Description

Black 180g vinyl

“by the haunting shadows of trees and graves, mesmerized am I”

With a series of power strokes and some grisly monotone narration And I Lust would become the publics true entrance to the Liverpool bands volume warping death/doom euphony. By now, Paradise Losts Gothic, The Gatherings Always, and My Dying Brides As the Flower Withers (and some will argue to include Cathedrals debut Forest of Equilibrium, not that its entirely off the mark, but tends more toward a nephew-of-Sabbath retro vibe than anything else) were brusquely serenading many to mournful pastures, but one really couldnt leave out Anathema without some sort of crime being committed. While adding three more minutes to the already interminable staple They Die, the rhythmic charge of the remaining four tracks is more determinable than on their previous vinyl single. Less evasive and tangled are the melodies and drumwork, marching along with a more exacting structural stamp that comes off kinda inflexible, noticeable mostly during Crestfallen in less-than-spectacular fashion, but also within the roar-infested sections of The Sweet Suffering. Darren White often interrupts his mammoth death growl ideology with wontedly spun, gothic interludes that are easily perceptible when thrown against the barbaric (and likely purposeful) ultra-growl of The Sweet Suffering and twined with the same during the stringently paced title cut, a song where the start strays toward an unassuming mid-90s Savatage-ish veil in its spurt of piano-driven elegance, like something off Handful of Rain, but is quickly squashed by not only the aforementioned recurring hip-wader gait, but by a heavy blanket of slowly wrought, near symphonic drear that doesnt stay hidden here, during the anti-pounding parts of The Sweet Suffering, or in opener And I Lust. Then theres the ever-alluring Everwake, the classy, acoustically aired magical rift in the brutish death/doom hemisphere where the Ruth (last nameless) fills a light, keyboard-entranced void with a promise of something beyond the burning cliffs of despair and sledgehammer motif. With next years lovely Jai Fait Une Promesse and In Flames Everlost (Part II) (ever wonder about coincidences?) two years after that, it appears the promise hadnt been broken, let alone forgotten. Instead of a step forward, Anathemas Crestfallen seems to shuffle parallel to itself with a damage report that details a simultaneous regression and progression in accomplishment. While the overall riffage endures in a more prosaic strafing motion, the atmospheric vernacular has a target somewhere nearer to being locked. Whites eroded warble and Ruths serenade keep this from slipping down the percentage ladder from the They Die 7. Still the beginning stages of a promising band.

Track listing:
1. And I Lust
2. The Sweet Suffering
3. Everwake
4. Crestfallen
5. They Die