Hindsight

Let's face it, when a band even mentions the possibility of an 'unplugged' album nowadays, it is almost instantly met with groans and jeers, as were it a bad joke. Truth be told, alot of the bands that do decide to give their tracks an acoustic do-over generally fail at getting their songs to go that extra mile, thinking their fans will be perfectly content to pay again for simplistic versions of music they are already familiar with. Every so often nevertheless, a band will take the idea of an acoustic album seriously, and really put the heart and added touches it needs to float as a work of its own. Such is the case of Anathema and their own 'unplugged' album 'Hindsight'; a series of acoustic renditions of some of their greatest songs. While some songs here feels as if they could have done with a bit more added onto them in this new version, there's no doubt for me that 'Hindsight' has inadvertently become one of my favourite Anathema albums, and in many ways a clear example of how an acoustic album is done right.

With classic tracks like 'One Last Goodbye', 'Fragile Dreams', 'Inner Silence', and 'Temporary Peace' gracing this release, the band seems to run through many of my favourite songs the band has done over their later, more mellow albums. As pieces of songwriting, these are all fantastic as they were on the original albums, but are often improved even further through the acoustic rendition. The changes can be fairly subtle (as with 'A Natural Disaster', which retains most of its original sound) to very noticeably different, like 'Are You There', which sheds its choral atmospherics from the original in favour for some beautifully warm guitar work. 'Inner Silence' also sees some great improvements through a more mellow run-through, including a beautiful added vocal section that makes the original sound lacking in my ears now. What robs this album of being truly essential is the fact that not all of the songs are so successful in being changed. While the music is fantastic throughout, 'Hindsight's success rests on it sounding different from existing versions, and a handful of tracks here do not necessarily change much.

While the emotional impact of Anathema's music has always been profound to me, 'Hindsight' features some of the warmest, most vulnerable and moving performances I have heard from this band ever. Without having to worry about any heaviness or needless atmospherics, they can focus on some of the most soulful instrumentation in their arsenal, and bring it to life. With the jaw-dropping success of many of these tracks however, I am left somewhat wishing that the few that don't necessarily excel could have been made to shine.

I probably wasn’t the only one that thought this was the new Anathema album when I first lay eyes on the cover; after all it’s been 5 years since the rather good ‘A Natural Disaster’. Alas no, instead we are offered an unplugged album of sorts, reworks of their back catalogue, but do we really need this on the back of two DVD’s which cover the same kind of territory.

‘Fragile dreams’ doesn’t offer anything particularly new. Yes it’s not as heavy but the same basic structure is present and this rings true with most of the tracks on the album, you are left in no doubt which track it is. The have recruited a Cellist from the royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to fill out the album who does a pretty good job, however it wont make you leap from your chair in ecstasy. ‘Inner silence’ is one of Anathemas’ emotional power ballads and here is still brings a tear to the eye. It’s good to hear Vincents vocal clear in the mix, however the addition of a beautiful line (still love you?) at the end of this track makes it. ‘Are you there’ is the stand out track on the album. Wonderfully picked acoustic guitars that can only be described as mellifluous. The melody is the same throughout but it’s spellbinding.

Angelica is one of the reasons this album fails to impress more. There is not enough variety and you can easily skip this track. I have to admit I didn’t listen to all the originals before writing this review, however I know all the tunes pretty well and ‘A Natural Disaster’ doesn’t sound too different here either. ‘Temporary Peace’ stands up well to the semi-acoustic treatment because at three minutes that change is so good. Flying has a nice solo guitar moment where it builds into an almost Spanish tremolo moment. The new track ‘unchained’ is quite monotonous with picked acoustic guitar and cello. Not a great sign if this is what to expect in the future, although I guess it does have to keep the feeling of the rest of the album.

Basically there is little here for the fan that already has the originals. If you are new to Anathema and love your soppy moments in songs this will probably blow you away. The album is well executed and very well produced by the band themselves. It just seems they’ve had a little writers block since ‘A natural disaster’ which I hope they recover from soon.

Sep 08.

What does Anathema have in common with the Cure? Well aside from the fact that they're both British and play ever increasingly softer music than their contemporaries, they also share the desire to rewrite their older works for whatever reason. Now granted, this is Anathema's first full length album of this nature, its not the first time they've re-done something from their past (see "Sleepless '96" from Resonance 2 for example).

One could easily cry foul on this album, seeing it as nothing more than a cheap excuse to put out new material since its only been five years since the bands last offering (which was a questionable album at best.) One could also fault this album because it contains "old" songs that while presented to us in a new "light" aren't that different from the originals.

The production is brilliant. Their best and nothing else would have sufficed to bring the fullness of these songs to life. Right off the bat one can't help but hear the similarities to the "Sleepy Buildings" record from 'The Gathering' as musically they both share that "semi-acoustic" vibe. The guitars, both electric and acoustic are very tight and very Anathema. There is sparse drum work but this does little to deter the listeners’ pleasure. Its noticeably more jazz influenced than what we're used too. The bass is perhaps more minimal than ever before as well. The other stringed instruments like the violin and cello are used primarily for rhythm. The exception being the violin does have a considerable amount of lead/soloing time in tandem and apart from the guitar.

The vocals are good but perhaps a little pretentious. Vincent Should stop trying to sound like Geoff Tate and while he doesn't actually try to hit those ear drum shattering heights from Queensrych's yesteryear, he does on at least on occasion, try to go above his range.

The set list is interesting and contains tracks from 'Eternity' to their last studio release. All of these songs sound enough like the originals to be easily discernable which leads to the aforementioned fault. The biggest difference would be the lack of Rock based drums and the distorted guitars. The vocals are a little different as well, perhaps toying with songs a little bit more than they originally did.

This is a very ambient album but its also very alternative. There is nothing rock about this, but its still very good. Anathema is perhaps the only Heavy Metal band to drop all their metal aspects and still appeal to the metal crowed. Its easy to see why they still play the bulk of the European Metal festivals and why they are slotted right in the middle of countless Black and/or Death Metal bands who continually think its cool to ape the same sound that 'Mayhem' or 'Death' created decades ago.

The sublime quality and over all soothing presence of this album is almost beyond words. Anathema has made an album that FINALLY follows the brilliance known as "Judgment". If you are a fan of this soul sundering enigma, then this is very recommended to you.

It’s been five long years since Anathema graced us with an album. Five long years since the magnificent A Natural Disaster that sealed the deal for the bands movement away from all things metal. After that though, there’s just been the steady increase in anticipation levels among fans of the band for the new album. While it has been made public that the album will be called Horizons and Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson will be producing, a release date and a label to release the music is still not known.

So in the meantime almost like a piece of meat thrown at their rabid fan base comes Hindsight. A collection of songs previously released on various albums but now re-worked into a largely acoustic framework. The album opens with Fragile Dreams and the song has been transformed into a keyboard led gently melancholic refrain. It’s a stunning re-working of one the bands more popular songs and when the cello comes in instead of that opening guitar line you just know that this compilation is going to be a bit special. Leave No Trace from 2001s A Fine Day to Exit has a folk feel to it while the original version’s spacey feel is completely missing on this one. Inner Silence sounds even more morose and brooding than the original and seems to be the result of Danny Cavanagh’s time spent in Antimatter.

The centerpiece of the album though is the magnificent re-working of A Natural Disaster. The title song taken from the bands most recent album is essentially the same. It’s the subtle changes like the cello coming in for the original bass guitar and an absolutely stunning vocal performance from Lee Douglas really taking this song to a whole new level. Flying also from A Natural Disaster is another terrific song and while the original was a definite highpoint of that album, this re-working is absolutely essential stuff.

The album ends with Unchained (Tales of the Unexpected) which is another melancholic and brooding song that’s held together by a gentle acoustic guitar and some vaguely ominous sounding cello and keyboards parts. Terrific ending to the album and is good reason to check out Hindsight on its own. I suppose the only real downside to this collection is the exclusion of Forgotten Hopes and also the fact that this only focuses on material from Eternity onwards.

I think most fans of the band are going to love Hindsight. The songs are all essentially the same but have been tweaked just enough to give things a fresh perspective. I can’t wait for the new album to come out but till then, Hindsight will do very well.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com