ETERNITY

This was one of the first albums I ever delved into... I first read about it in a review of a magazine 10 years ago which described it in a very emotional way, not making any comments on the music, the guitars, vocals etc. I was pretty impressed I must say.

The music: Anathema have evolved from their latest 'Silent Enigma' and follow a more 'melodic' path in this record. The heaviness is still there though. A good description of the music could be 'melodic doom/atmospheric' metal. Of course there are several points were the Floyd influences are obvious and the keyboards bring this feeling. There is also a cover of Gilmour's 'Hope' (for many years I thought it was a Floyd cover) which is excellent.

The emotion: The strong asset of this record is the combination of the music with the lyrics. If you start 'getting' into the meaning of the words, it is almost inevitable to fall in love with this album. Issues about life and death, human existence etc. are very well 'presented' and make this record a 'painful' journey...

It is still (and probably will always be) Anathema's best release. Hint: Don't treat this album as a common release, try to search 'deep' in it, you won't regret it. Regarding it's progressiveness, I can't tell if you can consider it prog or not. For me it's definitely a masterpiece of atmospheric music. Everything seems perfect, from the cover to the last note. Highly recommended.

Angelic...