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Anathema - Judgement CD (album) cover

JUDGEMENT

Anathema

 

Experimental/Post Metal

4.16 | 753 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bonnek
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars Judgement is Anathema's ride through lush Floydian ambiences. The album is the ending point of their evolution from doom-death metal (see early My Dying Bride), through dark goth rock (see Fields of The Nephelim), to laidback dreamy rock sadness. Or how to go from doom-death to goth to Floyd in 4 albums.

Almost all metal influences have been stripped from the sound. An occasional power-chord not withstanding, it's all clean picking, sumptuous atmospheric synths, slowly pounding drums and that classic British voice that touches me like no other. I usually don't pay any attention to lyrics (blame it on too much Priest, Dio and Maiden listening, guaranteed to induce lyrics-deafness). But on this album, some of Danny Cavanagh's striking verses got themselves imprinted in my memory ever since I first heard them 10 years ago. One Last Goodby is the most striking example.

I can see some prog fans having a hard time to appreciate this band. This album in particular isn't progressive and the continuous melancholic ambience might become dreary if you prefer more eventful music. I like eventful music as well, but I equally like to be moved by the honest sadness and gloomy intensity that comes wrapped in delicate catchy rock songs here. If you don't have a clue how that may sound, take Riverside's I Turned You Down as an example of a good copy.

Judgement is Anathema's most heartfelt and touching album, and since emotional impact is Anathema's core-business, you might easily call this their most accomplished one. Rock fans might prefer the preceding Alternative 4, prog fans the more dense and textured A Fine Day To Exit. For me, I could listen to each of these three albums every day.

Bonnek | 5/5 |

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