A PROFUSION OF THOUGHT

When dark rock band Antimatter's mainman Mick Moss announced that the UK act's 8th full-length album would be entirely comprised of tracks from his "archive of unreleased songs", I did not quite know what to think. Many artists regularly leave songs on the cutting room floor when they finalize an album. Sometimes this is has nothing to do with a tune's quality, but rather with whether or not it fits within a record's tracklist. Often, however, there's a reason why those specific songs - and not others - are left on the cutting room floor: they just do not match the level of artistry of the tracks that eventually make it onto the album. That left me wondering: which one would it be in the case of A Profusion of Thought - stellar material that has not yet found the right home, or a quick roundup of second-rate leftovers from previous albums?

It turns out I shouldn't have worried at all: at least three-quarters of A Profusion of Thought are made up of stuff from the stars - easily some of the best material that Mick Moss has ever penned in his whole career. Moss is a very special songwriter, who mixes acoustic and electric elements in a unique sound. Fingerpicked or gently strummed acoustic guitars naturally coexist next to distorted riffs and chords - almost as if a doom band had decided to re-arrange music written by an offbeat and melancholic singer-songwriter. Moss is also a very eclectic musician, embedding in his songs elements from traditional metal styles (mainly doom and gothic), progressive rock, alternative rock as well as electronica. The weights of these different influences has shifted over the years, from the glorious dark electronica experiments of Antimatter's earlier albums (Saviour, Lights Out), to the more alt rock-oriented sound of Fear of a Unique Identity and The Judas Table, to the stunning progressive undercurrents of the band's latest LP Black Market Enlightenment.

The great thing about A Profusion of Thought is that, because its songs have been originally composed over the years and for different albums, we get to experience the full gamut of Antimatter's diverse influences and styles in the short space of a single LP. Slow-burning dark rock pieces like "No Contact" are juxtaposed to bluesy acoustic ballads ("Fold") and Floydian-tinged dystopian laments ("Paranoid Carbon"). Elsewhere, Antimatter stun us with a foray in Depeche Mode electro-gloom ("Templates"), while "Heathen" is the closer they ever got to write a bona-fide goth anthem. It's absolutely exhilarating to navigate the manifold twists and turns offered by the LP, which is undoubtedly the most varied and polymorphous collections of songs the UK band has released so far.

Moss' intelligent arrangements and strong sense of melody ensure that, despite its variety, A Profusion of Thought remains cohesive and coherent from start to finish. His voice and guitars are the red thread that runs through the whole record and give it its own unique identity. Daniel Cardoso's (Anathema) warm and natural production also contributes to this effect. He puts a lot of emphasis on bass sounds in the mix, which exalts Moss' riffy approach to the bass instrument and gives the music a groovy and intimate feel overall.

A few paragraphs above, I said that three-quarters of this LP are stellar. "What about the remaining quarter?" you may wonder. Well, that is a bit more hit and miss, if you ask me. The last three songs of the album in particular feel like filler material. The melodies are slightly duller and the arrangements less exciting. They overall sound like lesser versions of some of the preceding tracks, which gives the record a slightly sketchy ending.

Despite the unspectacular finale, A Profusion of Thought is a mighty strong record that provides a beautiful bird's eye perspective on the different shades of dark rock/metal Antimatter have been dispensing for more than two decades now. The diversity of the material included here, together with its consistently high quality, give the LP a feel of a "Best Of?" collection, which is however made up of previously unreleased songs. As such, A Profusion of Thought will appeal to both old fans and newcomers to the band. The former will revel in the trip down memory lane the album provides as it pokes at styles and influences that have not been so prominent in Antimatter's music since the early 2000s. Newcomers will instead find that A Profusion of Thought is a great place to start exploring the catalogue of one of the most consistent dealers of darkness out there in the musicsphere.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]