Anathema
"A Fine Day To Exit"

It is said that one evening, from an enormous quantity of pints of Guinness consumed by singer Vincent Cavanagh and keyboardist Les Smith, the idea for this album was born. It is not a true concept album, but the songs unfold, continually referencing the evocative cover image, which plays us all dirty. At first glance, we see a car parked on a beach, viewed from inside the cabin with a view of the sea. A family polaroid abandoned on the dashboard along with a cell phone with a missed call, cigarette butts, beer, and a farewell note reading "a fine day to leave." Ominous forebodings reinforced by the presence of abandoned clothes on the beach. Could it be an escape? Then you open the cover, and behind the fold hides the man's face reflected in the rear-view mirror, still in the car with a gun, pills, and whiskey placed on the usual dashboard. Here begin the doubts that will never be revealed but perfectly immerse the listener in the album's atmosphere, rich with influences that have nothing to do with the Liverpool group's doom metal beginnings. If one must, at this point, one can talk about psychedelic rock with strong alternative and gothic influences, the voice is now crystal clear and dreamy even when the rhythms intensify and become rock, see the escape from the relentless reality that haunts you in "Panic." With this track, we are already toward the end of the album, but the search for inner peace must pass through the thousand contradictions of the human soul, through suffering and mistakes, wrong thoughts that sometimes haunt you for years and make you a slave to yourself. Medicine, alcohol, and smoke are the result of fears and inadequacy. There are different and personal ways to get as close as possible to the light. Anathema shows here their individual idea of rebirth and salvation through nine steps sublimated by the final triptych of the aforementioned "Panic" (the panic indeed), "A Fine Day To Exit" (the awareness), and the touching and overwhelming "Temporary Peace" (the compromise with oneself and the peace achieved). In the end, the hypnotic ebb of the sea takes you towards calm, true or illusory as it may be, but for a moment frozen in time, you remain convinced that you have discovered what was hurting you and could not see. Until the next tide.