Recent updates
- Dyrathor: Sacred walcraft of Hel (02/09/10)
- A Forest Of Stars: Opportunistic thieves of spring (02/09/10)
- Ingrimm: Böses blut (02/09/10)
- Audio Autopsy - September 2010 (01/09/10)
- Haiduk: Plagueswept (31/08/10)
- Barn Burner: Bangers (31/08/10)
- Gulaggh: Vorkuta (31/08/10)
- Sammath: Triumph in hatred (30/08/10)
- Satan's Host: The great American scapegoat 666 (30/08/10)
- Borgia: Ecclesia (30/08/10)
- read
Recent discussions
Devour the Domination
Not yet familiar with the bands hosted at Global Domination? Now's definitely the time to check 'em out. And what could be a better place for it than their Myspace-pages? Links below...
Class 6(66)
Anathema: The silent enigma
10/02/09 || Global Domination
Released: 1995
Introduction
Being an avid fan of doom metal means endless hours of listening to music none too cheery and inevitably thinking too fucken much about stuff sometimes better left alone. Doom can be enlightening though, and as a sort of reverse psychology sometimes it works wonders, especially if combined with the proper dose of alcohol. Anathema invariably gets a lot of playing time when I feel like doom, even if their later works have evolved beyond the boundaries of the genre. “Judgement” and “A Fine Day to Exit” are the first ones I tend to reach for, but if the feeling in the air is really bleak, “The Silent Enigma” always turns out to be my preferred choice.
Out of their early records, this one is the most distinctive one, and in my opinion the best of that era for the band. An era they shared with fellow British doom mongers My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, but that curiously enough don’t seem to make them be as well regarded as their fellows for their overall contribution to the genre. This perception must be a result of their subsequent evolution into Pink Floyd and modern rock territories; perhaps that made people forget that Anathema was able to dish out some fearsomely depressive doom/death. “The Silent Enigma” is all the proof you might require to remember and more.
Songwriting
9. “The Silent Enigma” has such an appeal to me undoubtedly because it achieves a perfect balance between the grim and gritty doom/death the band helped create in the early 90’s and the seeds of the psychedelic rock and expansive melodic works that would become an integral part of the band’s sound later. The impeccable sense of doom dynamics Anathema possessed back then was simply amazing. The flow of the album is incredibly smooth, alternating between plodding and mid-tempo with practised ease, with well-timed faster passages here and there to give an unexpected cutting edge to the songs.
Great emphasis is put on constructing these tracks around quite a few brilliantly melodies that evoke pure despair and gloom. “Restless Oblivion”, “Shroud of Frost”, Sunset of the Age”, “Cerulean Twilight”, “The Silent Enigma” and the extraordinary “A Dying Wish” are all memorable affairs, full of incredibly emotional highs and lows, and fitting easily among the best material the band ever wrote. Doom perfection indeed, luring the unwary listener into lush landscapes of sound only to be punished with waves of sinister sadness.
Production
8. Very decent actually. Every instrument has plenty of power and can be heard clearly, and that feeling of something being immediately wrong, gloomy and depressive is unmistakable and properly reinforced.
Guitars
9. The Cavanagh brothers display an amazing knack for exquisite melodic work that is a fucken pleasure to behold. Their interplay is flawless, full of bite and heaviness, and their riffs are some of the best ever written for a doom record, sharp, original and always dictating the mood. “The Silent Enigma” is an extraordinary record thanks to the inspired performance of Daniel and Vincent, and their boundless creativity on the guitars.
Vocals
9. “The Silent Enigma” marks the first time of Vincent Cavanagh on vocal duties, after the departure of original vocalist Darren White. Vincent does very well here, delivering a rough, harsh half-growl that fits the mood of the record to perfection. A few of his more powerful roars hint of Tom G. Warrior’s golden years, while the occasional sombre clean vox and the mournful whispering of spoken word passages add some variety, all contributing to round off an excellent debut as Anathema’s frontman.
Bass
9. Brilliant performance by the bands’ original bassist Duncan Patterson here, skilful and in your face, a resounding presence and solid backbone throughout the album. Excellent at shadowing the guitars or at taking the songs by the scruff of the neck and driving forward with purpose, this Patterson guy could truly fucken play. Check out “A Dying Wish” carefully if you need further proof.
Drums
8. Well played and appropriate for a doom album. John Douglas doesn’t try anything fancy; he just hits all the right notes with power and technique. His naturally oppressive drum sound is an integral part of Anathema’s gloomy output.
Lyrics
8. The usual desolate ramblings about lost love, death, despair and loss. Poetic, cryptic and catchy in a morbid way, you know?
Cover art
8. A sober painting, a famous one if I remember correctly, but I wouldn’t actually fucken now whose. Paintings are not an art form I pay much attention to, fuck it. Anyway, it looks good and definitely gloomy enough to connect to the feel of the album.
Logo
10. The beautiful, elegant cursive font which the band used up until “Alternative 4”. A proper reflection of their music, I’d say, this style screams doom from a fucken mile away.
Booklet
7. Properly cold, lifeless and gloomy, with all the required information and some decent artwork that relates to the theme of the cover.
Overall and ending rant
8. “The Silent Enigma” is not an easy album to digest and must be reserved for your really bleak days. For those more familiar with Anathema’s later era records, the more doom-death approach can potentially be a turn-off, but it also begins creating the foundation of the current band. Simply put, it is a great album on its own right, a perfect example of how brilliantly cold and despondent doom-death can turn out to be. A worthy look back into the evolution of a band that was once a totally different beast, listening to this record is highly recommended, for both its significance to the genre and the awesome fucken songs you’ll find in it.