WE'RE HERE BECAUSE WE'RE HERE

Anathema is a band that has always suffered from the public's expectations. By changing their sound and style throughout this career, they've been criticized for either being too metal, too soft, too melancholic, not metal enough, too pop, not prog enough, too Radiohead and so on. This album won't be an exception.

However, if you're open to contemporary rock and allow the passion of this music to engulf you, then you're in for a treat. Anathema's mission is not to fit in a genre box but to purge pure emotion through their music, whatever form that music takes: imposing doom metal, gothic prog or atmospheric rock as on their previous 2 albums.

We're Here Because We're Here is the long-expected 8th album and it is a logical continuation of A Fine Day To Exit and A Natural Disaster. It's more consistent then the latter but not as musical and varied as A Fine Day To Exit. But whatever personal preference you have between these albums, it would be quite surprising if you would not appreciate We're Here Because We're Here if you loved the preceding albums. The influences from modern alternative rock and post rock such as Radiohead and Sigur Ros are still the main source of inspiration, meaning we get outstretched and minimal compositions with a brooding atmosphere that grows to rousing climaxes. Needless to say this will not appeal to people who rate music by the number of notes played per second.

The album starts very strongly with 3 brilliant songs. It then has a short dip with a couple of poppy songs of which Everything is the most disappointing. It's a track that has been available for download from Anathema's home site for more then 5 years and it had really lowered my expectations towards this album. The final album version is more focused then the demo but it remains a rather lame pop song similar to Porcupine Tree's Lazarus. Also Angels Walk Among Us is rather average. But with the album's highlight A Simple Mistake, we're all set for another string of gorgeous Anathema songs.

The music on this album is seemingly simple but it strikes with a devastating emotional blow. What else did you expect? It's Anathema, and they are back, with an album that I would rate just below the creative peak they reached with Alternative 4, Judgement and A Fine Day To Exit.