PLANETARY CONFINEMENT

This would be former ANATHEMA member Duncan Patterson's final album with ANTIMATTER. He would leave after this one while Mick Moss would keep the band going and release another album. This album is a strange one in that Mick and Duncan refused to work with each other at this point, so we get two different lineups each headed by these two men. So these songs were recorded in different places at different times. Weird. All the odd numbered tracks are Duncan's and have mainly female vocals, while the even numbered are Mick's and feature mainly his vocals plus violin. It is very surprising how these songs mesh so well together.They're on the same page whan it comes to this melancholic, acoustic style of music that's for sure.

I much prefer the previous album "Lights Out" because that one is all about the atmosphere and mood, while this one comes off too acoustic and samey. It's also very melancholic as I mentioned.The highlight is without a doubt the final track "Eternity Part 24" which is completely different from the rest. It starts out similar with the acoustic guitar but then a minute in we get drowned in atmosphere. Kind of like a spacey Klaus Schulze track. Very cool.

Worth 3 stars but nothing more in my opinion.

Antimatter is running out of fuel on their third album. In terms of sound and style, the band still shows a will to redefine themselves, but when it comes to songwriting and creative energy, this album leaves much to be desired.

After short intro, we are introduced to the new Antimatter sound, which is very bare and acoustic. There's still a strong Anathema feel to it. Especially the violins bring Alternative 4 to mind, but in a more subdued and reflective mood. It's a beautiful gloomy song. Also Line Of Fire shows the band in fine shape. The female vocals offer some variety in sound. The arrangement is very desolate, only slow acoustic guitars, echoing effects and piano are used. Halfway in, I kind of got the idea, so the instrumental second half with percussion that follows is hardly necessary.

With Epitaph starts a string of average material where each individual song still has enjoyable elements but where the whole lot of them is really off-putting. A feature that particularly annoys me on this album is the numbing sameness of it. If you play the first 15 seconds of The Weight,Epitaph,A Portait,Legions and Eternity you get 5 times the exact same acoustic picking on the exact same chord. Worst of all, that picking has a too familiar ring to it. I'm quite sure I've heard this somewhere before.

Not bad as a collection of campfire songs to impress girlfriends. Just don't play all of them consecutively or you risk dozing off and setting your date on fire. Literally, which doesn't come recommended. 2.5 stars

The third LP by UK dark rock band Antimatter Planetary Confinement is an album that almost never was. After releasing two well-received records (Saviour in 2001 and Lights Out in 2003), the partnership between Mick Moss and former Anathema bass player Duncan Patterson was slowly coming to an end. And, in fact, Patterson had initially quit the band before this album's release, leaving Moss alone to decide Antimatter's artistic future. Eventually Patterson decided to record one last album with Moss - Planetary Confinement, but after this 2005 release the duo parted ways definitively and Moss continued on his own to carry the Antimatter banner.

The difficult genesis of the album is reflected in its somewhat split identity - with half of the songs penned and recorded by Moss and the other half by Patterson. The dual contribution to songwriting had actually been a hallmark of Antimatter's previous releases too, but here things are taken to a further extreme. Each musician recorded his own tracks with a different line-up and in separate locations. Moss recorded his tunes in the UK with his voice and acoustic guitar taking centre stage, complemented by Rachel Brewster's violin, Stephen Hughes' bass and Chris Phillips' drums. Patterson instead recorded his songs between Ireland and France, assisted by a handful of local musicians including vocalist Amelie Festa.

Both Moss and Patterson kept things acoustic and stripped-down for this record. While Moss' songs are all based on moody guitar arpeggios and mournful violin melodies, Patterson's instruments of choice are the piano and keyboards. Drums and percussion are used sparsely, the arrangements are minimalistic, and there is almost no trace of the dark electronica and trip-hop rhythms that had featured copiously on Antimatter's previous two LPs. Planetary Confinement instead strikes a balance between dark ambient music and melancholic singer-songwriter sensibilities. The barren quality of the music makes this a very dark and depressive album, perhaps reflecting the band's downcast state of affairs at that time.

The diverse nature of the material and recording sessions do not do the album a favour, however. The differences in style and even atmosphere are palpable, and the LP feels more like a split album rather than a cohesive full-length. Moss' songs come out on top, particularly those strong, emotional pieces like "Legions" and "The Weight of the World" that will stay on Antimatter's live track list for decades to come. Patterson's tunes, driven by Festa's haunting voice, are instead less compelling, as they are penalized by their excessive duration and repetitiveness that, together with the lack of strong melodies, make them feel slightly drawn-out.

Overall, of the three albums that Moss and Patterson recorded together, Planetary Confinement is probably the weakest. Despite its shortcomings (lack of cohesion, uneven quality of the material), the LP contains a handful of really strong tunes ("The Weight of the World", "Legions", the haunting cover of "Mr. White" by 1980s US doom metal band Trouble), which ultimately redeem it and guarantee it a regular place in my album rotations, still today, nearly 20 years after its release.