WEATHER SYSTEMS

After a long period of silence, in 2010 Anathema came back to life with a new album, We Are Here Because We Are Here (WAHBWAH), which also represented a bold change of musical direction, away from the doom and gloom of the past and towards brighter and lighter pastures. Although WAHBWAH represented a fresh turn of the page for the band, it was far from a perfect album, both in terms of sound (too thin and dry) and compositions (with one too many hit-and-miss moments). Anathema's follow-up release, Weather Systems, treads closely in the footprints of WAHBWAH, but is a much more assured and convincing album.

In fact, Weather Systems follows nearly exactly the same template as WAHBWAH, with songs that are based on big, uplifting melodies that unfurl slowly through long crescendos to culminate with cathartic moments of emotional intensity. The music often builds on simple guitar or piano arpeggios that are repeated for almost the whole duration of a song (sometimes even across two songs ? as in the pair of tracks "Untouchable Pt 1" and "Untouchable Pt 2"), with little variation if not in the intensity and volume at which they are played. Structurally, Weather Systems and WAHBWAH have also a lot in common. Both begin with a very memorable, highly cinematic start (the pair of "Untouchables" on WS, "Thin Air" on WAHBWAH), followed by a slightly more aggressive and uptempo piece ("The Gathering of the Clouds" on WS, "Summernight Horizon" on WAHBWAH), before melting into a pair of delicate, uplifting songs ("Lightning Song" and "Sunlight" on WS, "Dreaming Light" and "Everything" on WAHBWAH). As on WAHBWAH, the second half of WS is darker and dips somewhat in quality compared to the first half.

However, there are also marked differences between the two albums. While the positive, life-affirming vibes that the band embraced on WAHBWAH continue to transpire on the 9 tracks of Weather Systems, some of that darkness of previous albums seems to seep back in on Weather Systems, for example in songs like the "Untouchable" suite or "The Storm Before The Calm". At the beginning of "The Beginning and the End" we are even briefly reminded of the disturbed atmospheres that saturated a dark album like "Alternative 4". The sound of the album is also more balanced than WAHBWAH, with the low/mid-range frequencies finding again space in the mix and Vincent Cavanagh returning to use his lush, deep crooning voice in some of the tracks. Overall, I like the production and mixing of Christer-André Cederberg (In the Woods) much better than Steven Wilson's (Porcupine Tree) on WAHBWAH: the album sounds fuller, deeper and more balanced. [Side note: Christer-André Cederberg also plays bass on most tracks of Weather Systems in place of Jamie Cavanagh, who is instead credited as "live musician" together with Daniel Cardoso, who from this album onwards steps in to replace Les Smith at the keyboards].

More importantly, the quality of the songs is generally higher than on WAHBWAH. The opening duo "Untouchable Pt 1" / "Untouchable Pt 2" is a fantastic pair of tracks. The idea of taking the main melody from "Pt 1" to rearrange it in a more acoustic, piano-based version in "Pt 2" is masterful. It is something that many bands would perhaps do as a bonus track, but positioning the stripped-down version of the song as the second track of the album ? immediately after its "electric" companion ? is a bold move that pays off in terms making the song grows on the listener, thus strengthening its impact. Another great track is "The Storm Before The Calm" (the only track that is not penned by Daniel Cavanagh, but by drummer John Douglas). It's a dark affair, with processed vocals and subtle electronic beats and background sound effects that bring to mind some of the experiments with electronica that Anathema had already dabbled with on A Natural Disaster ("Closer", for example). I like a lot the contrast between the gloomy, synth-heavy first half (the storm?) and the emotional, guitar-driven second half (the calm?), where we have a beautiful and emotional duet between Lee Douglas and Vincent Cavanagh. I am also very fond of "The Beginning and the End", another sombre track sustained by a delicate piano arpeggio and showcasing some beautiful dark lyrics and a powerful guitar solo towards the end.

However, Weather Systems also contains weaker tracks that do not allow me to rate the album higher, especially when compared to other near-perfect full-lengths in Anathema's discography, like Judgment or A Fine Day to Exit. One problem is that the slow-build-to-climax formula that is used on nearly every song of the album becomes somewhat tiresome after a while, and falls flat on tracks that are somewhat less inspired like "Sunlight", "The Lost Child" or "Internal Landscapes". This is a general problem with the stream of Anathema MK-III's releases (WAHBWAH, Weather Systems, Distant Satellites, and to a lesser extent The Optimist). I am a big fan of Daniel Cavanagh ? and I find his guitar playing on Weather Systems absolutely top-notch, by the way ? but I sometimes feel his songwriting is a bit too formulaic, locking in on certain formulas that he repeats over and over again across whole albums. The injection of diversity in the songwriting from other band members (like John Douglas ? a fantastic and underrated songwriter, in my opinion) is what made albums like A Fine Day to Exit so exciting and compelling. Weather Systems is almost entirely Daniel's brainchild and it suffers somewhat from the excessive homogeneity in his songwriting.

Nevertheless, Weather Systems is a strong album ? and easily the most accomplished release in the trio of "progressive post-rock" albums the band wrote between 2010 and 2014 (WAHBWAH, Weather Systems, and Distant Satellites). Packed with emotional, uplifting songs but also balanced by subtle undercurrents of darkness and melancholia, Weather Systems strikes a near-perfect balance between the "old" and "new" Anathema and, as such, it is probably the album that may appeal the most to fans across all eras of the band. Highly recommended!

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