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1. Harmonium
2. Balance 3. Closer 4. Are You There? 5. Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second 6. A Natural Disaster 7. Flying 8. Eletricity 9. Violence
Total running time: 55:18
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| ANATHEMA:
"A natural Disaster" anathema
Music
for Nations
REVIEWS BY SALVO RUSSO AND SARA DE VITA |
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review by Salvo Russo
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I
don't know if this album will make an impression on metal fan's soul
but listening to "Are you there” I’m able to image how
the heaven is...the magic atmosphere of this song can't be explained
in few words...This is a romantic poetry in which
Anathema shows their delicate soul...the sad sweetness into a
magic song, that can be composed only with a deep passion …the sense
of suffering and the love for deep feelings… only this song is
worthy of the price you have to pay for this album. A song that is far
from any other band and it shows the original style of this band. This
album is very far from what Anathema were, but I think that we've
already ascertained that an album like "The silent Enigma"
is very far from Anathema's present. This is the 7th album
that they bring out and their style is completely different from their
first releases. “A natural Disaster” show us another band…A band
that has found his maturity! "A
fine Day to exit" showed many influences from Emo-rock , and here
I notice that these influences are
the basis of the structure's songs, but the new songs sometimes
goes to new-age, and I notice that all the songs shows the soul of
these fantastic musicians..They play in order to show their deep
feelings, and It’s notable in all the songs of this album. Vincent's
voice gets an unmistakable charm!!!! It's full of intensity and he's
very able to give the right emphasis to the songs! I
notice Radiohead influences but not only...A psychedelic spirit
involves all songs, but it’s impossible to compare this album with
the latest Amorphis and Katatonia's works; “A
natural Disaster” gets very good melodic ideas, and all songs gets a
personal taste, and a personal approach to the compositions!!” Ok…Not
all songs are up to the task, but nowadays Anathema could be
appreciated from Mogway and Radiohead fans....and not only…this is
sure! An amazing album that confirms the ability of this band;
Anathema plays from the bottom of the heart! Their
sadness and that special taste for psychedelic songs could make an
impression on Pink Floyd’s fans as well!!!! I want to underline a
very important remark: they take only inspirations, but their songs
get a personal mark. This
is the delicate sounds of rock...this is not a remind to that famous
Pink Floyd's title-album, but this is a true affirmation, and in my
opinion Anathema are about ready to get success out of metal fans. A
song like "Violence" is instrumental song that could
be perfect for a film-soundtrack! It last more than 10 minutes, and it
shows the sense of soul, the sense of life, a very deep composition
that is very far from rock, it's new age! "Childhood
Dream" is an instrumental songs that remind of the past....this
song makes me dream...it's a shame that it lasts only two minutes!!!...
The music remembers a time that will never again be lived....it seems
like a tears that falls from the eye......an emotion that lasts only 2
minutes! Les
is able to create magic keyboard’s atmospheres...The charm of
melancholy is played with a delicate suffering, and sometimes with the
sweetness of a meditative piano…”Violence” is the example of
this last affirmation. Not
all songs get the same charm so that I have to underline that
sometimes there are monotonous parts..."Closer" gets
me bored; a very prolix song into a not particular emotional
atmosphere, but it matters little, the song n°4 is “Are you
there”………and words fail me …This song is the heaven in
music, Vincent is simply perfect concerning interpretation and
intensity. "Harmonium"
is a psychedelic song that lacks of melody...but it shows the proper
care for the arrangements; I have to say that the production and the
arrangements are at the top!!!! "Electricity’s
is a pure emo-rock song. It’s very far from other bands and the only
comparison that comes into my mind concerning the instrumental
arrangements are Travis… This
song represents the kind of emo-ballads that Anathema plays...a song
seated into an acoustic atmosphere in which Vincent shows his
whispered voice; He’s the perfect singer for this kind of songs. The
title-track is a slow-gothic song that remind me of the latest The
Gathering compositions. Metal seems so far…This song is another
delicate moment full of passion and desolation; A good atmosphere
around a suffered refrain but on the whole I can’t but admit that
because of its prolixity, the song gets me a little bored! “Pulled
Under At 2000 Metres A Second” is the only song with a powerful
distortion and it’s played with a deep wildness…and for this
reason it’s another good track!!!! No
more words for this review...go and buy this album, put it into your
cd-player and bury inside Anathema's music... ...these
are simply emotions in music!
Rating: 8/10
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review by Sara De Vita
There
should be very little to tell about this true masterpiece, “A Natural
Disaster”…latest work by Anathema… There
are indeed albums about which anything you’d say would be superfluous
and meaningless…you only have to close your eyes…listen…and dream!!! Yes,
this is the first feeling that “A Natural Distaster” gives:
a feeling of oniric bewilderement, where the psychedelic sound
merges with curls of prog…completely detaching from the too “extra
Anathema” solutions that plagued the previous “A Fine Day To Exit”. “A
Natural Disaster”…surely you’ve heard this time and again, is a
return without forcing, and winning indeed, to ideas seen in Alternative 4
and Judgment… it manages to sate the most fierce acoustic hungers with
surrounding and smooth sounds… This
is an album in permanent motion (musically speaking), where even the
simplest note creates atmospheres that are a background for doom-like
rhythms. Thanks
to "A Natural Disaster" the english combo looks to have found
its own personality…a belonging, almost parental, even thanks to
a line up at last more compact with the (musical) reconciliation of
Cavanagh brothers (that also alternate at the vocals). I
was talking about psychedelic influences…and I add very sharp influences
(but this makes no wonder) from Pink Floyd, extending in the whole
progressive landscape of the Seventies to the class-rock, the more refined
one, such as Radiohead and company. Overall
a slow, smooth and velvet sound enriched by sudden rock accelerations that
give to this work a great complexity, managing to satisfy even the more
wanting ears!!! Since
the beginning the album exhalts and takes off, forewarning with great
emphasis (thanks also to a masterpiece guitar work) the following, where
instead the more intimate vein of Anathema surfaces, splendidly
represented by the refined “Balance”, that manages to create a sort of
sympathy between synths and guitars… overlapping images that slip away
without disturbance. But
perfection is reached only with “Are You There”, essential and
redundant (in the most positive meaning of this term), reproduces an
asphyxiating feeling of anxiety and freedom longing…of research… A
more modern and direct sound (in a larger sense) we only find in “Pulled
Under At 2000 Metres A Second": scratching and suffered that almost
duet with the instrumental “Childhood Dream”, recreating a
term-equilibrium that forces us to meditate. Rating: 9/10 Sara De Vita |
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Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland