Review: Anathema

Anathema
““A Natural Disaster”
(Koch)

It seems as though most of the bands that once pioneered the death metal scene have all but abandoned it. In Flames, Opeth and the Gathering all began rooted heavily in death metal but have evolved into something a lot more complicated and diverse. It’’s almost as if you wanted a monster to turn into a flower in the case of Anathema. Moving away from power riffs and growls in favor of the piano and acoustic guitars just about sums it up for this band.

To the band’s credit, their evolution has worked better than anyone could have imagined. Anathema’s latest album, “A Natural Disaster”, is a somber exploration of conveying emotion through music and words. This album will make you smile, play air guitar, want to sing like an angel and want to play piano ala Beethoven, all over the course of it’s ten beautiful songs. The female vocals on the albums title track adds an eerie but amazing tone to slow melodic rocker, creating something of sheer power. Without a doubt this album is an accomplishment and should be praised by the mainstream.

This album is nothing more than powerful melodic sound waves that assault the senses and will leave you wanting more.