WE'RE HERE BECAUSE WE'RE HERE

So, with this album, we are up to Anathema's 8th full album release. They have come a long way from their black metal beginnings. This album is many times more positive and less morose than their previous releases, which tended to be quite dark, even if when they had separated from the heavy sound they started with. The songs now are much mellower, yet they are replete with emotion and passion.

The 3 Cavanaugh brothers are still present, as they have been most of the time through the band's history. Vincent and Daniel still share vocal duties, but they have added another vocalist in Lee Douglas as a full time member of the band. This is the main reason for the brighter feel of this album, but she is an excellent vocalist, so all is good. You will notice her providing harmony in most of the tracks, and with her past guest vocalist duties with the band, it only seems natural to hear her singing as a regular band member.

This album is so well orchestrated and produced. Steven Wilson, of course had a hand in mixing the album, which explains the clarity of every instrument and sound. Interestingly enough, the album does not take on the sound of a Wilson project so much, because of it's positive feel, where most of Wilson's projects tend to be dark. The feel of the tracks is expansive and full, with many places being almost orchestra-like. The keyboards stand out a lot more in the tracks, but don't worry, there are plenty of places where the guitars kick in making the impact of many of the tracks even that much more solid.

Now, with all of this amazing musicianship, there are weaknesses here that weren't as apparent in the previous album, and that is a tendency to get too poppy sounding towards the middle of the album. In addition to this, 'Presence' is an annoying spoken word track with organ supplying back up. Fortunately it is a short track.

Things do get better again after the weak middle however. You know everything is back on track when 'A Simple Mistake' starts playing, and there is a collective sigh of relief. So tracks 4, 5, and 6 might be weaker, they aren't so bad to ruin the album. 'A Simple Mistake' has the feel of one of Pink Floyd's better tracks with a guitar solo that is not only awesome, but very progressive too. And the amazing songs continue after this on through the final track. It's almost as if the band is closer to Symphonic Prog than it is Post Metal.

There is so much to love about this album, and I have always loved Anathema when they are at their most expressive, which happens many times in this album. The weak middle part of the album does bring it down a notch, but for top quality, emotional and passionate music, the rest of the album should not be missed simply because of that. Unfortunately, it takes away from what could have been a 5 star album. When it's at its best, this is still high quality emotional prog.