WE ARE THE BIBLE 7''

This is a very rare single that was originally only made available to subscribers of the Collectors Club. It was recorded in 1994 in the early doom metal days of Anathema, back when they sounded nothing like they do now. Both tracks are improvised songs recorded in studio, which is a rarity in the doom metal genre, so this shows Anathema's willingness to go above the norm, even in their early days, if nothing else.

'Nailed to the Cross/666' is the A Side. It starts as a slow drum pounds a rhythm and atmospheric guitars wail out feedback. The vocals are dirty of course, as they were in the early days. The tempo soon speeds up some while the vocalist chants out 666 in a gruff voice against a repetitive riff. Guitars take over and then drag the song to it's close.

'Eternal Rise of the Sun' starts with a slow guitar which soon gets layered with another guitar and a progressive pounding rhythm. The percussion levels out finally to a slow processional beat. The vocals are deep but spoken this time, so at least they can be understood. There is an attempt to sing, but it's not great singing and you wish he soon goes back to spoken vocals, which he does. The beat and bass follow a repetitive pattern, but there is a higher guitar that plays a more improvised part. The beat stops at 4 minutes, and then returns picking up speed while the other instruments follow suit, but following a same pattern. Suddenly an acoustic guitar starts playing on top of all of this, interestingly enough.

These 2 tracks are really surprisingly good and you can tell this is a band that is willing to try new things. Of course, their sound would change over the years. The Cavanaugh Brothers would, for the most part, be consistent members of the band throughout, but others members would change according to the style of music they were working to play at the time. It is often hard to believe this is the same band that would release the amazingly emotional post metal albums 'Weather Systems' and 'A Natural Disaster', but this short single is a sign that the band was looking to perfect their sound. Even with that, however, this single is more of a curiosity for fans than anything else, as the music, while surprising, isn't really that amazing. For collectors and fans only.