Anathema — A Natural Disaster

Anathema does not seem to have Lady Luck on their side. Besides all the troubles within the band and the family (which has become almost the same these days, with 3 Cavanagh brothers in the band), their (doom)metal-past prevented them to break through to a different, and maybe bigger, audience. Strange, because the emotional rock that Anathema writes these days could easily appeal to people who like the 'emotional rock' by bands like Coldplay and Radiohead.

The ‘thinking (wo)man’s rock'- pedestal seems to provide room for only one band at the time. Radiohead ruined their position with Kid A so Coldplay currently resides on it. A Fine Day To Exit seemed to be slightly aimed towards their audience but found itself completely ignored by it. Anathema's traditional audience didn’t drop them though, so the concerts I’ve been to were sold out but most fans were obvious the (sometimes ex-)metalheads that have been following them since the beginning. Oh well, better to have dedicated and loyal fans than trendy ones that jump on the next bandwagon when it passes by.

The new album opens with Harmonium: a song that, after a slow and spatial intro, bursts into a pretty heavy riff. Balance has prominent keyboards until, again, heavy rockguitars form the climax of the song to flow naturally into Closer. A dreamy vocoder reminds of Air or other undefined artists from the early ’80’s. Are You There is sung by Danny and sounds very Floyd-ish and dreamy. I already noticed at a live-show that Daniel has a nice voice too, which also showed on A Fine Day... but not as prominent. Ambient acoustic guitar pickings, an electronic drone, some piano and samples of kids playing depict a Childhood Dream. Pulled Under At 2000 Meters A Second is a fast, galloping song. Perhaps this song can replace A Dying Wish which might’ve become a tad boring to the lads after playing it at every show for the last 6 or 7 years. The titletrack is sung by a girl (there’s no info on my promo on who it is) and sounds a bit like Portishead, if it had been a rockband. Gently the album continues with Flying, a tender and melancholic ballad, a real tearjerker. Electricity is sung by Danny again, accompanied by piano and subtle guitar and synth textures. Halfway through the band jumps in again. The album closes with Violence, a 10-minute epos that ranges from broken chords on the piano to an electric climax to fall back, after some more sad pianoplaying, into an synthdrone. 'Fin'.

On their 7th full-length album A Natural Disaster Anathema seems to have stopped caring about audiences again and crafted a melancholic and diverse album which still has strong songwriting but doesn’t let it get in the way of the more free atmospheric parts. The whole album flows like a continuous piece through various emotions and textures. Wonderful, emotional and perhaps their best yet!