BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTENMENT

The Liverpool, UK based ANTIMATTER has been the long time project of Mick Moss who took the reins after fellow founder Duncan Patterson parted ways in 2005 leaving Moss as the sole director of the project's destiny. While the earlier albums were a quirky mix of dark electronica with Goth rock-tinged trip hop graced with feminine goddess vocals, the newer releases since 2012's "Fear Of A Unique Identity," has found Moss going more into the alternative rock arena with the complexities getting more sophisticated leading him into the progressive rock world. It's been three years since "The Judas Table" and ANTIMATTER is back with BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTENMENT which continues the trend of mixing borderline heavy alternative rock / Goth metal with progressive almost neo-prog symphonic splendor.

While the previous album had a more stripped down effect, BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTENMENT expands the dimensions of the elements set forth once Moss essentially went solo. This album's theme is that of drug addiction and tackles the extremely heavy subject matter in the lyrical department while creating a dark and lugubrious musical backdrop to push it forward. The material is some of the most complex that ANTIMATTER has done with a sense of melancholy that hangs over the album like a lingering black cloud but very effective indeed as the impeccably produced mix and excellent compositions create one of the rare instances where Gothic rock and progressive rock work so well together. This is surely one of the most tense listens of the year as it walks a tightrope between complete emotional breakdown and a sense of suppressed rage waiting to explode but somehow keeps its cool throughout its run.

While Mick Moss is the sole member who plays acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, bass and provides vocals, BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTENMENT also adds four extra musicians providing flute, saxophone, drums and a traditional Iranian bowed string instrument called the kamancheh (also kamanche, kamancha or qamancha.) There are also two female vocalists that provide a feminine touch on backing vocals. While the creepy mid-tempo music adds an almost shoegazy sort of guitar distortion with Moss' Gothic vocal style leading the way, the Middle Eastern percussive drives and the kamancheh take the music to an eerie new world where various strains of reality intersect in an unfamiliar way. The synthesizer rich darkwave atmospheric overcast keeps this one in the clouds like a perpetual brain fog that is tuned into some foreign radio station that is set to sadness.

Like most Gothic related music whether it exist in the extremities of metal or the more sensual touches of the Nick Cave camp, this music is eerily romantic and fragile. While the music generally creeps along, the Middle Eastern drumming can become energetic especially on tracks like "Essential," and while the guitar heft is mostly reserved as an atmospheric generator with echoey distortion, it is also implemented to create some metal riffs that chug along to add a sense of crescendo to the mostly stoic and detached emotional tug of war. Moss' vocal style is very limited as he sings in a low register but has mastered the art of eking out emotional responses with subtle vocal vibrato and tantalizing trills. While BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTMENT has been accused of moving more to the world that Anathema (which ironically ex-founder Duncan Patterson played in) has carved out and there is some truth to that, the mood remains more reserved and much more dependent on the darkwave synthesizer dominated atmospheric touches to convey its overall plan.

With utterly addictive composiitons that are instantly catchy and a nice interplay between the sensual acoustic, heavy electric and atmospheric elements, BLACK MARKET ENLIGHTENMENT qualitatively connects the listener to the subject matter and draws you into the bleakness of the grimy world of substance abuse. The instantly catch tracks will hook you immediately but the sophisticated and subtle mix of the swirling storm of sonic interplay will keep you coming back for more. This album is considered heavier than previous ones and offers just enough bombast to create the perfect corrivalry of musical elements. ANTIMATTER is not only back but seems to be getting better with each new album. Favorite track: "Between The Atoms" which also happens to be the longest.

Antimatter, the personal project of the talented musician Mick Moss, was back in 2018 with Black Market Enlightenment!

It's the first album I hear from this band, and I must say that despite the style that they practice is my favorite kind of prog (dark, atmospheric and dense) this collection of songs lack some kind of hook.

The production is fine, and the vocals clear and deep, but apart from a pair of tracks the album is rather dull and insubstantial.

Best Tracks: This is Not Utopia (the catchiest track of the album), Sanctification (complex and powerful) and Between the Atoms (good instrumental development)

Conclusion: if you are into bands like Riverside and Anathema, you'll probably find Black Market Enlightenment interesting. But in my opinion, this is an irregular album with a songwriting that is not enough interesting or imaginative to be considered a worthy addition to any prog music collection.

My Rating: **

Black Market Enlightenment, Antimatter's 7th LP, is the UK band's most overtly progressive album to date. Antimatter have always been "prog-adjacent", both because they have regularly embraced Pink Floyd and Roger Waters as influences, and because they never showed a concern for mixing together diverse styles, pushing the boundaries of dark rock and metal. On Black Market Enlightenment, however, Antimatter take their progressive credentials to a whole new level - thus writing one of the most refreshing and deeply engaging records in their whole discography.

Black Market Enlightenment is still rooted in Mick Moss' typical songwriting style, juxtaposing acoustic and electric elements to create a dark, melancholic atmosphere that perfectly suits his deep, tormented vocal delivery. Dashes of electronica emerge continuously throughout the album, and so do the aforementioned Pink Floyd influences. Alternative rock and gothic rock are also styles that Moss occasionally incorporates into his musical palette, adding a further degree of raw moodiness to the proceedings.

Although this eclectic approach is not new to Antimatter, the LP's 9 songs stand out for their adventurousness and the ease with which they push limits. In terms of structure, Moss detaches himself from the standard verse-chorus blueprint that had characterized much of Antimatter's preceding output. The songs take a dilated form, where melodies do return recursively but without following a rigid, predefined structure. Instead, Moss lets the music take off in any direction that may be most suitable to capture the mood and atmosphere of each composition. Sometimes, a song develops into a long instrumental break. Other times, new melodic ideas are weaved into a song's texture, taking the whole piece in a different direction. There is a distinctive sense of "everything goes" that prevails on this album and makes it terribly exciting, as one is kept on their toes all the time, unsure where the music may go next.

Black Market Enlightenment also stands out for the use of richer tone colour compared to previous Antimatter's records. While Moss had used violins before in his band's albums, here he greatly expanded the range of "unusual" instruments employed in a rock context. Flute, saxophone and qamancha (a type of Armenian stringed bowed instrument) find a lot of space on the album, adding tons of character and variety to the songs. The qamancha is a particularly fitting instrument here, with its oriental, vaguely Beatlesy sound that perfectly complements the lyrical theme of the album (centred on Moss' own experience with drugs, but also touching on how mind-altering substances were popularized by 1960s/70s psychedelia and rock music).

The LP is best experienced in one sitting, letting the music ebb and flow with its explorative nature and terrific sense of dynamics. There are no weak tracks here, although the central part of the album ("Partners in Crime", "Sanctification" and "Existential") stands out as one of the most adventurous and bold sequence of songs in Antimatter's discography. "Sanctification" stuns with its slow, almost imperceptible crescendo that takes us from a sparsely-arranged, tip-toed beginning to a thunderous finale where drummer Fab Regmann (Décembre Noir; Disbelief) does not shy away from his metal heritage delivering some great blast beats. Meanwhile, "Existential" features a posthumous contribution by the late Aleah Stanbridge, whose beautiful backing vocals add an ethereal touch to this already haunting composition.

Ultimately, Black Market Enlightenment is one of Antimatter's best records to date. Comprised of brand new material from the first to last song, the LP finds Moss in a state of songwriting grace: inventive and fearlessly experimental, but always deeply melodic and accessible. The end result is an album that keeps on giving and remains fresh and interesting even after multiple listens, in the best progressive tradition.