Anathema
We're Here Because We're Here

Anathema left us seven years ago with their last work "a natural disaster," from which tour came two fantastic live DVDs, in 2004 "Were you there?" and two years later "A moment in time."

After such a prolific period (well, they have always been prolific, just look at the release dates of each CD), it was impossible to imagine that we would have to wait seven years for a new album, but the record label they were part of, the famous Music For Nation, went bankrupt.

This caused a significant financial blow to Anathema, time passed, and they released various tracks via the internet (which would later appear in this latest work), in demo version, asking for financial support from fans through donations.

After this tough period, the band declared that the material produced was new, but they needed a new record label and a producer.

A very prestigious figure emerged in the classy rock scene, Steven Wilson, frontman of Porcupine Tree and record producer of masterpieces like "damnation" by Opeth.

Steven had always expressed his appreciation for the band, with whom he had already toured.

After a long phase of production, recording, and mixing, we arrive after seven long years at the release of "We’re Here Because We’re Here."

The CD features an unusual cover for the band, a man on the horizon, immersed in light, and as you can easily infer from the music on the CD, that man represents all the members of the band; yes, this album marks a huge emotional change for Anathema, the depressive and dark character (which had always been decreasing over the years) disappears completely here, to leave you with a sense of profound hope, emotion, because the feelings this CD will give you will be the same as the little man on the cover, you will feel warmed by a deep light.

The tracks on the album are all great, except for "Get off Get Out," which I found uninteresting, but not a bad song. It starts with the engaging Thin Air, with a great guitar riff in the central part that will stay impressed in your mind for quite a while, then we have Summernight Horizon, probably the fastest track on the CD, with a wonderful piano intro!

We have tracks like Everything, Angels Walk among us and Hindsight (the latter almost entirely instrumental) that give a deep sense of peace, providing pleasant sensations, accompanied by Lee's female voice, which accompanies Vincent Cavanagh’s beautiful voice.

But if you’re looking for emotions that will leave you speechless, without words, the songs (the best on the CD) are, Dreaming Light, Presence, A Simple Mistake, and Universal.

The emotional charge of these pieces is incredible, these tracks have one thing in common, the gradual build-up, reaching absurd emotional peaks before calming down.

Dreaming Light starts with sweet piano notes, with an inspired Vincent who will make your heart vibrate, all the band members gently join in, the piece proceeds until the explosion of Danny Cavanagh's guitar, accompanied by various strings drawing melodies of disarming beauty, which will drag you along, to then end with the gentleness with which it began, perhaps my favorite on the CD.

Presence, the shortest track on the CD, almost 3 minutes, but 3 minutes of immense intensity, a keyboard playing profound notes, followed by very Pink Floydian guitar and Vincent who "limits" himself to narrating a beautiful text (which I encourage you to read), then Vincent stops, Lee's female voice, candidly accompanied by the rest of the band, starts singing a stunning, simple but exceptional melody. You will be paralyzed by this track and will listen to it countless times.

A Simple Mistake, here the influence of Porcupine Tree, coming from Steven Wilson, is very noticeable. A piece formed by simple yet highly inspired arpeggios, Vincent's voice is stunning, the piece grows slowly, until exploding in a beautiful guitar piece by Danny, of incredible intensity.

Here we are at Universal, yes probably the final blow.

The track seems to recall the old Anathema for its sadness, a heart beating very slowly, synths, strings, and Vincent’s voice accompanying this beautiful piece.

The intensity of the track keeps increasing, until exploding in a wonderful solo by Danny; it seems like it's over... everything stops, but then some piano notes start, of immense intensity that will grab you, the band follows these piano notes, everything keeps growing, more and more, reaching a frightening emotional charge and then suddenly everything stops with these piano notes fading out... You will be left speechless and will definitely listen to the track again.

These are the new uncategorizable Anathema, it would be useless to look for a genre, I define them as poets of classy Rock and I think a masterpiece like this CD is enough to make you understand.

PS: "Note the beautiful Artwork, something amazing"