A NATURAL DISASTER

OK, so Alternative 4 and Judgement weren't bad, but they didn't have enough variety in sound to keep me interested. When they issued A Fine Day to Exit, I found it to be a pleasant change of pace for the group - it was necessary to continue their evolution, and the next logical step would be to remove the metal from their sound - though the album failed to accomplish much. With A Natural Disaster, Anathema fulfill what they did not on its predecessor. This album has a greater atmosphere and variety than anything we've heard from the band. Vincent Cavanaugh's rather gentle and emotive voice continues to improve. He shines on the softer numbers "Balance," "Are You There?" and "Electricity." The delicacy of these tracks is quite nice; I am very pleased that they allowed these parts more time to breath. Typically in the past, the band wouldn't allow the clean segments to run very long, sometimes bringing the distortion in prematurely. Here, the ideas are given more time to be stretched out and the result is often stunning. "Balance" still brings in the rock for a powerful climax, though. There is also an interesting electronic patch on the vocals in "Closer" that I would relate to Mogwai before the song explodes 2/3 of the way in after a gradual build where you even here some growling buried in the mix. "Pulled Under at 2000 Meters Per Second" is a heavy, fast-paced song unlike anything we've heard from them. "Violence" is a solid instrumental closer, starting with some light piano and then after about 2 minutes it quickly builds into a heavy section that runs for a few minutes before it fades into some more light piano beneath a light soundscape. The only real weakspots are the opener and "Flying," of which the latter manages to redeem some of its weakness toward the end of the song.

I am quite pleased with Anathema this time around. The songs have more breadth and less doom 'n' gloom than I've come to expect from them. Their next album should be killer.

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