SERENADES

I must say that even though Anathema has the status of one of the pillars of doom-death, it is simply difficult to come up with a worse start to their career than Serenades. Perhaps the main problem is not in the ugly compositional structure of songs and even not in tortured riffs. The main problem with Serenades is vocals. Seriously, this is one of the most disgusting vocal performances I've heard in a long time. This is how I growl when I try to sing along to different death metal and similar genres. Darren White, with all due respect, is not the kind of vocalist who is able to set the necessary emotional tone for the sound of the band. Well, there is nothing special to distinguish from the songs, except J'ai Fait Une Promesse, which was sung in French (the only appearance of female vocals on the album, just a local "Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom" of some kind). By the way, the band's attempt to "clear" the music lover's brain with a 23-minute ambient set at the end of Serenades is perceived, to put it mildly, ridiculously.