ANATHEMA — Eternity (review)

ANATHEMA — Eternity album cover Album · 1996 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
The Crow
The album where the Anathema's musical direction changed definitively... Thanks God!

But the style of the band was not really orientated yet. After closing their Doom Metal era, they maked this album based on Pink Floyd and 70's sounds, and with some gothic and symphonic influences... And the new Anathema's style was born!

They keeped their metallic roots, but giving the music a lot of more sentiment and diversity. The clear Vincent vocals are far from the Doom Metal growls. Ok... But I muss say they are not really good. This mand could not really singing yet. He is not very bad, but sometimes he sounds out of tone, and I think his voice was not under his total control. It's a pity because some great parts of the album are spoiled by the weak Vincent's singing. He would improve a lot for the next realease (Alternative 4), but in Eternity he sounds just unpleasant.

Nevertheless, the female voices in some songs are much better. The album is maybe still harder than the later Anathema's milestones... But the acoustic and ambiental passages avoid this album being hard for not-metal lovers. Some songs have even new age influences. Like Eternity Part II, and the very Pink Floydish Sentient. This is still metal, but a mellow view of this style, and more accesible than the previous Anathema's extreme works. So if you are not into hard sounds, this is not a problem.

Best songs: Angelica (one of the most beautiful guitar meodies Anathema has ever made...), The Beloved (hard and catchy song... Despite the bad vocals), Hope (one of the most original songs, with good guitar layes and some keyboards), Far Away (a little classic of this album...) and Cries on the Wind (I like the egipcian influences of this track...)

Conclusion: the first album where Anathema starts to showing the style they make now. Really different of their Doom Metal beginnings, and far better in my opinion. This album has some weak points, like the poor production, and the bad Vicent's singing. But every Anathema's fan will find it interesting. I would also recommend this album to the rest of listeners.

But despite this is not a bad work, if you are new to Anathema, I recommend you to start with later albums like the marvellous Alternative 4, or the equally excellent Judgement, because Eternity can be a bit hard for beginners.

My rating: ***

This review was originally written for ProgArchives.com
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