SERENADES

Serenades is a modest start for Anathema, while not being particularly great, it is also greatly different from their later material. This is slow, prodding, and methodical doom metal. The vocals are greatly different from the later vocals of Cavanagh, and the instrumental style is also much different, although the overall attitude and emotional connections are very similar.

Sleepless is my personal favorite, which opens in a dark, clean, muddy manner, but has an outstanding guitar tone and solo. The final track Dreaming is quite different, but essentially not captivating. The band would improve after this.

Unfortunately, this album really gives little insight into the band's future sound, which would lose most all of the death-like vocals in favor of a more somber, melodic vocals of the Cavanagh brothers. For those with a taste for any kind of extremes in metal, this can be quite enjoyable, but not exactly "prog".

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