DREAMS OF DEATH AND DISMAY

"Dreams of Death and Dismay" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Anata. The album was released through Season of Mist in April 2001. The band´s debut album "The Infernal Depths Of Hatred (1998)" was to my ears a pretty generic sounding US influenced death metal album. Decent but ultimately too standard to stand out.

On "Dreams of Death and Dismay", Anata pretty much continue where they left off on the debut album. US influenced death metal with a few hints to the more melodic Swedish variant. There´s nothing wrong with the level of musicianship on the album and that´s actually the greatest asset this band has because they have real trouble writing memorable music. Now death metal is per definition very powerful music but there´s a big difference in the way the music is composed and delivered by the leaders and the followers in the genre. The material on "Dreams of Death and Dismay" are generally generic and lack any form of original approach and it´s obvious that Anata belong in the latter catagory of followers. Listening to this album I´m not able to tell that it´s Anata I´m listening to and that´s a real issue in my book. Thousands of bands sound like this. After only a couple of tracks my attention start to wander and that´s always a bad sign.

"Dreams of Death and Dismay" is a very generic sounding death metal release and Anata unfortunately seem content with just playing run of the mill death metal. However as the level of musicianship is high, the sound production is decent, and there´s nothing really offensive on the album (other than the fact that the material are generally pretty bland) a 2.5 star (50%) rating is still deserved.

Ther second offering from this socalled innovative progressive death metal act comes across as a blend of the Gothenburg death metal scene and the American death metal scene. Actually, it is a blend of Suffocation and At The Gates, as far as I can detect. The Suffocation associations is particular strong on this album. But it is also pretty melodic and that is where the Gothenburg assosiations comes in.

Nobody should have any doubts that this band is extreme skilled musicians. This is why they have such a great reputation. Anata is one of the prime examples of why death metal has some of the most skilled musicians around. But skills does not always make good albums. Skills sometimes makes boring albums like this one. This album is clinically delivered without much soul. This is just a generic death metal album and that's it. The band is excellent; the album is bad. Anata can and must do better.

2.75 stars

And now, more goods from the technical swedish death metal band Anata. Dreams Of Death And Dismay is their second album. The album cover sucks. But the album is a good choice. If you are hoping a swedish old school death metal or another "gothenburg scene" act, this is not the one for you. No this work has nothing to do with the florida death metal type. I will describe this one as a mix of Suffocation (a technical Cannibal Corpse) with swedish old school records. This is technical but raw, and not that kind of annoying stuff. Creative riffs, some melodic passages too. Very different from their debut, but the same flaw: exaggerated. At this point, Anata had not developed their own style. Different, of course, but a mix of existing stuff.

By the way, a great album for harsh and violent death metal fans.