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Reviews
Anathema: A fine day to exit
09/07/08 || Global Domination
Newsflash for the br00tal and trve legions: it’s OK to listen to some mellower stuff every once in a fucken while, you know? There’s few bands better suited for such moments than Anathema, and since I couldn’t give two flying fucks about maintaining a reputation of only listening to those who shred and punish their way through metal, I’m going to throw this review in yer general direction. I like lots of different bands from dissimilar metal genres, and believe all of them to be metal in some way or another, and work just fucken right for their appointed occasions and purposes. Hopefully some will check out “A Fine Day to Exit”, a beautiful record from a quality band that is certainly underrated by most metalheads nowadays. Which is a more important point than my ranting, it’s just that some people are so fucken narrow minded they get on me fucken nerves, you know?
It must be explained that these guys have traveled quite a road since their inception as a band. Starting as a doom/death outfit back in the early 90’s and forming part of a genre-defining triumvirate together with My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, Anathema went through quite an evolution process, shifting genres with measured steps and managing to retain the essence of their work, which is crafting morose, moody music that flies all over the spectrum of human emotions, yet never feeling more at home than when dwelling on melancholy. “A Fine Day To Exit” finds Anathema on their ultimate phase, a band that carefully layers their work between the wide realms of dark metal and the atmospheric rock of Pink Floyd’s. Mind you, they’ve gotten so good at this style it can be said they’re better at it than Floyd themselves, no disrespect intended. I dig Floyd as much as anyone, but Anathema has transcended the boundaries Floyd set, although obviously they’ll never become as mainstream accepted.
With these elements in mind and adding a soft bit of electronics to subtly texture their songs even further, Anathema has created here a nicely balanced and tempered work of art. Think of “A Fine Day to Exit” as a slowly but surely rising tide that will inexorably drown you in its murky, shifting waters. Pensive, moody and irrevocably sad songs like “Pressure”, “Barriers” or the beautiful “Leave No Trace” alternate with soaring, desperately rousing ones like the magnificent cuts “Release” and “Underworld”, the aptly named “Panic” or the awesome title track. Despite the depressive bent on the lyrics and the mood in general, this record sounds a bit more uplifting than previous works of the band. The elegance of Anathema’s songwriting is quite unique, full of memorable soundscapes that will leave you dazed. They’ve got a twisted sense of humor too, as some weird samples of spoken world and a decidedly wacko sort of bonus track after a few minutes of silence at the end will demonstrate. British, huh? Fucken weirdos!
The most palpable strength of “A Fine Day to Exit” lies in the remarkably fluid guitar lines that the Cavanagh brothers weave, harmonizing with incredible finesse to create an enveloping atmosphere that never fails to suit the intentions of the song. The keyboards add greatly to said atmosphere, without being dominant or overly intrusive, just as the electronics work as bridges between the songs. The vocals of Vincent Cavanagh have come a long way since his beginings. Now he’s rarely off with his delivery, and has evolved into a very capable singer with an expressive voice that adds lots of emotion to the songs. The female vocals are a nice touch, sparingly used yet impressive when done. The bass and drums provide a warm, lush feel that work well as the backbone of the band’s sound. The chemistry in their playing is evident, Anathema is a finely tuned entity that is never out of sync, despite the complexity of their songwriting.
As far as this subgenre of dark metal goes, there’s not many better recommendations that I could make. Anathema is a very accomplished band, have no doubts about it, and “A Fine Day to Exit” is one of their best efforts. In the right mood, this album won’t fail to be anything less than an exhilarating experience. I wouldn’t recommend listening to it though if yer girlfriend left you, yer dog died after being ran over by an 18-wheeler or if some other emo-like, life altering catastrophe just happened to you. It might prove to be too fucken depressive and suicide inducing, but then again, that would be a good thing, huh? Die, you br00tal emo punk bitch!
8 br00tal outside, emo’s at heart, trve cocksuckers out of 10
- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Music For Nations
- Website: www.aanathema.ws
- Band
- Vincent Cavanagh: vocals, guitar
- Danny Cavanagh: guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Les Smith: keyboards, programming
- Dave Pybus: bass
- John Douglas: drums
- Lee Douglas: guest female vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Pressure
- 02. Release
- 03. Looking Outside Inside
- 04. Leave No Trace
- 05. Underworld
- 06. Barriers
- 07. Panic
- 08. A Fine Day To Exit
- 09. Temporary Peace