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The career of Anathema seemed unstoppable. With enthusiasm, they had taken the big leap by signing with Mascot, started working on their twelfth album, and announced a special tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of “We’re Here Because We’re Here” (the album that marked their definitive consecration); the tour even kicked off in March 2020 but the arrival of the pandemic halted everything. Like many bands, they had to face serious financial problems that forced them to announce an indefinite hiatus (interpreted by many as a real breakup) and even to sell their instruments. In the midst of it all, there were also personal issues, with Vincent Cavanagh unwilling to carry the project forward and his brother Daniel going through a very dark period in his life, and, according to social media posts, he even allegedly attempted suicide (though the matter seems to have much darker implications…).
Still, Daniel found the strength to move forward, to start anew, also helped by a massive crowdfunding campaign that allowed him to repurchase equipment and pay for a therapist in London to help him out of his personal crisis. Joining him in the new project is drummer Daniel Cardoso, known for being the drummer in Anathema’s recent productions. Thus is born the project that aims to continue the path interrupted by Anathema, or rather, it is the group’s continuation, as evidenced by numerous and obvious elements. Starting with the name, Weather Systems was indeed the title of that grandiose 2012 album. As if that weren’t enough, the font used on the cover is the same that Anathema used in their latest period, both the uppercase font used for the group’s name and the lowercase font (italicized) used for the album title. Moreover, the cover of this first work closely echoes that of the successful 2012 album, a sort of kaleidoscopic planet similar to that of The Little Prince, where, however, the bare trees and barren land are replaced by the skyscrapers of a metropolis, and where the cloudy, bright blue sky is replaced by a beautiful night blue.
And logically, what sound could “Ocean Without a Shore” ever have? Well, a rather simple answer, exactly those of Anathema from the 2010s, without major innovations or surprises, those with which the Liverpool combo left behind all their previous incarnations (the initial doom metal period, the gothic metal/rock of ’96-‘99 and the alternative rock of the early millennium) to embrace a still new and this time brighter style. A brilliant melodic rock but at the same time permeated with a strong dose of melancholy; light but striking guitars, an extensively symphonic vein marked by brilliant string arrangements, crescendos of intensity and energy inherited from a certain post-rock, as well as a certain underlying catchiness that makes the songs easy to listen to without much effort even for those not accustomed to too much experimentation, however without veering into pop. The ruling paradigm is still the same: to move, to give chills, even here in Weather Systems, the songs are built on a perpetual but never tiring sequence of chords that seem really designed to give goosebumps; how they manage to create such poignant and all-encompassing melodies remains a mystery, there must be some deep study, a sort of “emotional marketing”, as I might define it.
It is nevertheless worth remembering that this strong dependence on the parent band is absolutely no accident and not only because the central figure is Daniel Cavanagh. Much of the material was indeed written for a new Anathema album, it is essentially the unmade twelfth album of the band; although if truth be told, it would have been a step back, as with their last album “The Optimist” they had adopted a darker approach.
A further point of connection with the original project is represented by the presence of tracks that are the continuation of some Anathema songs; we have an “Untouchable Part 3” and an “Are You There? Part 2”, which are absolutely worthy follow-ups to the original compositions (the latter, in my opinion, is better and more exciting than the composition historically contained in “A Natural Disaster”).
Perhaps it is precisely this excessive dependence on the parent band that could be identified as its flaw, if one really wants to nitpick, but obviously, it is the result of the circumstances that have occurred. Nonetheless, there are more peculiar and experimental episodes, such as the vibrant piano passages of “Still Lake”, the beautiful nighttime electronic trip of the title-track (territories already explored by Anathema in the last two albums), and even the presumably African choirs of the concluding “The Space Between Us” (you see, in the end, we always connect back to Anathema, the title clearly refers to the verses of “Summernight Horizon”). Perhaps with the next albums, the original style could be better detached, as in that case it will truly be a Weather Systems album, but when the melodies are so spot-on and so moving, when the emotion is still so strong and hits us so familiarly at first listen…what more could we want, how can we be critical?
Danny then claims harder riffs compared to the latest Anathema but I feel like not recognizing this characteristic, the sufficiently rocky riff of “Synaesthesia” alone is not enough to claim the album is harder, it’s just one and then “You’re Not Alone” also had a rocky riff, we’re even.
In conclusion, we can say we are faced with a guaranteed used item that inevitably pleases those who loved Anathema. Now I don’t know if it’s better to hope for a return of Anathema or a continuation of Weather Systems, because the idea of closing one chapter and definitively opening a new one is quite enticing and romantic; in any case, it will be great music and great emotion.
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