A Fine Day to Exit

And then came perfection: A Fine Day to Exit is my personal favorite album of Anathema – and indeed one of my favorite albums of all time. It is one of those rare records where everything just falls into place: the concept, the songs, the production, and the overall ebb and flow of the album, which makes it impossible not to listen to the whole thing in one mesmerizing sitting, over and over again.

The powerful concept hits the listener immediately from the front cover, designed by renowned artist Travis Smith. Through a car windshield, we see the view of a deserted beach leading into the sea. Scattered across the sand, the shoes and clothes of a man. A cell phone with a missed call and a family portrait lie in the car dashboard, next to two empty cans of beer and a post-it that reads: “A fine day to exit”. Impossible not to fear the worst: a man has taken his own life. But, as we open the gatefold CD booklet, a second pane unfolds to complement the front-cover picture: here, we see more landscape, a bottle of whisky, a gun and, reflected in the rearview mirror, the eyes of the man – alive. It’s such a powerful change of perspective on the whole story that never fails to move me each time I open the booklet. And it is a most fitting visual representation of the album’s poignant concept of struggle and rebirth, of the pain of hitting the bottom and the staggering realization that it’s possible to come back up, that we do have that inner strength in us.

This message of darkness and light is perfectly translated into sound by the band. A Fine Day to Exit retains the dark, melancholic mood of its predecessors (Judgment, Alternative 4), but it assuages it with soothing tones of hope. The album is a fantastic emotional rollercoaster, moving from tense, sinister pieces like “Pressure” and “Panic”, to downright depressive songs like “Leave No Trace” and “Underworld”, to more peaceful moments (“Barriers”; “A Fine Day to Exit”; “Temporary Peace”). This variation of moods and atmospheres traces a beautiful arc of emotions that perfectly captures the album’s concept of struggle, heartbreak and eventual healing and release. Most importantly, the sequencing of songs, and the way each piece naturally flows into the next, provide a strong sense of progression that continuously propels the album forward, like in a novel or in a movie, making A Fine Day to Exit a compelling album to listen through from start to finish.

The individual songs themselves are beautiful pieces of music. Anathema had been experimenting with dynamics and post-rock crescendos since their very early albums, and on A Fine Day to Exit they finally show that they have mastered these techniques. The songs move seamlessly between quiet parts, with acoustic guitars or piano, and louder sections with guitar distortion, drums and shouted vocals – reproducing within each track the contrasting flurry of emotions that characterizes the album. Although each track contains verses and choruses, the distinction between these lies more in the loudness and intensity of the music than in what’s being played. This is a trick Anathema use frequently through the album: the piano/guitar riffs often change only slightly between verses and choruses, and the main difference lies instead in Vincent Cavanagh’s vocal lines and how loud each part is played. This gives the songs a circular feel, almost like if they were in constant flux, which contributes to the hypnotic, magnetizing quality of the album.

Every song is a highlight of its own, but if I were to point out the most outstanding moments of the album I would single out the initial duo “Pressure”/“Release”, which are a fantastic way to open the album – their compelling, tense mood providing the perfect way to captivate and draw in the listener. “Leave No Trace” is another amazing track, very downcast and heartrending. “Panic” stands out for being the fastest track of the album and for Vincent’s quick-fire singing that gives the song a punkish edge. The closing pair “A Fine Day to Exit”/ “Temporary Peace” is another standout moment of the album – the calm, cathartic closing melody of the latter being a particularly high-point of Anathema’s discography. But there are really no weak tracks or fillers here, not a single note on the album that I would rather skip or change.

In this respect, the album’s production is top-notch. On A Fine Day to Exit, Anathema recurred to the services of Nick Griffiths – renown for co-producing Roger Waters’s solo albums as well as engineering Pink Floyd’s most iconic release “The Wall”. To these ears, the album’s sound is fantastic. It is deep, dark and lush, and it strikes a great balance between heavier and softer moments. There is a lot of emphasis on the use of piano as lead instrument – more so than on every other Anathema’s release. There is also a fair share of programmed loops, sound effects and samples (I love the sampled vocals intertwined with the guitar solo on “Pressure”), which add to the special mystique of the album. The guitar sound also deserves praise, particularly the balance between acoustic and distorted guitars achieved on tracks like “Release” and “Looking Outside Inside”. Most importantly, the production managed to give the music that elusive quality of being layered, classy and complex while at the same time retaining the immediacy and accessibility of pop music. To some, this will make A Fine Day to Exit a non-metal album, and that’s probably right: the metallic content of the album is fairly thin, and the album falls more into the camp of dark, atmospheric rock and not too far away from what Radiohead were trying to do at the time. Personally, whether this is a metal album or not does not matter the slightest to me – as long as the music is as good as this.

All in all, I consider A Fine Day to Exit the apex of Anathema’s discography - the band’s own “The Wall”, so to speak. It contains many of Anathema’s most memorable songs; it has a strong concept that is perfectly converted into music; and it has a great sound overall. The album unfortunately did not get the success it deserved, mainly because it was released at a time where the band had already lost many of their early-day metal fans (who probably said farewell to Anathema around the time Alternative 4 came out) and still had not gained traction in progressive rock circles (where the band will obtain accolades in the following decade, with the release of We’re Here Because We’re Here and Weather Systems). With hindsight, however, A Fine Day to Exit is where Anathema truly matured into an entity that transcended the boundaries of heavy metal to become a significant force in contemporary rock music. I highly recommend the album to fans of any genre. This is a masterpiece.

There have been several points in Anathema's career (at this point probably at least four), where you could speak of a "significant change of style" or whatever, but if I had to point out the big one, it's definitely this album. I can imagine it must have been quite a shock after Judgement, which was overwhelmingly melancholic for the most part, but still based mostly on rather metal riffs. And then, this album comes out and destroys the world: essentially zero metal riffing is left, the obvious and heavy melancholy is replaced by a more alternative "bittersweet" style, and overall, what is this? Where is the doom and gloom, guys?

I listened to this one from a bit of a different perspective, and I have to say that A Fine Day to Exit is extremely high on my personal list of "underrated" albums, though in fact "forgotten" would be the most appropriate. It's not even one of those albums people seem to regularly argue over or anything, it's just... lost or something. It's hardly ever mentioned by anyone, not that much of it is played live for some reason, even the reviews below are few and short... it's a bit of a strange treatment for an album which was basically a revolution and something completely different. And those usually evoke strong feelings even a long time after: think of Host for example.

Either way, this album is nine songs which, while pretty diverse, are a pretty coherent construction altogether. The beginning is an idea the band seems to enjoy very much (as something similar has appeared on pretty much every of their albums since), the kind of "brother/sister" tracks Pressure and Release. The former is a simple and poppy, but incredibly catchy and charming rock song; it just slowly walks forward driven by piano and subtle guitars, ending with a very nice guitar solo, which all form a deceptively happy atmosphere. It flows directly into Release, which is a darker-sounding track with a pretty addictive acoustic guitar riff and chorus, then transforming into some slightly heavier, alternative rock riffing.

The rest of the album works in a similar way, constantly shifting between a superficially light and happy sound and darker, more minor-sounding tracks with slightly heavier riffs. A track which is a bit different, however, is Panic. Slightly similar to the second half of the title track of Judgement, it drives forward with an insane tempo of both riffs and vocals (two full pages of lyrics in a tiny font for a 3-minute track), and is a lot of fun to listen to. Another very noteworthy track, in my opinion, is Barriers: a very interesting "ballad" sung by Daniel Cavanagh and Lee Douglas, which sounds pretty much unlike any other Anathema song. Similarly to Parisienne Moonlight from Judgement, this is the only track sung entirely by them on the album, and there may be a slight resemblance in the beginning, but eventually it explodes into a much more dramatic wall of sound of guitars, somewhat complex drumming, and Lee's vocals.

The two closing tracks deserve some special attention in my opinion: the title track is an incredibly atmospheric and powerful song, which, unlike the other songs on the album, doesn't hide its sadness beneath the surface. The dark, repetitive acoustic guitar intro and Vincent Cavanagh's desperate-sounding vocals have an immediate power, as the song builds up into an even more dramatic, heavier ending... which flows directly into one of my most beloved songs ever created: Temporary Peace. I believe this is a song which you simply have to "feel"; for some it's simply an acoustic ballad, but it has an incredible atmosphere and beauty which I find difficult to describe, in a significant part thanks to wonderful vocals of Vincent and Lee, as well as Danny's amazing, subtle guitar soundscapes. (Oh, and the outro has 13 minutes. It's an experience worth going through at least once, but keep in mind that nothing will be the same afterwards. But do it for the dogs and the cats. And the chickens.)

The "alternative rock pretending to be happy" meets "Anathema doing melancholy" style of A Fine Day to Exit is quite different from pretty much every one of the band's other albums. Everything is seemingly in place: Vincent alternating between subtle and more powerful singing (which, as always, is one of the strongest points of the album) as well as providing energetic riffs, Danny's melodic, emotional leads and solos, John's tasteful drumming, with Les Smith adding atmospheric keyboards (the bass is rather hidden throughout most of the album). On the surface, nothing new. However, many things are played in a lighter, seemingly happier way, which changes the entire sound. Lyrically, this album is in no way more optimistic than Judgement (try Leave No Trace for example, which sounds like a light semi-acoustic track after the heavy intro), and yet Anathema will keep trying to deceive you that the music is... but nevertheless, even the most seemingly light-hearted tracks sound like if they're hiding something beneath the surface. I believe that an important factor is that more songs than usual were written by the drummer John Douglas, as his style is a little different and recognisable (for example, in retrospect I'd say that The Storm Before The Calm from the recent Weather Systems does resemble Looking Outside Inside a little).

This album is a very strange, and yet very interesting creation; I got very curious about it exactly because it had seemed to me that nobody ever mentioned it, and I keep returning to it since. This is still definitely Anathema, but a different Anathema than on any of their other releases. The band's strongest point and defining factor, the atmosphere, is still here in as large amounts as always, and this time it's complimented by the weird paradox of instantly catchy songs which require time to get into; while not all of them are perfect, pretty much all of them have a growing potential and are very enjoyable. I hope this will end up being one of the albums that get the deserved recognition after a longer time, as it pretty much created the path for the Anathema that exists now. It's not absolute perfection (unlike its successor), but it has its magic and feel which is one of a kind.

Although I still don't know what happened to the chickens.

I will admit first of all, that I am one of the late comers when it comes to Anathema. By late comer I mean that I did not begin listening to them until this year. I made attempts to listen to their older releases back in the day, but I was expecting another band that was similar to My Dying Bride and I simply could not get into them. A friend suggested I listen to Anathema's later releases comparing them to Katatonia and Thine. Naturally, being a fan of both bands I decided to give Anathema a fair chance.

There are very few albums that I can view in this way. This way meaning that I view Anathema's "A Fine Day to Exit" as a piece of art. ON this album you hear beautifully crafted pieces of music. There is brilliant use of piano and acoustic guitars that provides the listener with a delicate foundation.

Added to the mix are memorable lead guitar melodies that are pleasant to the ear and support the foundation of the record. The drumming, all though simple is almost rhythmic at times. It is this feature that makes one feel as if they are in no hurry to get anywhere and want to simply enjoy the beautiful music.

Anathema's "A Fine Day to Exit" paints a very interesting picture. At some points you can see a picture of absolute despair and then the picture changes into one of hope and utter serenity.

It is this balance of neatly crafted music, atmosphere, and subtle changes in tempo and lyrical content that make this album a truly fine piece of art.

This album is not the winning ticket that got Anathema into the ranks of bands in the Metal Archives, that much is obvious from the first minute of A Fine Day to Exit. There isn't a trace of metal to be found on the album, and whatever the music that fills the hour is, it's not really something a metalhead puritan would enjoy. No, this is much softer than the average female breast in Hollywood, and must be judged on a scale different from the majority of releases listed here.

A Fine Day to Exit is like a chocolate box of very soft atmospheric rock, without any real riffs, a feeling of weightless gliding, and an emotiosphere that often switches between hope-filled hesitant joy and a form of carefully treading mild despair. The melancholy in most songs would be palpable, weren't it for the ethereal, almost non-corporeal composition. This is indeed soft, haze-like and difficult to define properly; atmospheric rock is as fine a definition as any.

Essentially, the review title should give you an idea of the music. The production and certain other characteristics resemble a few radio-friendly and famous songs by Radiohead, there's a latter-day Pink Floyd-like touch in the compositions, and the overall feeling is just a couple of steps down from the depression found on recent Katatonia albums. There's plenty of almost acoustic-sounding and very soft guitarwork, and some soundscapes painted by another, electric guitar hovering above the rest of the music. Vocals are clean and a bit whiny, for the lack of a better word.

In the world of metal, such soft-spoken manifests as this one often disappear into the ambience, melding into the flower wallpaper and virtually vanishing from view. However, if rated on some other rating scale, this is not bad. Actually, the music has a soothing character, and might well work as a musical score for a relaxing evening in front of the fireplace. But in the end, the album requires a lot of concentration and conscious focusing to listen, else it meekly fails to make an impression of any kind. From a thrash fan's point of view, that's a major drawback. The album passes through the mind without leaving a sign of its passing, or might even fail to reach the mind in the first place.

This is probably excellent music for sulking and/or relaxing, but on the metal scale, the rating would be 0%; there is none. Resorting to the alternative "Did I enjoy this?" rating system does not help very much, as remembering pretty much anything about the music is difficult, even after half a dozen consequtive spins. I guess it's OK. Probably. Can't recall...

Meh.