Anathema

[Travis The Dragon]

Some time back, a friend on Facebook introduced me to this amazing band. The 2 albums I've heard so far are Judgement and Weather Systems. I VERY VERY VERY highly recommend checking them out! I'll post a couple of my favorite songs from them.

 

[Brigantium]

I can never make up my mind about Anathema. I really like some of their early stuff, but several albums later I think I just got tired of them. I might revisit them and see what they've done lately. They're one of the bands I get publicity material for at work.

 

[SixesAlltheway]

I'm in the same camp as Brigantium. One side of me realizes that they make some very beautiful music but the other side of me is just bored as hell whenever I listen to them...

 

[Eddie's Uncle]

Really surprised to see an Anathema thread here. As I am a Doom Metal musician, this band was quite important to me in their early days. Their first three albums were milestones of Doom, and also the Pentecost III EP.
The 4th album was not Doom anymore but still is a master piece.
They lost me after it, though. I had little interest in Fine Day to Exit and everything after it. I can respect the quality of the music though.

They unfortunately also were one of those bands who just can't simply develop into something different (which would of course be fine). No, they also had to constantly piss over their Metal fans. Why not just move on and be grateful that Metal fans started your career? Why not be happy that people still enjoy your old stuff, even if you don't like it anymore? But no, instead they keep telling everyone to this day how stupid Metal is, and how dumb the fans are.
I saw them live last time on the Exit tour, and they publically mocked a fan in the audience who had asked for "Sleepless". Unnecessary.
I never met them in person, but I know a dozen people who did, and Anneke Van Giersbergen was actually the only one who had something positive to say about Danny Cavanagh. That guy also claimed to be the inventor of modern Doom Metal, and he called my buddy Kostas from Pantheist a dumb idiot just because he said Anathema were more interesting as a Doom band.
If things that Duncan Pettersson and Darren White told backstage are true, Cavanagh belongs in prison, actually. But it's hearsay, so I choose to believe in innocence until proven otherwise.
All in all, it taints their music for me.
Every time I listen to the great old albums, I need to remind myself that they were different, cool people back then.
It's really sad, because Silent Enigma is such a great album. I owe so much to that record.

 

[AncientMariner_Essex]

Really surprised to see an Anathema thread here. As I am a Doom Metal musician, this band was quite important to me in their early days. Their first three albums were milestones of Doom, and also the Pentecost III EP.
The 4th album was not Doom anymore but still is a master piece.
They lost me after it, though. I had little interest in Fine Day to Exit and everything after it. I can respect the quality of the music though.

They unfortunately also were one of those bands who just can't simply develop into something different (which would of course be fine). No, they also had to constantly piss over their Metal fans. Why not just move on and be grateful that Metal fans started your career? Why not be happy that people still enjoy your old stuff, even if you don't like it anymore? But no, instead they keep telling everyone to this day how stupid Metal is, and how dumb the fans are.
I saw them live last time on the Exit tour, and they publically mocked a fan in the audience who had asked for "Sleepless". Unnecessary.
I never met them in person, but I know a dozen people who did, and Anneke Van Giersbergen was actually the only one who had something positive to say about Danny Cavanagh. That guy also claimed to be the inventor of modern Doom Metal, and he called my buddy Kostas from Pantheist a dumb idiot just because he said Anathema were more interesting as a Doom band.
If things that Duncan Pettersson and Darren White told backstage are true, Cavanagh belongs in prison, actually. But it's hearsay, so I choose to believe in innocence until proven otherwise.
All in all, it taints their music for me.
Every time I listen to the great old albums, I need to remind myself that they were different, cool people back then.
It's really sad, because Silent Enigma is such a great album. I owe so much to that record.

Interesting post.

I was a massive anathema fan back in the day. Just as my taste in metal was edging towards the more extreme styles along comes the debut albums from the likes of my dying bride and Anathema. These blew my mind and along with paradise lost and decomposed I was totally into the whole doom/death scene.

Being from the uk I was fortunate enough to see these bands live quite easily on their earliest tours. I remember watching anathema live at the local music venue in my home town in Essex on a midweek school night lol. They had literally only just released serenades and I felt sorry for them as no one was at the venue apart from me and my mates (8 of us if I remember). They played a full set put loads of effort in and then came and hung out with us after. I’d just bought a serenades t-shirt and a copy of their demo (all faith is lost I think) and they all signed the tape inlay sleeve lol.

They all seemed like great guys. I was gutted when Darren white left but really enjoyed the silent enigma and was hopeful for their future. Alternative 4 was their last great album and as much as I tried I just couldn’t get into anything after this.

I also remember going to an all day death/black metal concert held in the back room of a pub called the Dublin castle in Camden, London. I can’t remember but I think this was just after Darren white left and the rest of Anathema where there and played a set but not as anathema. They were wearing corpse paint and played under the band name Megiddo.

Funny to think of them all being so anti metal in their later career as they were very much into the whole scene and their early interviews spoke about their love of metal.