Eternity

Atmospheric rock, or self-pity rock as I like to call it, is definitely not a favorite style of mine. The bands that exchanged their doom/death metal past for this thing ended up sounding emotionally dull; let alone knew how to rock properly and yet, Anathema somewhat stand out from the crowd. Indeed, as much as I don’t care for this kind of rock, there’s something about Eternity that works.

Despite the lack of old English doom and gloom, Eternity represents a near-hour long experience of emotional turmoil. Vincent Cavanagh has replaced his tormented growls and whiney moans for a nuanced vocal attack. He brings bitter agony, helpless cries and brief moments of hope to the musical table – either by aiming for a distorted yell or a clean, if unrefined vocal line. Yet, Anathema are still spending most of their time in the shades at this point of their career; despite the lack of metallic riffs, the band’s transition is exemplified by the amount of shimmering guitar leads and fragile acoustic fragments that are still reminiscent of the band’s past to a certain degree.

Adjusting their writing chops has clearly made a difference for Anathema and while this band has never been the most efficient in this regard, Eternity works decently enough as a whole. With a good amount of ebb and flow, we’re mostly talking about verse / chorus formats, whereas a few tunes keep progressing forward – rather than relying on a memorable chorus. Whereas the uplifting folky opener of ‘Angelica’ makes a decent opener due to its memorable appeal, the on-going desolated gloom of ‘Radiance’ shows how Anathema keep their grim personality of the past intact; although presented in a different musical package. With that being said, you can still be guaranteed that even a few moments make me scratch my head out of confusion. ‘Suicide Veil’ builds up tension towards a grim crescendo with superb results for a while – only to leave me wondering what the last two minutes of quiet acoustics were meant for. ‘Cries on the Wind’ has some sick psyched guitars hammering down with heavy effects, but I could have done without the vocal poem at the start. But it’s the Roy Harper cover that really leaves an awful taste in my mouth - not only does it lack to contribute to the dramatic journey of Eternity, but it also features Vincent Cavanagh at his worst; straining his way through the track with abysmal effects.

Even so, the best moments of Eternity make up for its weaker moments. ‘The Beloved’ is an up-tempo cut of dramatic narratives, chunky guitars and flashy guitar solos; all delivered within a five minutes and no, you won’t find any of the overlong build ups or bizarre interludes of Anathema’s past anymore. ‘Eternity (Part I)’ sounds both emotionally exhausting and hypnotizing, in which Vincent Cavanagh expresses his battle with his inner demons through his woeful yells; best exemplified by that emotionally heavy bridge before the final chorus appears. ‘Radiance’ reflects little light, but rather expresses itself as a morose balladry of bittersweet guitar chords and a weary vocal performance; as if Vincent Cavanagh accepts the bitter end that fate had in store all along. ‘Eternity (Part III)’ follows suite and it’s another composition of dramatic introspection, lush instrumentation and tormented vocals that become more distorted once the tune progresses.

So there you have it, a fine atmospheric rock album that’s as good as this style gets. Alas, not even Anathema themselves would carry on with this level of consistency and emotional depth. Indeed, the polished ‘rock played in suits’ albums that would soon follow after aren’t my thing - but for what it’s worth, Eternity makes a fine exception to the rule.

If already on The Silent Enigma Anathema had shown traces of an evolution away from their doom-death origins, Eternity is where these tentative developments blossomed into a whole new sound that will form the point of departure of all subsequent Anathema releases. There are three main ingredients to this new sound. First, the songwriting has become leaner. The meandering twin guitar riffs and leads of Serenades are almost completely forgotten. They have made room for riffs and melodies that are more concise and easier to assimilate and memorize. The simple but effective guitar lead on “Angelica” is a great example of this. It’s a very hummable, three-bar guitar lead, repeated over and over again in the breaks between the verses. When put like that, it sounds rather dull, but it’s incredibly effective and crowd-pleasing – if you’ve ever been to an Anathema’s concert you know what I mean!

Second, the timid Pink Floyd influences that at times had already surfaced on previous albums (for example, on The Silent Enigma’s title-track), on Eternity have become much more prominent and unapologetic. In several tracks, the band indulge in creating dreamy, lysergic soundscapes using Gilmouresque guitar leads and cinematic keyboard arrangements, courtesy of adjunct member Les Smith. We get a taste of these influences already on opener “Sentient”, a beautiful instrumental for piano and guitar with sampled voices that is like a testament to the band’s new sound. Even more obvious are the Pink Floyd references on “Eternity Part II” (which could have been taken off The Wall) and especially “Hope”. This is actually a cover of a song that was originally written by David Gilmour for his 1984’s solo album About Face, but then discarded and used instead by singer-songwriter Roy Harper (Harper’s voice can be heard in the speech at the beginning of the track). Anathema’s rendition is actually quite beautiful, powerful and dramatic. These are not the only moments of the album that are reminiscent of Pink Floyd: there are strong Floydian vibes throughout the album, which truly sounds like a strange hybrid between metal and Roger Waters’s iconic band.

The third ingredient in Anathema’s newly-found sound is the blossoming of Vincent Cavanagh as the lead singer of the band. Vincent had already taken over vocal duties from Darren White on The Silent Enigma. However, on that album he was mostly emulating the gruffy, death vocal style of his predecessor. On Eternity instead Vincent tries to actually sing. And what a beautiful effect that has! His tone is deep and dramatic, but warm and soothing at the same time. Occasionally, he still resorts to the gruff vocal style of olden days, but that does not sound out of place at all on the hedgier songs of the album, like “Thy Beloved” or “Eternity Part I”. It’s an overall beautiful performance, which gives an instantaneous melodic accessibility to the music and, in doing so, almost single-handedly elevates Eternity above Anathema’s earlier output.

The new sound that Anathema concocts on Eternity will go far. By combining the gloomy atmospheres of doom metal with accessible riffs, clean vocals, and Floydian dreamscapes, on this album Anathema laid the foundations of the dark progressive rock/metal style that will become a staple of the metal scene in the new millennium. As such, Eternity is truly a seminal album, not only in Anathema’s career, but also in the development of progressive metal in general.

In terms of listening experience, the album features some very strong tracks, but also some weaker ones. Generally speaking, the first half of the album is awesome. “Angelica”. “Eternity Part I & II”, and “Hope” are all amazing songs, full of pathos and substance. The second half is instead weaker and plods a little, with tracks like “Suicide Veil” and “Radiance” resulting rather forgettable. The album closes strongly, though, with “Far Away” - another Anathema’s classic and a staple of their live shows - and “Eternity Part III”.

It’s this unevenness in the quality of the songs that prevents me from giving a higher rating to Eternity. Nevertheless, Anathema’s third studio full-length remains a landmark in the band’s career as well as an iconic album in the doom and progressive metal scene, and therefore it is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in getting to know either scene.

There was this friend of mine who loved “The Silent Enigma”, the band’s sophomore, so much that he carried the cassette in his pocket, ready to play it wherever he came across a cassette recorder. Because of his pure devotion to this enigma I knew this album by heart without even physically possessing the recording. I had the band’s debut “Serenades”, though, but only cause someone forgot the tape in my house after a party, and never came back to look for it.

Good for me as I liked this first instalment, too, but not to the extent that I would make the effort to track it down and purchase it. Actually, I dug Anathema’s early, more death-prone repertoire but I was sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the band would be carried away by the softening tendency in the doom/death metal camp which took quite a few victims (Theatre of Tragedy, Cemetary, Sentenced, Amorphis, Paradise Lost, Katatonia, etc.) in the mid-90’s.

In other words, the appearance of the opus reviewed here was quite timely, and it also generated a fair amount of positive, if not even glowing on occasion, reviews upon release. Naturally, that friend of mine bought the album and the cassette fell into my hands in due time. Truth be told, I didn’t find the approach drastically different from the one on its predecessor, with a fairly similar atmospheric layout and ephemeral introspective sprawls, but the adherence to the good old doom wasn’t as big, the guys trying to phase out the metallic clout, not very insistently at this stage, but still.

I didn’t spend too much time with it at the time to ruminate profoundly over its pitfalls and shortcomings, and it was quite a few years later when this girl gave me the band’s discography with alternatives, judgements and other stuff accumulated through the subsequent years… the effort here as well. In view of the melancholic, leisurely style the guys epitomized on later recordings, it doesn’t sound too flat and blasé, to be honest, but it’s really far from the masterpiece status a lot of people swear it has acquired.

Energy and dynamics can’t possibly be the name of the game here as quite early it becomes clear that the album will stick to laid-back mellow vistas; you can’t spend 3-min of serene meditative ambience on the opening track (the instrumental “Sentient”) and later make the neighbourhood mosh with passion, can you? No, you can’t, and this is far from Vincent Cavanagh and Co.’s agenda here the latter firmly expressed by the balladic quasi-doom layout of “Angelica” and the marginally livelier psychedelic sentimentality of “The Beloved”. Still, the album tries to hold to the frayed ends of the good old doom with rowdier excursions like “Eternity (Part I)” and “Hope” but those are not gestures of despair, no; the ship has already sailed and those cuts are simply respectful nods to a past that is not distant at all at this stage. Once said nods have gone the guys don’t have to pretend that they’re the most devout doom champions anymore, and tranquillity gets instilled through more balladic vistas on “Radiance” and “Suicide Veil” although “Far Away” insists on pointing out that the past doomy repertoire is still more than just a fading memory, transferring its congenial seismicity to “Eternity (Part III)” which even grows into a brief up-tempo passage towards the end.

Transitional recordings invariably have their flaws, and the one here is by no means devoid of them; the sense of composure and equanimity already started settling in in the band’s repertoire on the previous outing, but here it has overtaken the entire setting, making the doomy emergencies just more or less necessary signs of rebellion. It’s definitely good to have those around but once reduced to a mere side-dish, their significance becomes disputable way before the end. Cavanagh does his best to fit into this newly epitomized, not very climactic approach, and he delivers most of the time although his not excessively passionate, mid-ranged baritone would have benefitted from a couple of more attached, pathos-like embellishments; just imagine what a jackpot the band would have hit if The Gathering’s Anneke van Giersbergen had taken the space behind the mike, and had unleashed her dramatic, highly emotional croon over these smoothly flowing, not very eventful meditative soundscapes…

mentioning The Gathering, the album here sounds like the go-between between the Dutch’s “Nighttime Birds” and “How to Measure a Planet”; not as seepingly atmospheric and boisterously doomy as the former, but decidedly superior to the serene listlessness of the latter. Yes, the tides were changing, and practitioners from all corners of the world rushed to adapt to them… adapt or die; and no one wants to die young, that’s for sure. So why this doom and this death then? Why not shed them, any which way we can…

I discovered Anathema through the map of metal. A site which chronicles all the genres of heavy metal music. "Alternative 4" was the first album I bought and heard by them and it sounded great. Considering I was still discovering more gothic metal bands at the time, I decided to dig deeper into Anathema's discography. The next album I heard was this album "Eternity" an album that is rarely been talked about even in the underground. When I first heard "Eternity", it was by far the greatest sounding album I have ever heard since discovering gothic metal through Type O Negative. There are few words to describe "Eternity." It left me speechless and empowered and its not only tied as my all time favorite metal album, but the album never gets old whenever I listen to this in its entirety. "Eternity" is definitely a hidden gem of gothic metal and often overlooked as a doom metal album. Of all of Anathema's music, "Eternity" is their best work, and shows a lot of passion, sensitivity, and atmosphere that seemed almost flawless. I'm here to say that "Eternity" is one of the most essential and underrated gothic metal albums to listen to.

Anathema's third album "Eternity" was a big departure from the band's previous album. It was the album for which the band starts to abandon their death-doom sound. However, that did not hinder the band as "Eternity" was the album for which they found their true form. It added more keyboards, it was melancholic, and from front to back Vincent Cavanagh found its original sound as a vocalist. It has a lot of atmosphere and depression that also seemed empowering to listen to. I figured I would get do a more detailed review of the first review I ever did on the metal archives "Eternity."

The music for "Eternity" is masterful. As mentioned before it has a lot of atmosphere that are so depressing and very memorable to listen to. It has more piano parts to it too especially from the first instrumental song "Sentient" which sounds so beautiful and simple. Throughout, the album is very depressing from its aggressive songs like "The Beloved", "Eternity Pt. 1", and "Eternity Pt. 3" to its slower Songs like "Radiance", and "Suicide Veil." The combination of the sad acoustic/clean guitars, the heavy metal guitars, and powerful keyboards are phenomenal in every Song. Another great highlight on the album is Duncan Patterson's use of chorus bass guitar. Since listening to "Eternity," I have become obsessed with the use of chorus bass guitar just by how it resonates really well with depressing gothic metal such as this. The use of chorus is also commonly heard in the electric guitars as well. It just sounds very dark and crisp, and throughout both the chorus guitar and bass guitar has great unison with the use of distortion guitar. Even when I don't hear any singing or lyrics, the guitars itself is very depressing just by listening to "Suicide Veil," and "Radiance." Another fantastic highlight in "Eternity" is the use of synthesizers/keyboards. From its beautiful piano parts, the gothic sounding organ heard in "Far Away," to the atmospheric landscapes of sound effects heard in songs like "Hope," "Eternity Pt. 2," and "Radiance", the keyboards was everything in "Eternity" and gave Anathema more depth, depression, and darkness. While keyboards have been heard in Anathema's previous music, "Eternity" was the album where it really excels. "Eternity" practically excels everywhere in its musical direction when looking from a gothic metal perspective. It was all done near perfect, and really shows a lot of power and art into everything musically.

Vincent Cavanagh as singer instead of being the extreme metal vocalist in the previous album is also a fantastic highlight for "Eternity." Cavanagh really shows its melancholic side in the entirety of the album. It also shows his most powerful singing. When Anathema covered the Roy Harper Song "Hope," Vincent sings high for this Song especially for his tenor range. He even sings even higher in "Suicide Veil" where it showed a lot pain and emotion to the climax of the Song. Vincent's most dirtiest singing are well executed as well from listening to "Eternity Pt. 1", and "Eternity Pt. 3." "Eternity" was definitely the album where Vincent truly found his voice, and he would continue to use this voice throughout the majority of their future albums.

"Eternity" is also lyrically clever and depressing. The majority of the lyrics are written by Duncan Patterson who has written some of my favorite songs from "The Silent Enigma." Some of its lyrics are also unique in a gothic perspective. From lines like "Wild Flower and Starlit heaven", "A Vestal child unveiled by temptation", and "I danced with the shadows, In Tranquil chaos, I lie naked in the rain." These lyrics are very dark and original and gives the album a lot of senstivity that also give Vincent Cavanagh's singing much more passion and depth. Even in the albums most instrumental sounding albums have some really great lines that give the Songs more atmosphere like in Sentient ("At the edge of the universe, there are a million angels") and Eternity Pt. 2 (Destiny, Infinity, Eternity). From front to back I can easily remember the lyrics off of "Eternity," because of how deep the lyrics sounds, and how sensitive it manages to be combined with its music.

Compared to my all time favorite gothic metal albums like Type O Negative's "October Rust" and "Bloody Kisses", Draconian's "Arcane Rain Fell", Tiamat's "Wildhoney" and My Dying Bride's "Turn Loose the Swans", "Eternity" stands as one of the greatest metal albums I have ever heard. It is currently tied with "Arcane Rain Fell" as my all time favorite metal albums, and it is an album that still gives me goosebumps to this day. It inspired me as a singer, and a gothic metal fan. In fact, I performed a short version of "Far Away" from one of my ensemble classes show. "Eternity" is an album that can NEVER EVER be ignored. It remains hidden from gothic metal and inspired many other bands to create some depressing and atmospheric metal along with "The Silent Enigma." If Type O Negative was the band that defined gothic metal, Anathema was the band that turned the genre to deeper, and powerful avenues with "Eternity." I think we're forever.

Eternity sees Anathema continuing their transition from a straight-up doom/death metal project to a more doom-influenced rock band. Moments of pure doom are few and far between on the LP, though that is not to say that it is not an overall strong and worthy addition to Anathema’s important influence on heavy music.

Lyrically, Eternity is more introspective and gloomy than previous albums, bringing a sense of anguish to Vincent’s deep croon. His excellent (if sometimes forced) vocals perfectly accompany the dense atmosphere and depressing motifs of the LP. The album takes hold of the listener, keeps them down amidst a sea of woe, and does not relinquish its grasp until the vaguely uplifting instrumental, “Ascension.”

Danny Cavanaugh shares keyboard duties with Les Smith on Eternity, and the two perfectly accentuate the gloomy atmosphere of the guitar work. This effortless symbiosis between synth and guitar produces a startling effect. This is definitely a different, yet eternally sad Anathema.

Stand-outs include “Angelica” and “Cries On the Wind,” as both tracks evoke the selfsame despair and despondency. “Angelica” has a triumphantly melancholy melody that is as catchy as it is sad, while “Cries…” arguably showcases some of Vincent Cavanaugh’s best vocals⎯his desperate whisper compelling and dark.

Though heavy and brooding, the overall sound of Eternity is not what one would classify “heavy metal.” The snail-paced, death-influenced doom of yore is defunct. Anathema play a sort of mid-tempo shoegaze style here⎯with heavier guitars and drums. This may not appeal to diehard fans of the original lineup’s output. However, for fans of depressing music, heavy metal or no, it’s hard to argue with the shear emotive and oppressive power of Eternity.

Eternity. The album that left behind all the roots of the band’s past, left behind the reason due to which the band had gained so much fame, the past I speak about here is the time when the band played Doom. This album onwards the band opted for a more atmospheric and alternative rock approach. I personally like the band’s new genre and taste for music because I personally never liked their earlier works. Even though this album certainly isn’t the band’s best work in their new catalogue this certainly is one of their best.

The versatility of this band is amazing and this is truly portrayed through out this album. Slow acoustic tracks, heavier, faster paced electric guitar based tracks, instrumentals, this release alone has them all. Take the intro to each track for example, you have them being performed once on the acoustic guitar, once on the electric guitar, the next one on the bass guitar and one even using mild and subtle touches of orchestration!

Vincent Cavanagh, the lead singer and guitarist of this band is quite easily the one who steals the spotlight here. It’s not that the others have done a bad or mediocre job, hell they’ve done a great job but Vincent’s extraordinary talent to do extremely well with the guitars as well as perform unimaginably well with the vocals and compose the lyrics to the tracks make him the stand out musician here.

Good lyrics are very important in atmospheric release like these and the lyrics surely don’t disappoint. Lyrics often create a thought evoking atmosphere, and with lyrics like these who can blame anyone? –

“I've been in tears
Hope has dies in me
But now I'm here, I don't wish to leave

Trapped in time
A miracle of hope and change
A swirling mass, no mercy now
If the truth hurts prepare for pain

Do you think we're forever?
The unseen, the eternal river of understanding
Persevering, dying escape
Forever tempting fate
Take me back

A flood of tears bonding my soul with my mind
A dream of love, reality closing in behind
As I close my eyes, the vision dies
As I bid my last farewell to mankind” – Eternity, Part 1

“Been down so long
too deep the water that I tread
Sometimes I feel myself going under
sometimes I envy the dead
so take me far away” – Far Away

The vocals are what require special mention here. Vincent doesn’t always very emotional lyrics to touch the heart and create the atmosphere he wants. Take these lyrics for example: -

“Everything that I've ever felt has gone,
At last my spirit breaths
I see no point in going on
So goodbye... It's time for me to leave” - The Beloved

These lyrics, even though aren’t as special as those I already mentioned, it’s Vincent’s amazing calming and massively ranged vocal skills that make up for the not-so-special lyrics.

The bass guitar, which is taken care of by Duncan Patterson, plays a prominent role in creating the atmosphere the band intends to and he is fabulously well partnered by the keyboards, piano, mild orchestration and the female vocalist Michelle Richfield of Dominion who together complete each other so well that they create the best atmosphere possible.

This is an album that one can hear again and again tirelessly and never be disappointed no matter how many times he listens to it. It’s the amazing blends of Vincent’s vocals, lyrics, work with the guitar and his arrangement of band members so as to complete one another that makes Anathema the best atmospheric rock band to hit the musical industry in recent memory.

Highlights – Angelica, Far Away, Sentient, Hope, Eternity (Parts 1 and 3)

P.S: - If possible lay your hands on the limited digipack edition of this release because it contains 2 acoustic remakes of the tracks, Eternity Part 3 and Far Away. These tracks consist of nothing but an acoustic guitar backed by the bass guitar at times and Vincent’s amazing vocals, the atmosphere created must be heard to be believed and are a must hear for any fan of this band.

Re-written on 5th August 2008.

There are many reasons as to why Anathema’s ‘Eternity’ record is important to the music industry, but is it any good? Having heard it several times now, I can shrug off the feeling of disappointment. In general, the reviews for this record on Metal Archives and other sites are relatively positive if not full of praise for this record. I, on the other hand, am resentful of it, in a way. Of course, it is the first major transformation of the band, but considering how talented these musicians are, ‘Eternity’ seems to be one step too far, too soon. It is a case of trying to run before you can crawl. Disappointment is the main feeling I have whenever I hear ‘Eternity’. It’s a lot more atmospherically driven than the older material, the death and doom crossover material. I find that strange, in a sense. Why? Because doom especially is known for its crushing atmospheres. It is a highly atmospheric genre that tends to sweep its audience up in one foul swoop and consume them with either A) Its beauty or B) Its heaviness. Whilst one could argue that there is still a doom influence on this record, the death influence is gone.

Considering I’m not the biggest fan of death metal, that’s not a negative in any way, shape or form for me but I could understand someone feeling fairly upset at the lack of influence from the death metal genre. Anathema are now tagged atmospheric rock and that is a very apt description of their music. The metal has all but been drained from this band, which isn’t a shame, but it means that this new look Anathema rely on a lot of new traits that some people might not like. For example, the band’s vocals have drastically changed. With the more mellow sound coming to the foreground, with use of acoustics and such to bring it forward, the vocals needed to change. They still have that haunting feel from earlier works, but they’re clean. Very clean. They’re very emotive, which is wonderful. I was afraid, on the initial listen, that the vocals would upset the balance that Anathema had set themselves, but that isn’t the case. Even the use of female vocals, which only occasionally come into play, are perfect beside this new approach. However, as I know all too well, good vocals don’t make good music. The lyrics aren’t particularly bad though as we can see:

“Been down so long
Too deep the water that I tread
Sometimes I feel myself going under
Sometimes I envy the dead

So take me far away.”

‘Eternity’ does showcase similar sounding guitars that were used on the previous effort ‘’The Silent Enigma’. The guitars have that very spaced out feel to them. They continue to stand out amongst some very solid song writing. However, the problems is not the overall sound of the guitars because that’s fine, it is the riffs themselves. Along with the bass, the riffs aren’t particularly inspiring. One may even consider them boring in comparison to the old crushing sounds one has become accustomed to. Whilst they may be accessible due to the lesser sound than on previous efforts, they lack the edge that once made Anathema a very enjoyable outfit. Song structures don’t seem to be as well polished as they once were. I do know for a fact that Anathema have sorted out their style, which is pleasing, but this is still a grey spot for me. Whilst songs like ‘Hope’, minus the mildly tedious intro, are fantastic, there are far too many laboured songs. ‘Hope’ is fantastic for its amazing bass lines that outshine every other aspect of the music, for once, but one song does not make a good album. There also seem to be too many filler tracks, which serve little purpose on this album. The main worry, when I initially heard this record, was that Anathema weren’t capable of completely ridding themselves of the metal genre, and that they would be stuck in limbo, which is what this record seems to be.

Thankfully that isn’t the case, but this record seems to suggest that, at one time or another, Anathema were unclear on the direct they wanted to take. Which is, of course, why ‘Eternity’ sounds directionless on occasions. Whilst there is a good use of bass, at times, and the vocals are particularly pleasing, there are too many ‘nothing’ aspects. The guitars are uninspired for large parts, the drums are lazy and lack invention and finally, the atmospheric styling that the instruments create can sometimes feel out of place, which hinders the progress of the music itself. Atmosphere is apparently high on the agenda of this band, but Anathema have made mistakes on where to focus their attentions. The mellow sound is only just being developed by Anathema and is not at its strongest, so I can understand why this may not be my favourite Anathema record as it is the beginnings of a very experimental era for the British act.

This is the “departure” release that so many bands have. It’s the one where the style changes or the vocals change or the song writing changes, etc… On this there is a bit of everything mentioned above.

The production is good, better than ‘The Silent Enigma’ and the song writing is amazing. The vocals are clean straight through with perhaps some gruffer semi-Thrash inspired moments here and there.

Musically one could argue that this is a logical progression from ‘The Silent Enigma’, but one could also argue that there are a few records missing in between to allow acclimation for such an abrupt change. The guitars sound as though they’ve been tuned up to either standard or ‘D’ (Everything from the ‘Crest Fallen’ EP through ‘The Silent Enigma’ was in ‘B’).

The guitars are still undeniably catchy yet have that confounding atmospheric presence that is perhaps used to its fullest on this release. There are some solos (more leads really) here and there. There is a sufficient amount of crunch thrown in as well. After this release they stopped utilizing their signature two guitar harmonies.

The bass has a very interesting tone to it, somewhat comparable to the bass tone heard on Paradise Losts’ ‘One Second’, but unlike PL’s Gothic foray, this is more organic and really suits the music. The drums are a little on the minimalistic side but manage to add to the over all depressive sound (this is also the last album where two bass drums are used as well.)

Lyrically this album is once again a progression as they are perhaps more relevant to everyday life and a little less abstract as on prior releases. It’s a tough call on what to label this release as its very Goth inspired. The speeds of the songs are more in the Doom realm but the mood and atmosphere simply scream Goth Metal. Perhaps simply calling it Gothic/Doom Metal would suffice.

Despite what some would tell you this is very guitar driven recording. The melodies and vocals are very haunting and rather ethereal at times. This is also the bands last Metal release (its follow up ‘Alternative 4’ has some Metal in it, but it’s more on the dark alternative side of music.) This is a beautiful piece of original music and worthy of your money.

When this album came out in 1997 there were a lot of very disappointed and angry fans. There still are, because this album is definitely the major turning point for Anathema going from their extreme doom roots, a sound they performed remarkably, to this more progressive gothic infused style.
This album is a journey through the emotionally distraught mind of this band. From the beginning of the album you just get this sense of despair and you know you are in for a passage through depths where few wish to dwell. Actually you could get this feeling before you even put the disc in, when you see the distressed look of a woman sitting over a child’s death bed. Lyrically this album explores the melancholy one feels as their lives are torn apart by lost love, acts of betrayal, and general misery that occurs. There is such emotion displayed in the lyrics on this album that it would be quite disturbing if they weren’t writing directly from their hearts. Musically there is a major 70’s progressive feel to it. They definitely wear their influences of Pink Floyd and Moody Blues (especially when they utilize epic spoken word parts) on their sleeve, yet they are still able to define a sound that is their own. The songs on this album range from slow to mid-paced and are pretty solo laden. There is a solid mix of acoustic and electric sounds, and of course, a solid dose of keys (several times in the form of classical piano).

Vincent Cavanagh puts out one of the greatest vocal performances in this style of music I’ve ever heard. He is able to portray great sadness and power, much like the legendary Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters. At points during ‘The Suicide Veil’ I think that you could easily convince someone that it was indeed Mr.Waters blasting out those tormented yet beautiful clean vocals. Don’t get me wrong though Vinny still holds his own sound firmly on this album, and I think he is one of the best vocalists within metal today.

Overall there isn’t much actual complexity in the composition of this album, but the overall atmosphere it creates overshadows any downfall I could pick out. This album is absolutely amazing and is essential to any fan of the more melodic yet very dark side of metal.

Anathema have pretty well abandoned most of their old doom-death roots with this release, Eternity. A few roots still remain but not enough to consider it as much of a doom album in the vein of the previous classic The Silent Enigma. Instead we are treated with more experimental, spacey type of progressive music which sounds somewhat influenced by Pink Floyd in a less metallic manner. In other words dont expect a heavy guitar driven metal album. This album would be better classified as dark beauty. The vocals are pretty well all in some form of clean singing or spoken vocals. I believe they have really improved their vocals in this aspect from their previous release The Silent Enigma. Much more atmospheric is this release, although in a different way from their previous style. Anyone looking solely for heavy, slower doom riffs will not find much comfort in this release. Relies on more of a mixture of melodic guitars. Clean electric, acoustic are used quite often as well as a few excellent lead harmonies(Angelica).

The sound in general is much softer but still can easily be considered a dark, sorrowful album. Has the occassional chaotic screams which compliment the music great(Suicide Veil) but its main strength over the older albums is well produced, well played variety of instruments. They use keyboards and other atmosphere to make up for the lack of distorted intensity on this release present in older albums. Anathema took a huge step and a chance on this CD. It is great music, very good songs, no filler but could be seen as totally alienating the doom-death fanbase they created and continue do so more of this with later rock albums. I consider this a very good CD, one of Anathema's best and would recommend it to anyone not just looking for heavy metal.

Favorite tracks : Angelica, Eternity pt 2, Far Away,