Anathema - Weather Systems

[awia]

^Musically, Dir En Grey isn't bad. I mainly just wished that the vocals were in English. Although that section at 2:32 was too chaotic/insane sounding for my tastes. The closest male fronted bands I am aware of who I can somewhat compare to Katatonia are Monokromia and Novembre, though neither have nearly as great a vocalist as Katatonia does. I usually have to go to female fronted bands (like Autumn, Trees Of Eternity or older Lacuna Coil) to get bands where the vocals typically match the music in level of talent and appeal. Nonetheless, thanks for the suggestion!

I'm glad I am not entirely alone on my opinion of Anathema, Heliotropic_Rose. I mean I do like some Anathema tracks, don't get me wrong. But they are always one of the first bands that people who love Katatonia recommend to me and I just can't hear what they must hear. They lack the "power" behind the music with great vocals that I am looking for. With as divine as bands like Katatonia and Tool/A Perfect Circle are, I would think that there would be thousands of copycat bands out there who could compare even halfway to those three, but so far I am not finding them. And 9 times out of 10, it's the vocalists who are the ones who can't deliver and ruin it for me (which is why I normally have to go to the more simplistic "mainstream" bands to get the good male vocalists I enjoy hearing).

@ insidethefall, I don't remember full album titles. I'd just go to Youtube and type in Anathema and watch whatever featured videos popped up, one after another until I'd get bored. I will try to look specifically for material for those albums you listed just to see if any of songs from them are ones I've heard yet or not.

 

[nizzon]

I list some tracks for those who doesnt know Anathema or cant get into them...
You cant really judge their songs if you dont listen to them entirely, they usually start slow and mellow and build into great powerful crescendos. Albums like Eternity will grow ALOT efter a few listens, the guitarwork is just amazing.

I think you can devide their career in three parts...

1. Heavy, Death/Doom, growls
Crestfallen: The Sweet Suffering, Everwake
Serenades: Sweet Tears, Sleepless, Sleep in Sanity, J'ai Fait Une Promesse
Pentecost III: Kingdom
The Silent Enigma : Restless Oblivion, A Dying Wish, The Silent Enigma

Most of these tracks rely on the sorrowful and beautiful guitarmelodies, if youre not into that I think it will be hard for you to see their greatness here.



2. Still heavy, depressive rock(?), end of growls
Eternity: Angelica, The Beloved, Eternity part 1, Eternity part 3, Cries On The Wind, Ascension.
Alternative 4: Fragile Dreams, Regret, Feel
Judgement: Deep, Forgotten Hopes, Pitiless, Make It Right (F.F.S.)

The lyrics on these albums are depressingly beautiful and guitarwork is just fantastic. The prduction and vocals on Eternity put alot of people off but give it a chance and the beauty will shine through, its their best album imo.



3. Atmospheric, less guitars, more female vocals
A Fine Day to Exit: Release, Pressure
A Natural Disaster: Flying, Closer, Are You There?, Pulled Under at 2000 Metres a Second.

Took me many many years before i accepted these albums, I have been listening to Anathema since ~94 so I had a hard time with them changing their sound. A Natural Disaster has some amazing moments, the end of Flying is just incredible and Vinnys vocals are really great here.



Wont bother with the latest two albums

 

[MadTinus]

AFDtE is certainly their most depressing output..

Dude, no way, Alternative 4 takes the cake for that by FAR i.m.o. The song 'Lost Control' alone is way more depressing than anything on AFDTE. Man, that song drags you down, no matter how sunny the day is..

Anyway, I'm curious about the new album. Been an Anathema fan for many years, but they haven't released an interesting album for many years either. Judgement was great, AFDTE also good and sometimes very good. A step down from Judgement nonetheless. A Natural Disaster was another step down and hardly ever did anything for me. I don't like the direction in songwriting (or better, lack there of) they took after Judgement, which is still continuing. Meaning, less structured and a more 'jamming' style. Adding to the disappointment were their increasingly poor live performances. I saw them several times through the years, but every time their poor instrumental performances, ruining all their classics, just annoyed the hell out of me and took all enjoyment away for me. Particularly John Douglas is a very poor drummer live. They should have kept Shaun Steels who played on A4, he's excellent (saw them live with him on drums on the A4 tour, was great).

Then it took forever to release WHBWH, which got a lot of praise, but I didn't really get into it, there was other much better music available at the time that took my attention away from it. Also Hindsight and Falling Deeper were nothing but 'filler' releases for me.

I liked 'The Beginning and the End', so let's see how the album will turn out, I'll give it a fair chance, again.

 

[nizzon]

Dude, no way, Alternative 4 takes the cake for that by FAR i.m.o. The song 'Lost Control' alone is way more depressing than anything on AFDTE. Man, that song drags you down, no matter how sunny the day is..

Agreed.

 

[nizzon]

I just listened through the album and the first impression is that sadly it is just as I feared, The Beginning and the End is the only good song, the rest is just boring. So disappointing.
The first 4 songs are too similar.. except someone stumbled and accidently turned on an amplifier at the end of Lightning Song.
The Storm Before the Calm and The Lost Child is ok I guess, at least there is some songwriting going on there compared to the first 4 tracks.
I dont really like WHBWH that much but that album is better than this, sadly, except for The Beginning is the End.


Sadly Anathema has their best days behind them and you can only accept it.
It fucking sucks tho when you hear tracks like TBatE, Danny still has it but I guess they want to do boring simple shit nowdays.
FUCK

 

[Code Against The Code]

Their best two albums are without a doubt: We're Here Because We're Here and Judgment.

 

[AngelinaBlakkheim]

Aside from their early doom/death material, I would say their best stuff was on the albums Eternity, Alternative 4 and Judgement.

This.

 

[season1234]

and if like INSIDE THE FALL said is true, that is if most Anathema fans find that "Eternity" is one of their best albums, then I don't see why I would bother with trying to get into this band anymore. I listened to Eternity just yesterday and found myself clicking next over and over to try and find something in that album that I liked

Eternity is alright, but nowhere close to Alternative 4 or Judgment. Frankly, I think the vocal performance on Eternity is bad, whereas on Alternative 4 it is excellent (as is the entire LP: a stunning, beautiful, haunting record). I would give Alternative 4 a try and skip Eternity.

Also, A Fine Day to Exit is the least dark of the Anathema albums other than WHBWH, although it certainly has its moments. Will listen to the new LP soon, hoping I will like it.

 

[insidethefall]

Serenades/Crestfallen - As good as Gothic and Turn Loose The Swans imo...Perhaps not as highly revered but you just cannot recreate that SOUND and those tortured vocals.

Pentecost III - Another godly piece of doom/death

Silent Enigma - Never cared for this one much, the band said they wrote most of it while they were recording and it sounds like it. Not horrible and it's still quality Anathema

Eternity - has a wonderful unique sound, very spacey but also very doom metal. It's one of those albums that just grab you - it's not the first record a recommend to those wanting to get into the band, as it seems a bit more challenging a listen. Maybe my fav along with Alt 4

Alternative 4 might be their best album, I always wondered how an album can be so heavy but not really metal...Duncan Patterson took some of this style to his band, Antimatter.

Judgement is pure atmospheric rock bliss, catchy songs that hit a very deep emotional chord.

A Fine Day to Exit - there are some songs that are among Anathema's best like "Leave No Trace" but I thought of it as sort of a step down.

A Natural Disaster - It's a pretty dark album, maybe a bit too much radiohead in parts. I like it, but don't love it.

We're here... - It took me a while, but I like the album if I'm in the right mood. Dreaming Light is one of the best songs I've ever heard

Weather Systems - See above at my review

I liked Hindsight because it focused on rather recent songs. The Falling Deeper album is pretty bad as most of the "reworked compositions" sound totally different - and c'mon did they really think they could improve upon "Everwake" ?

 

[discouraged1]

weather systems might be the best anathema album so far. for me at least :Spin:

i've listened to the album more than twenty times by now and it has everything i always loved about anathema.

anathema is my fav band ever. i grew up with all of their albums and learned something new and valuable through their music with every new release - i kinda progressed with their own evolution. i mean, it's the only band that i have very exact memories where and when i was when i was listening to their every new album and how i reacted to it.

the production of weather systems is simply amazing. hats off to chris cederberg once again - i had to let him know personally how i feel about his work here and he's a top bloke, very friendly; he played the second guitar on in the woods' strange in stereo and three times seven on a pilgrimage btw.

it's monstrously demanding and responsible task to have the drums sound so good as on weather systems, plus multiple voices, background and upfront, strings (!), guitars with distortions on and off, solos, background ebow ambient melodies, keyboards, bass plus the acoustics that shine so radiantly on the top of it all.

i can understand how some people miss distortions, but believe me, they are HERE. the only thing is that so much stuff is going on in the mix that they (distorted guitars) can't always go upfront (as much as people who grew up on metal expect them to be). there are distortions rocking really hard on five songs on the album and they sound better than ever - the beginning and the end and untouchable 1 are one of the best songs anathema ever made, i can already say that with a confidence.

i guess weather systems will have to grow on some people, but for me and my optimistic state of mind i'm into for some time it can't be more perfect than this. maybe it's also down to the fact that i'm a musician myself and i like to sing along to most of the tunes i listen to and every vocal harmony here makes perfect sense. not many bands can give me sense of hope and love as much as anathema does.

 

[discouraged1]

haha more like fawking insane

 

[nizzon]

Nice trolling discouraged1

 

[MadTinus]

I've listened to it 1,5 times now and my first impression is that it's not an album I will like more than its predecessor, which was OK, but didn't get a lot of spins here. Let's see if and how it will grow on me.

 

[stefan86]

Listened once. Didn't really like it. Hoping at least some of the songs are growers.

 

[BlueSky]

Particularly John Douglas is a very poor drummer live. They should have kept Shaun Steels who played on A4, he's excellent (saw them live with him on drums on the A4 tour, was great).

Really? I've not seen em live, but the drums on A4 are about as amateur as it gets. It's not like the band is technically impressive still to this day, but off the top of my head the chorus for Underworld is much harder to play than any of the older material as far as drums are concerned. More importantly there's way cooler grooves on the newer albums. My guess is that if you went back in time you wouldn't be as impressed by Shaun's performance to say the least.

 

[Lisra]

as long as they drum better than 3 doors down i'm happy..

 

[MadTinus]

Really? I've not seen em live, but the drums on A4 are about as amateur as it gets. It's not like the band is technically impressive still to this day, but off the top of my head the chorus for Underworld is much harder to play than any of the older material as far as drums are concerned. More importantly there's way cooler grooves on the newer albums. My guess is that if you went back in time you wouldn't be as impressed by Shaun's performance to say the least.

What I've heard of Shaun is that he's a steady and solid drummer, nothing too technical, but steady and able to keep pace. He made the bands he was in better. The My Dying Bride albums he played, feature the best drumming on MDB albums. Nothing wrong with the drums on A4 btw, solid, steady and functional, just what the music needs.

I've seen Anathema with John several times, and his drumming bothered me and ruined the gig for me most of the times, also on the dvd's. On Hellfest in 2008 it was pretty OK as far as I remember.

 

[Lisra]

On the DVDs too? I've watched Where You There? several times.. now I need to rewatch.. never noticed.

 

[Heliotropic_Rose]

wow, i'm sold they sound awesome....

 

[Coma323]

Mixed reviews definitely got me eager to hear this album.