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Anathema - Falling Deeper CD (album) cover

FALLING DEEPER

Anathema

 

Experimental/Post Metal

3.81 | 428 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars Deep and beautiful

For their 2008 album "Hindsight", Anathema revisited some of their more recent songs placing them in a softer, more acoustic setting. They took this project a stage further in 2011. Falling deeper into their doom-laden past, this appropriately titled album brings a new found grace and beauty to some of their earliest material. While Anathema were once known for their growled vocals and funereal sounds, it was always apparent that underlying this was a collection of fine melodies and sensitive performances. "Falling deeper" finally allows those nuances to come to the fore as the band call upon Dave Stewart (of legendary band Egg) to add orchestral arrangements while they themselves seek to exploit the lyrical and musical themes that were often buried under the deluge of thumps and growls.

The eight songs included here (the album runs to under 40 minutes) originally appeared on "Crestfallen, "Serenades", "The Silent Enigma" and "Pentecost III". We open with the two part "Crestfallen / Sleep In Sanity", rather cut down from the original 10 minutes of "Crestfallen" (on the EP of that name) and 7 minutes of "Sleep in Sanity" (on Serenades). Instantly, we are presented with a piece of great beauty and harmonic perfection. Gone are the random growls and manically depressive lyrics, this interpretation relying solely on the underlying strength of the melody. "Kingdom" was for me one of the more palatable songs on the "Pentecost III" EP. That album bore the first hints of the band's forthcoming direction change, and it is those hints that are exploited here, with full orchestration.

"They die" previously appeared on the "Crestfallen" EP and also as "They (Will Always) Die" on "Serenades". As with most of the tracks here, it is pared back quite a bit, becoming much tighter and more focused in the process. "Everwake" was already the best track on "Crestfallen", but here it benefits further from the divine female vocals of Anneke van Giersbergen, the heavier backing and superb orchestration once again resulting in an album highlight. "I made a promise" originally bore its French translation "J'ai Fait Une Promesse", but here it loses its female vocal, becoming a soft instrumental.

"Alone" is one of the few songs to be in a longer form here than it was originally (on "Silent Enigma"). On that album, the symphonic overtones were already apparent. Here, the arrangement is actually a little more spartan, the emphasis being more on the acoustic aspects. "We the gods" once again removes the vocals completely, along with about 6 minutes of the original song, leaving a delightful instrumental piece. "Sunset of age" is the closing track on my version of the album. It makes for a superb finale, with (dare I say) ELO style swirling strings and a heavy back-beat laying the foundations for a strong melody. Here, an excellent lead guitar solo adds a further welcome dimension.

"Falling deeper" sees Anathema going back to the songs of their early days, but these are then transformed them into pieces that would sit well with their current output. The symphonic orchestration brings out the full beauty of the melodies, resulting in an album that is every bit as good as the bands fine releases in more recent years.

Easy Livin | 4/5 |

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