THE CRESTFALLEN

"The Crestfallen EP" is an EP release by UK doom/death metal act Anathema. The EP was released through Peaceville Records in November 1992. Anathema were formed in 1990 under the Pagan Angel monicker, but soon changed their name to Anathema. Anathema released the two demos "An Iliad of Woes (1990)" and "All Faith Is Lost (1991)" before signing to Peaceville Records for a multi-album deal. "The Crestfallen EP" is their first official release through the label.

This initially made them label mates with My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, which are also the two acts their music is mostly comparable to. The quality of the music on "The Crestfallen EP" is not as high as the early output by the two above mentioned acts though, and Anathema were quite frankly a second tier British doom/death metal act at this point. This is of course their debut release (Although this is an EP the playing time is 33:26 minutes) and maybe I shouldn´t expect too much, but even in those days I remember I wasn´t too impressed with the music on this EP. What "The Crestfallen EP" do manage to provide is an introduction and a glimpse of what you can expect on Anathema´s debut full-length studio album "Serenades (1993)". But that´s about it and in my opinion you can safely skip this one and go straight to "Serenades (1993)".

Part of the problem with "The Crestfallen EP" is the pretty lifeless sound production which never manages to bring the tracks to life. Lead vocalist Darren White really isn´t the best vocalist either. He sounds out of his league here. tired and strained. All this really add up to an EP that quality wise is below average. The musicians aren´t too tight either so all in all it´s hard to recommend "The Crestfallen EP" to anyone but the most hardcore fans. A 1.5 - 2 star (35%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)