WE'RE HERE BECAUSE WE'RE HERE

Anathema" We're Here Because We're Here" The new Anathema album came out this week, yet I watched about 20+ ratings go up on ProgArchives over the last couple of months without any reviews attached. How does that happen? It felt like hit and run ranking. Skim the songs, post a rank, and leave. I realize people we're downloading the songs, but we're people just listening to a couple of samples (and not buying/downloading the whole album?) We're people only listening to it (or bits of it) and then revewing it after first listen? For me, I need the whole album in front of me, lyric sheets, and internalize it as a package. I'm on my 7th listen now, and I'm ready to post a review.

Anyway, its their first in over 5 years. Of course I got it the first day it came out. Man-o-man, this puppy doesn't disappoint. I don't know what it is about this band that slays me so much, its not like they're choppin' riffs out like KC's Elephant Talk, its much more ethereal and moody. But they're committed to exploring that certain aesthetic like nobody before. Some of their albums (Judgment and A Fine Day To Exit) I think are the best albums of the decade, and I keep going back to them.

This album t is as great as any of those above, and is an improvement over their last album "Natural Disaster", which had a couple less than stellar moments. Nothing like that on "We're Here Because We're Here", which starts with a strong radio friendly anthem ? "Thin Air" - that Muse only wish they could write. The rest of the album explores their own muse of finding soaring beauty by building their slow epics to a dynamic crescendo, and often trying to find soaring beauty in the remnants of metal. Five years between albums allows years for songwriting and the best stuff to emerge.

'Post-Prog' or 'Post-metal' really are "adequate descriptions for their music". There's little of either in this music, but somehow you feel the ghost of both. "We're Here Because We're Here" is not a large jump from what they first started exploring on "Alternative 4", what it is however is a their final crystallized masterpiece that they've been itching for. This really will be a treat for anyone who loves Porcupine Tree, of course the presense of Steven Wilson -- who mixed the album ? clearly contributes toward that.