SERENADES

This is the debut album from Anathema. It is radically different from their later life as a Pink Floydish act. Serenades is a doom metal album.

Although the music on this album is not as slow as Cathedral's seminal album Forest Of Eqilibrium, the music here is a pretty big shock for the senses. The growling vocals lays on the top of the detuned guitars and bass. Add some pretty hard drums and atonal guitar solos and you get total gloom. Anathema tried to create a world of sorrows, doom and gloom. They got what they wanted. ......And some. The only track which breaks up this slash- your-wrists ambience here is the ethereal beautiful J'ai Fait Une Promesse which is a total departure from the rest of the album with it's wonderful female vocals. This song is full of melancholy and sorrows. Despite of it's total break with the rest of the album, it actually fits this album as a hand to a glove. In other words; this album is total gloom.

The final twenty-three minutes track Dreaming: The Romance is a collage of noises and a total waste of time (later removed from any further pressings). That is my only gripe with this album. This is why I like the Crestfallen EP better than this album. This album is a classic album in the doom metal genre and a good album overall. But as a prog album, it is a 2 stars album.

2.75 stars

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