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Rating:
A waning, or perhaps rising, moon surrounded and enveloped by a sea of dense and dark clouds; but someone might quickly argue that it is an image of our sun. This interpretative ambiguity derived from looking at the cover of "Resonance 2", an excellent collection that Anathema released in 2002, is not very relevant. What I like to emphasize about the artwork is the evocative power it conveys, along with the music produced by the English: something enveloping, that warms and comforts you.
A band that has continued in its very long career, having formed in 1990, to grow, evolve, and always push forward with musical exploration; without ever forgetting their own past. A growth that is not yet finished; and I expect that soon they will follow up their last studio album released in 2014, that "Distant Satellites" which saw the Cavanagh brothers' group gift us yet another great album. But let's put aside the present and focus on the collection that pays homage to their more metallic period.
The first tracks are taken from the debut full-length "Serenades"; a work still raw, not even too well produced and played, which had as its identifying mark the primitive semi-growl voice of Darren White. Death-Doom that well suits a song like the opener "Lovelorn Rhapsody" with its suffocating and sinister movements; a slow and thick sound in its long progression. It's already time for the revised and updated version of "Sleepless 96", where those distinct Gothic-Dark influences begin to be seen, which will then be highlighted in the albums to follow.
And so it is right to remember their first masterpiece "The Silent Enigma", released in 1995, and talk about the eternal "A Dying Wish": over eight twilight and visionary minutes. A nocturnal ride that continues to rise in emotional intensity, up to the gloomy final act marked by the sound of Duncan Patterson's bass; the voice has passed into the capable hands of Vincent Cavanagh. A song that undoubtedly represents one of the peaks of all Gothic-Metal.
The intense pilgrimage of sumptuous emotions stops at "Eternity", another album deserving the highest marks. My choice falls on the robust and dynamic "Cries In The Wind", with its damnably Pink Floyd-like ending, especially in the vocal parts. And so we have reached the concluding chapter of this collection; they close the circle by paying homage to their, in my opinion, best album: "Alternative 4", the last work which sees the participation of Duncan Patterson in terms of writing, who unfortunately would leave Anathema immediately afterward. "Fragile Dreams" is more than a song: a delicate and subdued instrumental intro, which soon after explodes dramatically in a shiver-inducing crescendo..."Maybe I always knew, My fragile dreams would be broken... for you".
Ad Maiora.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Lovelorn Rhapsody (05:49)
I hear your voice
It sings so softly
Curious to join in
A harmony to breathe forevermore
Joyous the one to hear a voice
In fields where grass grows tall
Golden carpets swell and whisper
Autumn trees will weep
Immune to pity, I've grown used to grief
The eternal tear reciprocates
In fields where grass grows tall
Golden carpets swell and whisper
Autumn trees will weep
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh
In bleak misery, the lifeless lie in squander
Love has left me, fled from me
Fragrant lust waits beside and dies
Like flowers that wilt without refreshment
In midday sun I sit and bide time
Adorning me, a lovelorn rhapsody
02 Sweet Tears (04:12)
In each others arms
We cried together
And your tears tasted sweet
All is not lost
And never to be forgotten
Like a shiver down my spine
The lonely nights keep falling
And I still want you
All is not lost
And never to be forgotten
She's passed away but dreaming
Her soul's awake and screaming
The weeping willow is weeping
And beneath our hearts ...
... all joy is sleeping
our bliss is carried away ... sweet tears
04 Eternal Rise of the Sun (06:34)
An unstoppable end
The world turns every day
An ending with no end
So, for this time of morning
I can no longer cry
Even though the story goes on
The script is being written
Start shape our destiny
We are the bible...
Believe in angels, they believe in you
Oh, spread your wings, there is more than this darkness
Open your eyes, the horizon has no end
You can see forever, you can know all time
You can live forever...
Every dusk can blind, as a sunrise on a day
Every sunset there is, lifts the eternal sunrise
And the sunrise ends when the sun dies...
And every ending has an eternal beginning...
We are the bible...
05 Sunset of Age (06:54)
Throne of grief
..... in a dying essence
Crying beauty
..... the fettered aura
Forgotten oceans of hope
..... Betrayed aphony
Sullen laughter in unventured paradise
(as one) forever searching
For landscapes serene
Amidst the sunset of age
With joyous masquerade.....
..... the summers died
06 Nocturnal Emission (04:17)
My passions rise ..... a twilight ride
Stark light of dark night in my eyes
My forlorn lust .....
My soul it burns
My forlorn lust .....
My soul is burning
Take you now, in my sleep
I want to touch you, to scratch you deep
To leave you scarred .....
To see you burn
To leave you scarred .....
To see you burning
08 Hope (05:54)
I was not put here by anyone in fear
I came alone as me
Just an idea in a long chain of discovery
Surrounded by the same you
Sometimes your tide pulls me out to sea
And I die in a thrashing curse
Sometimes we are kind
More often, I doze
So far up the beach that those who try to reach are burnt
alive in the searing heat of the desert of my dispassion
So far removed, I never hear the water
'Cept once or twice a month when I see a mirror
And I refuse to believe in some of the things that are said to be here
Let alone those that are not
I'm trying to change my direction
Ours is pathetic in my own humble estimation
I love the planet
The great benign she-wolf
Benefactor
Spinning gently on towards the red giant four aeons hence
When all the rose gardens are consumed in the flash-fire of flying time
She'll leave alone to you
When you look at me
From your own century
I may seem to be
Strange archeology
But when the winds blow
From this direction
You may sense me there
In your reflection
I think I feel you
But I will never know
As the swallows leave
And the children grow
I wanted to live forever
The same is you will too
I wanted to live forever
And everybody knew
When I caught you there
In tomorrows mirror
I thought felt you
Jump out of my skin
Throwing oil into
My blazing memories
Filling empty footsteps
I was standing in
I wanted to live forever
The same as you will too
I wanted to live forever
And everybody knew
As the falling rain
Of the northern jungle
Hanging droplets on the leaves
Bombards my brain
I hear you
Across the room
A sea of daffodils spring into bloom
You are the mist
The frost across my window pane
And again
She moves her body
And her whispers weave
And the world spins
And tells me that I'll never want to leave
As I think of you
From this dark century
I will always be
With generosity
That we both may share
The hope in hearing
That we're not just
Spirits disappearing
09 Cries on the Wind (05:02)
Reaching out...
How things look different on the way down
Disillusioned, I've lost desire
Will I burn in the unforgiving fire?
From the flames, I walk away
I've found a way to erase the pain
An empty bottle, my receptacle
A guardian angel called escape
Don't dwell on the forthcoming
As I know it won't be happening
And you know, when I'm gone
You'll hear my cries on the wind
10 Fragile Dreams (05:32)
Countless times I trusted you
I let you back in
Knowing... Yearning... you know
I should have run... but I stayed
Maybe I always knew
My fragile dreams would be broken for you
Today I introduced myself
To my own feelings
In silent agony after all these years they spoke to me
After all these years
Maybe I always knew
My fragile dreams would be broken
For you
11 Empty (02:59)
Empty vessel under the sun wipe the dust
From my face another morning black sunday
Coming down again,coming down again
empty vessel empty veins,
Empty bottle wish for rain that pain again
Wash the blood off my face the pulse from
My brain and I feel that pain again
I'm looking over my shoulder coz millions
Will whisper I'm killing myself again maybe
I'm dying faster but nothing ever lasts I
Remember a night from my past when I was
Stabbed in the back and its all coming
Back and I feel that pain again
I abhor you I condam you coz this pain
Will never end you got away without a
Scratch and now youre walking on a lucky
Path i have to laugh but you 'd better watch
Your back
There's pathetic opposition they're the
Cause of my condition I 'll be coming back
For them I've a solution for this sad
Situation nothing left but to kill myself
Again because I'm so empty!
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