THE SILENT ENIGMA

On The Silent Enigma, Anathema started leaving behind the death-doom sound of their debut album Serenades and incorporating traces of the more melodic songwriting that will dominate their future discography. Fans of the band should have seen this coming: already on Serenades the band had showed their inclination to experiment with more cinematic and atmospheric pieces, such as on "Sleepless", "J'ai fait une promesse", or the 20-minute keyboard drone "Dreaming: The Romance". The Silent Enigma moves a further step (or two) in this direction: the songwriting becomes more accessible, the riffs and melodies are catchier, and the tempos are not as oppressively slow as on the doomier Serenades.

The rapid evolution of Anathema's sound between 1993's Serenades and 1995's The Silent Enigma was facilitated by a big change that occurred between the two albums. Original vocalist Darren White left the band just before the recording sessions of The Silent Enigma, and Vincent Cavanagh, the band's rhythm guitarist, took his place behind the mic. It will be a decisive move for Anathema: Darren's vocals ? halfway between thrash gruff and death metal growls ? were okay(ish) for the death-doom sound of the debut album, but would have been too limited to allow the band to push the boundaries in more melodic and atmospheric directions. In truth, on The Silent Enigma, Vincent does not stray too far away from the vocal style of his predecessor, mixing in equal parts growls, spoken parts, and semi-melodic gruff vocals. But the difference in quality (and potential) between the two singers is as clear as day, especially on the more melodic tracks like "Restless Oblivion" or "Sunset of Age".

Nevertheless, The Silent Enigma is not exactly a revolutionary album in Anathema's discography. The doom-death influences are still quite apparent on this album, especially on tracks like "Shroud of Frost" or "Cerulean Twilight". Even the structure of the album resembles that of Serenades: both albums open with two meaty pieces, followed by a short, acoustic interlude with female vocals as track #3; halfway through both albums we find a catchier, gothic number ("Sleepless" on Serenades; "Nocturnal Emissions" on The Silent Enigma); and both albums close with a cinematic instrumental track. The Silent Enigma and Serenades are also similar in that they both showcase some psychedelic, vaguely Floydian influences, especially in some dreamy, lysergic guitar parts that bring to mind Gilmour's guitar style (the closing part of "Shroud of Frost"; "The Silent Enigma").

However, The Silent Enigma is a better album than Serenades, both because of the higher quality of the songwriting ("Restless Oblivion" ranks among the best songs that Anathema have ever recorded; "Shroud of Frost", "Sunset of Age", "Nocturnal Emissions" and "A Dying Wish" are also strong tracks) and because The Silent Enigma is more cohesive as an album. Serenades, with its disparate influences, gave me the impression of an album where Anathema were not quite sure yet in which direction to take their music. The Silent Enigma is more assured in this respect, with the various influences of the band better amalgamated with one another, and the album as a whole feeling less disjointed as a result.

Overall, The Silent Enigma is a good album that finds Anathema at the crossroad between their past and their future. It is clear that the band are ready to leave behind the doom-death sound of the debut, but they have not quite yet found the right formula to express the atmospheric melodic style that they will embrace from Eternity (their next album) onwards. As such, The Silent Enigma is perhaps better described as a transitional album, which nevertheless showcases some strong tracks that fans of the band, old and new, will surely appreciate.

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