SERENADES

After two demos and one EP, in 1993 Anathema finally released their debut full-length album, Serenades. At the time, Anathema were considered one of the forerunners of the emerging death/doom genre, together with countrymen Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride (the so-called "Peaceville Three", as all three bands got signed by Peaceville around those years). Serenades is a raw album that bears the stigmata of the death/doom sound, but at the same time reveals Anathema as a dynamic, forward-looking and experimental act, which in fact will not take long before stretching the boundaries of the genre (on follow-up The Silent Enigma) and then leaving it behind all together (from Eternity onwards).

Already on Serenades there are clear indications that Anathema were keen on experimenting with more accessible and atmospheric compositions. The band dabbles with acoustic interludes and female vocals on "J'ai fait une promesse", foreshadowing the development that was to come when singer Lee Douglas (sister of Anathema's drummer John Douglas) will join the band as full-time member, sharing vocal duties with Vincent Cavanagh (who on Serenades plays rhythm guitar). "Sleepless" (best song of the album, in my view) is a dark, gothic affair that is disturbing but at the same catchy and accessible, hinting at the type of songs the band will write on next album "The Silent Enigma". Elsewhere, dreamy, lysergic guitar parts bring to mind Pink Floyd, an influence that will later dominate Anathema's sound. And then there are the 20+ minutes of "Dreaming: The Romance", a drony experiment with synths and ambient music that can undoubtedly come across as clumsy and pretentious (not much happens in those 20+ minutes), but that nevertheless showcases an ambition and eagerness to break with genre conventions that is remarkably brave for a band just releasing its debut album.

No doubt, the rest of Serenades is firmly rooted in the death/doom sound: the tempos are slow and sluggish, and thickly distorted guitars weave elaborated riffs that duel with melodic leads, creating a lulling wave of sound that envelopes the listener in a despairing musical cloak. Within its genre, the album is impressive, not least for the way it is produced: the sound is smooth and crystal-clear for the period - I am very impressed by the work of producer Paul Halmshaw and mixing engineer Keith Appleton on Serenades.

However, Serenades also shows the imperfections and limitations typical of a debut album. The songwriting is a tad too meandering and directionless. The heterogeneous combination of styles (mixing death/doom, gothic, acoustic pieces and ambient experiments), while interesting, makes Serenades feel slightly unfocused, almost like Anathema were not quite sure in which direction to take the album. Moreover, Darren White's vocals are frankly horrendous, even for the standards of the genre. His growls aren't really growls, but rather strained, unintelligible yelps intermixed with spoken words. It sort of suits the music, but I am not surprised that already on the next album Anathema will replace White with Vincent Cavanagh, who will do a much better job with this type of vocals (and later blossom as an amazing singer).

Overall, Serenades is a more than decent debut album and, while Anathema will release much stronger records in their future, it contains a handful of impressive tracks ("Sleepless", "Sweet Tears", "J'ai fait une promesse") that still today I rank high in the band's 30-year discography. Serenades is also the only full-length album that is really connected to the death/doom origins of the band, and so fans of the "good ol' Anathema" will probably appreciate it more than those who, like me, got to know the band only with their later, more melodic and atmospheric albums. Yet, Serenades already foreshadows some of the defining aspects of Anathema's future sound and, as such, even fans of the band's more recent incarnation may want to give it a spin, if nothing else for the archaeological pleasure of discovering the origins of the sound that defines Anathema today.

[Originally posted on www.metal-archives.com]