Shackled To Guilt

A Problem Yet To Be Solved

Entropy Within

Dance To The Song Of Apathy

Sewerages Of The Mind

Built On Sand

Under The Debris

The Drowning

Leaving The Spirit Behind

Any Kind Of Magic Or Miracle

Fredrik Schälin  - guitar, vocals

Conny Pettersson - drums

Andreas Allenmark - guitar

Henrik Drake - bass

All lyrics and vocal patterns by Fredrik Schälin    - recorded at Studio Mega , Sweden  - produced by Fredrik Schälin  - mastered at Digital fabriken               

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo____   

Death as cradle of experimentation, Death in US style with a touch of ice-cold temperament, in spite of the mayhem they are able to evoke. Flawless technique, dissonant passages, free-thinking.

"Under a Stone with no Inscription" delivers a US Death : full American taste. Evil, dissonant, with much of Deicide but with a different expression of the instruments (for example concerning lead solos too). Low deep vocals, supported by a bit down-tuned guitars, meet a flawless technique, and sometimes a certain inclination to Black too, much experimentation, free-thinking and individualism, without losing a "straight-to-the-point" attitude, when necessary. Under a Stone with no Inscription means also relentless but refined drums highly calibrated, spanning from death to Black ability. The guitar section is able to make any kind of experimentation and, last but not least, to surprise us with nice melodic patterns. Like in Entropy within : a complex track in which Deicide influences swim together with free experimentation, crunchy mayhem, down-tuned lead and ice-cold loops. 

And this feeling of cold goes on in Dance to the Song of Apathy, dissonant and with interesting loopings, where the Death mayhem is balanced by a melodic vein, jazzed up by some cold timbres. The guttural vocals evoke the abyss.

The tracks are surely not short, on the contrary. And well proposed, varied, never predictable or boring, in spite of the homogeneity of style. You can remember the differences among the tracks already after a first listening. Just consider Sewerages of the Mind : it stands out with its contours, and this means that the band has developed a great level of identity, in which they can freely move, giving birth to many ideas.

Guitar virtuosos and fast attacks with tremolo-like technique, galloping, thundering vocals are the ingredients  which make Built on Sand, that gets a fast steam hammering and catchy mighty force, and again a different scheme, that provides to this track a peculiar identity.

Under the Debris is a rather complex hammering destroyer, not extremely speed, which uses refined blasting drums that remain a bit in the background and cutting guitars. Tempo changes and doom-y slowing down included.

The Drowning is an unforgettable track, cause it shows resolute tendencies towards Black and obscure atmospheres. It delivers an interesting dialogue - drums guitars - and nice melodic hints.

Leaving the Spirit behind begins as another destroyer but is able to let room to melodic dissonance and bone breaker passages. Through this track Anata confirm once more that they are able to attack and kill, both with armour-plated heaviness and the cutting precision of a razorblade. 

With Any Kind of Magic or Miracle, we deal with a thundering heavy compression. Full destroyer, straight to the point, a bit down-tuned. A couple of experimentation doesn't dismantle the continuum in heaviness and its catchy chords. A bit gloomy ends an album that began always heavy but more high-tuned with a subtle rock'n'rolling  skeleton like in Shackled to guilt. A Problem yet to be solved, in which evilness met a kind of obsessive rocking,  provided also screaming-like backing vocals. 

Practically, within the same album and style, we undergo a kind of increasing compression, so that, at the end, we are under a stone (with no inscription), where before we stood. And you hardly notice what Anata are doing with you...

Rating: 8.9/10