Anathema
A Natural Disaster

THE REVIEW

Talking, telling, and reviewing an Anathema piece is always a pleasure because they are one of those bands that certainly do not lack personality paired with great quality in writing lyrics and perfect productions, and every time they deliver pearls of absolute value.

Their Death/Doom/Metal beginnings are now just a splendid memory; already with "Alternative 4" they significantly toned down their musical "power," then continued with the masterpiece "Judgement" and the beautiful "A Fine Day To Exit," the latter work with slight post-rock influences.

This "A Natural Disaster" presents itself with a cover that is nothing short of beautiful (depicting a little boat in the sea illuminated by the sunset's light and a lone man who seems to be sad and hurt, abandoned to his fate) and you can immediately tell it will be a journey filled with melodies, melancholies, and dreamy, at times suffering, voices.

The start of the album is soft with "Harmonium," a slow and at times repetitive song with the voice accompanying the melody in an odyssey of suffering; it intensifies (and especially in quality) with "Balance," which has an urgent, enveloping start, made of guitars and drums that seem to explode at any moment, all surrounded by Vincent Cavanagh's splendid voice that almost plays at being Thom Yorke from Radiohead but always with great class and elegance.

The third passage of this journey is called "Closer," a track that combines the usual sad melody with a penetrating voice influenced by a slight electronic vein; a pleasant track that prepares us for the next gem of the album "Are you there." In hearing it, they vaguely remind me of the (best) Sigur Ros; what can I say, beautiful, sounds that transport you to another dimension, penetrating melodies that grab and cradle you from the very first listen for all almost 5:00 minutes of its duration.

The journey continues with "Childhood Dream," very slow, sounds caressed by the verses of a dreaming child and a very light guitar; ending with a voice perhaps from the Afterlife closes the track and seems to warn us that the next song, "Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second," will give us quite a jolt. Here, we return (vaguely, of course) to the times of "Judgment," with very heavy guitars enriched in the middle of the track by inhuman screams, but it is only a "homage" to times that were because it soon returns to the new path undertaken by the English brothers.

The title track "A Natural Disaster" is a very good ballad sung by Lee Douglas's beautiful female voice. It doesn't drive me crazy, although almost all the critics see it as the album's pinnacle.

The highest expression of this beautiful album, in my opinion, is the enchanting "Flying." Every time I listen to it, I get chills, close my eyes, and imagine myself just like the man on the boat on the cover, alone with myself contemplating the sunset lights penetrating and illuminating the crystal clear sea. It starts very slowly with the singer's voice being ethereal and penetrating at first impact, then progressively grows.

It is followed by "Electricity," with beautiful lyrics about love, composed of very sweet guitars and soothing pianos. This "journey of love" is closed by the track "Violence," an instrumental experiment that, despite its long duration, manages to relax even the most agitated minds and bring them to absolute peace.

Almost an hour has passed, but it seems to have flown by...

This is another masterpiece by Anathema and making comparisons with their previous albums is absolutely impossible because every time they discover musical horizons never seen before.

I often hear that they've copied Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Muse, or even that they take inspiration from Air; surely they can remind you of them, I don't doubt it, but for me, they have been, are, and will be simply Anathema, unique in their way of delivering dreams and emotions...