2003’s A Natural Disaster, respectively — more or less laid waste to everything around. Amazing to think of a performance with two dudes and acoustic guitars doing that, but it happened nonetheless. Vincent promised they’d be back with the full band (hopefully that happens before another 11 years are gone), and the vibe was thrilling all around. Irving Plaza was pretty packed, and everyone just seemed so happy to be seeing Anathema, and Anathema, likewise, seemed so happy to be there. It was a great time.

The room thinned out somewhat for Blackfield, who took the stage in speedy fashion and opened with “Here Comes the Blood” from their latest album, Welcome to My DNA, which was even more of a sufficient attention-grabber than Geffen‘s jacket, which had rope lights intertwined with the fabric. Fancy costuming aside, Blackfield is essentially a pop act, so that’s what they were. Champion songwriters both, Wilson and Geffen ran through a long setlist of highlights from their three albums, working in tandem on stage as well as they do on the records.

It wasn’t empty by the time they were through, but the night had clearly taken a toll on the audience, and as much of Blackfield‘s material is moody and on the quieter end — despite being unrepentantly pretty — it was a subdued feel, though closing with “Cloudy Now” from the first album did provide a genuine apex, that song’s ending being a high point of the band’s catalog. The crowd was an interesting mix of proggers, metallers, patient girlfriends and sundry other nerds, but those who stayed left happy.

Hard for Blackfield to compete with the event that seeing Anathema was, though. Just by showing up, them Cavanaghs killed, and it would have been hard for any act to follow that. I left Irving Plaza vindicated in my fanboy stubbornness, still wanting very much to see the whole of Anathema at work, and wanting also to revisit Welcome to My DNA to see if I could get a better sense of Blackfield‘s development from album to album. Wilson‘s always been more of a studio presence — his reliance on layering being pivotal in much of his work — but he gave a decent representation live, and that was more than enough for the mass of fans in attendance to see him.

More pics after the jump.

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In the spirit of the other day’s Buried Treasure post, I thought I’d make it known that after initial dejection and first encounters tainted by prejudice against it, I’ve finally and officially come to make peace with UK melodic proggers Anathema‘s latest album, We’re Here Because We’re Here.

This has been an emotionally charged process. First they didn’t tell me the album was coming, I had to find out and order it on Amazon and wait weeks for it to arrive, then I had to get over the fact that it’s neither A Fine Day to Exit nor A Natural Disaster, but rather a different, brighter sound altogether. We’re Here Because We’re Here is unrepentantly not the album I wanted and hoped it would be, and while it’s true I don’t know Anathema and they don’t owe me notice or anything else and it’s been seven years since the last album came out, you bet your ass I took it personally. But, I put the disc on while I was in the car last week on a trip I knew would be long enough to sustain a full sitting, and after that, I’m not ready to say I’m a full-blown convert, but I’m not holding a grudge either.

I’m sure everyone reading this and the band themselves will sleep better for knowing, so I just thought I’d share.

Hey, what gives, Anathema? How’re you gonna go ahead and put out an album TWO WHOLE WEEKS ago and not tell me about it? I thought we were friends (and by “friends,” I mean I worship everything you do and you have no idea who I am)! What, my three copies of Alternative 4 aren’t good enough for you anymore? I know maybe I didn’t take out A Natural Disaster as much as I should have this winter, but give me a break, it’s been seven years! And now this???

Well fine, Anathema. Have it your way. Out of sheer annoyance, I just put in an order on Amazon for We’re Here Because We’re Here. So congratulations. Now, after having to find out on The Metal Archives (of all places!) about the existence of this record, I’m going to have to wait another two weeks minimum to hear it while it’s shipped from Switzerland or god knows where because I’m too afraid Vintage Vinyl won’t have the import. I’m feeling more than a little betrayed here, Anathema.

I mean, seriously, would a phone call have been too much to ask? An email? Just a quick, “Hey there guy, we know you’ve been waiting seven years for a new Anathema CD and we just wanted to let you know it’s finally coming out.” I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

Fair enough. You want to go ahead and put out albums and not tell me, that’s just great. We’ll see if you get included in the all-British podcast to come later this month (you probably will). I’m hurt, Anathema. Deeply hurt. It’s gonna take a while to get over this one. If only I had some super-melancholic melodic rock to act as sonic accompaniment for my woes. Oh well, I guess there’s always Paradise Lost…

It was raining before, then slushing, and now it’s full-blown snowing here in the valley. Early this year, and it might well turn back to rain before this is posted. Nonetheless, just as springtime means Amorphis, summer means C.O.C. and fall (of course) means Type O Negative‘s October Rust, winter too has its own seasonal specialties, and perhaps my favorite of them is Anathema.

Not to say I don’t listen to them other times of the year, and ditto for all the bands above, but somehow Anathema are just more appropriate when it’s freezing, dark and miserable. Go figure. I don’t know when or if the UK melo-rockers are going to put out their long awaited new record. It’s a mystery. In the meantime, here’s the video for “Pressure” from 2001’s A Fine Day to Exit:

Okay, so influential UK doomers/atmospheric melodic rockers Anathema have announced tour dates, and guess where they’re not going, again? That’s right, America. Not even one show? Come on, man. Give me a New York show! How hard is that? If you need a place to crash, there’s plenty of room here in the valley.

What a shitter. In the meantime, here’s the tour dates for any lucky-ass North African, European or Latin American types who happen to have found their way here:

Apr. 04 – Acropolium of Carthage – Carthage – Tunisia
Apr. 29 – Palace Hal – Bucarest – Romania
May 05 – Incrivel Almadense – Lisbon – Portugal
May 06 – Teatro S? da Bandeira – Porto – Portugal
May 07 – Santana 27 – Bilbao – Spain
May 08 – Penelope – Madrid – Spain
May 09 – El Tren – Granada – Spain
May 10 – Nave 8 – Alicante – Spain
May 11 – Salamandra 1 – Barcelona – Spain
May 27 – Hard Rock Live – Mexico City DF – Mexico
May 28 – La Bunga – Quito – Ecuador
May 31 – ND Ateneo – Buenos Aries – Argentina
Jun. 02 – Teatreo Caupolican – Santiago – Chile
Jul. 04 – Fonofest – Cesis (near Riga) – Latvia
Jul. 05 – With Full Force Festival – Leipzig – Germany

And here’s Anathema doing an acoustic version of new song “Angels Walk Among Us” (the video is mislabeled), also not in America.