ETERNITY

One of my favourite albums, Eternity shows Anathema moving away from their early doom sound to an amalgam of progressive rock, alternative and metal, whilst retaining an oppressive atmosphere. Naturally, this move alienated a lot of their early fans but, given the lineup changes, a change of some description was probably inevitable.

My favourite tracks on the album are The Beloved, Eternity Pt I, Hope, and Cries on the Wind. The instrumentals are great as well. Contrary to popular belief, Hope's neither a Pink Floyd track nor a David Gilmour one (though he did co-write the song), but a track from the Roy Harper/Jimmy Page album, Whatever Happened to Jugula? Harper himself provided the opening narration for this version.

Their move away from doom continues through their following albums, though they still end up playing gigs with other metal bands, which is no longer really their best audience.