SERENADES

Just I said on my (short) review of "The Crestfallen" EP, ANATHEMA's "Serenades" is nothing more than doom metal. The only song that makes a difference is the beautiful acoustic track "J'ai fait une Promesse" sung by female vocalist Ruth, and of course not forgetting the 22-minute ambient track "Dreaming: the Romance". The rest is much like their debut EP with some minor differences, for example the guitars seem to be less heavy than on the previous record. Also this time Darren White's "vocals" are less gutural and more whisper-like, whatever...

The song "Sleepless" became a live favourite and stayed in the band's setlists for a while. "They (will always) die" is a reworking of the track "They die" which appears on the previous EP.

There are three different versions of this disc: the original version has 10 tracks, "Dreaming: the Romance" being the album closer. The American version (the one showed on this page) dropped that song and put the entire "The Crestfallen" EP at the end of the disc. Finally, the Japanese version has the original 10-track tracklist plus the track "Nailed to the Cross/666" ("nice" song title) as a bonus.

I wouldn't recommend this album to a regular prog listener, unless someone who is into this kind of metal of course. In later years Anathema radically changed their style in favour of a more melodic and symphonic approach and that's why they appear on this page.