A FINE DAY TO EXIT

The evolution reached by Anathema is reflected in this album, even when they are considered a Progressive Metal band, at this point they have more an Art Rock style. All put together, the Anathema sound in this album is more relaxed than in the beginning of their career. Simply the best title for this work, because in fact it's a good day to escape and enjoy far away of this chaotic and unpredictable world.

The album has an excellent start in which Leon Douglas's voice stands out with the help of the rest of the instruments. Spiced with a little bit of drama, "Pressure" leaves out all the pretensions and takes you to an atmosphere full of calm and anguish at the same time, in someway achieved by the guitar fade outs made by Daniel Canavagh.

"Release" follows the same line of the opening track; it has some interesting vocal harmonies, and as the song goes by, the rhythm is increased and is finished in a pretty melodic way. This is one of the most notable songs during the album.

The mystery and depression appear, "Looking outside Inside" has the Radiohead's style charm as the song gets heavier and heavier while it gets to its climatic point and returns slowly to the same start point.

"Leave No Trace" remarks very well the vocal job, the included melodies are simply lovable, full of helplessness in the presence of life's injustice. This is another track to follow.

The album goes on through a rollercoaster of changing emotions in "Underworld", in which the distorted guitars present themselves again. The vocal backgrounds fit perfectly with the main voice. In spite of this, it's one of the weakest tracks included in this release, because of the lack of progressive elements in its basic structure.

"Barriers" is one of the saddest moments, it really gets you high and makes you feel every single word written, there is also a girl that sings along with Leon and makes a pretty decent collaboration.

"Panic" has this Neo-Punk style, sincerely I skip this song, just because it just doesn't offer too much musically.

"A Fine Day to Exit" is, without a doubt, my favorite in this album. The Post Rock style guitars, the ambient sounds, the voice, everything joins to make of this song about the lack of faith and despair felt in those hard moments.

"Temporary Peace" was a very promising track; unfortunately that long silence minimizes the acquired strength with the previous song.

As a final note, this job delivered by this band from the United Kingdom has its great moments without getting extraordinaire. The lack of changing rhythms takes away some power, but I can't deny that this is a pretty enjoyable album that it's worth to listen to. I'm going to give it 3 stars.

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