THE CONDUCTOR'S DEPARTURE

"The Conductor´s Departure" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish technical death metal act Anata. The album was released through Wicked World (a subsidary to Earache Records) in June 2006.

The music on the album is technical death metal with enough twists and turns to keep even the most experienced fan of the genre busy. The playing on the album is astonishing to say the least. The sound production is powerful and detailed too so that part of the album is well functioning. If you ask me there´s one major issue with "The Conductor´s Departure" though and it´s a pretty serious issue. The songwriting is patchy. By patchy I mean that the tracks contain multible riffs and sections and tempo- and time signature changes in spades but it´s like there´s no master plan. The riffs succeed each other in an endless stream without leaving and impact and the tracks generally lack memorability and hooks. After the album ends all I can remember is that the band are extremely well playing and that the album is well produced. I can´t remember any of the tracks. Anata are as such original sounding on "The Conductor´s Departure" (which is something they lacked on their first couple of more generic sounding US influenced death metal releases), but being original doesn´t always mean you are able to deliver something that´s catchy and enjoyable to listen to.

One of the things that could have worked well is the way Anata´s two guitarists compliment each other. There are almost no unison playing on the album. At all times the two guitars play different things. The problem is that it sometimes sound like the two guitars are playing the riffs from two different tracks at the same time. It sounds very confusing and when you add to that the almost constant tempo- and time signature changes, the soundscape becomes too busy for it´s own good. We´re talking death metal here and I expect brutality and relentless raw power, but as a consequence of all the twists and turns on this album, the music feel powerless. Add to that a very monotone growling vocal delivery and there´s just very little that´s interesting on "The Conductor´s Departure" besides the impressive technical level of the musicianship. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

This album makes me look at their debut album with nostalgic, misty eyes.

For once; an album title truly reflects the essence of an album. The true Anata has departed on this album. What we get is stew of bland hardcore and thrash/heavy metal with some hints of death and progressive metal. If the death metal scene is overcrowded, their new scene is ten times worse. OK, there are some references to Gorguts and their last two albums here. But where Gorguts was both very brave and clever; Anata is just copying the whole hardcore/thrash/heavy metal formula without injecting their own DNA. The death growling is still there and that's all. The conductor has departed.

Quality wise, this album is not a disaster. It has some OK riffs and what I loosely would call songs. But this is probably Anata's worst ever album. I wonder if their association with the big label Earache was such a good idea after all. The good old Anata is missing on this album.

2 stars (barely)

"... the songs contain multible riffs and sections, tempo- and time signature changes in spades but it´s like there´s no master plan. The riffs succeed each other in an endless stream and the songs completely lack memorability and hooks. After the album finishes all I can remember is that the band are extremely well playing." - UMUR's review

This was my first thought after listen to the whole album at the first time. But this was released on 2006, I was too much into death metal and detailed songwriting. I kept playing this album many times. And after all these years, I have found the true Anata's gem. And hell, this was the hardest band for me. This is the real hard listening music. You need to play the album time after time to fully understand, something that I'm not able anymore into this kind of death metal (I think I'm getting old). But once understanding The Conductor's Departure, the album wouldn't fail again. The band has ENOUGH creativity and virtuocity, and this surplus makes the album detailed ENOUGH. Listen to it carefully, and you will understand the beauty of this harsh music.

My 3 favorite tracks: Complete Demise (the oldschool non-melodic swedish tune mixed with technical and melodic riffs, something already did- see Entropy Within, from the previous album), Children's Laughter (I love the feeling at this short instrumental, is not a heavy song), and my favorite song from Anata, and one of the best technical death metal tracks ever: RENUNCIATION.