Angry Metal Guy

Anathema // We’re Here Because We’re Here
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Masterfully done
Label: K-scope
Websites: anathema.ws | myspace.com/weareanathema
Release Dates: EU: 31.05.2010 | US: 05.31.2010

Where the hell does one even start with Anathema. The band has been in a state of flux for quite a while. The last thing they put out was Hindsight which, quite obviously, was not technically considered a standard release (despite it being my top record of 2008—a very dry year for metal in this Angry Metal Guy’s opinion). That means it’s been five years since A Natural Disaster an album that I found to be remarkably underwhelming, as it followed up one of the finest albums of the entire 2000s: A Fine Day to Exit. But it has, indeed, been 9 years since Anathema released a new album that I was super excited about. Everyone keeps asking “was 7 years worth it?” Well, for me it’s more like “was 9 years worth it?”

Yes. The answer is unequivocally yes. Now, it’s true that the band is never going to produce Judgement again, so get that out of your head right now. But what Anathema produces in 2010 is just as relevant and interesting as Judgement was in 1999 and A Fine Day to Exit was in 2001. “And what is that music,” you may ask. I’ll tell you: it’s melancholy, yet oddly positive, 60s and 70s influenced prog rock. With the strains of Pink Floyd, and The Beatles (but honestly, mainly Floyd and their ilk) floating around in the background Anathema breeds their own unique strain of ethereal, amorphous and gorgeous rock music.

The thing that stands out the most for me is that while older Anathema is very much a music of sorrow, We’re Here Because We’re Here is a music all its own. A music of Zen one could  say. In fact, there is a hippiesque patchouli stank to this album that is so strong I have to plug my ear-nose™. Someone has been reading Be Here Now and maybe smoking a bit too much ganj, but it’s a fascinating change, really. To see it develop from songs like “One Last Goodbye” and “Temporary Peace” into songs like “Angels Walk Among Us” that has lines like “Only you can heal your life / Only you can heal inside…” or “Presence” (which is basically an extension of the same song) which has a fascinating quote: “Life is not the opposite of death, death is the opposite of birth. Life is eternal.” Or how about the final strains of the album: “There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer / There is no disease that enough love cannot heal / No door that enough love will not open / No gulf that enough love will not bridge / And no wall that enough love will not throw down.” This is not your depressed teenage years’ Anathema, my friends.

The positivity aside, however, Anathema still produces some of the heaviest material on the early tracks of this album since Judgement—on the tracks “Thin Air” and “Summer Night Horizon”. These heavier moments offset a much more poppy and easily digestible Anathema than I think we’ve ever heard before. However, this record is also incredibly epic, or should I say, adventurous and interesting. Tracks like the closing 8 minute epic (see!) “Hindsight” make clear that the band has more to say and a beautiful vision filled with white light, oceans… (silhouettes standing in them.. wait a second this is starting to sound familiar!) and peace and love. They are now, as they ever have been, making the music of the heart and that is the reason that they continue to be admired among fans of heavy music and prog.

So for me, again, while this record might not be on the exact same par as Judgement or A Fine Day To Exit it is definitely still a fantastic album that is worth your listening, your time and your money. The songwriting continues to be compelling, the vocal performances are outstanding and need I mention that Steven Wilson did the mix? Probably not. Now hopefully it won’t be another 7 (or 9) years before Anathema puts out another record of this caliber. Every once in a while Angry Metal Guys need some Zen.

Wow. Things have been busy around here, honestly. One of the downsides of doing this for fun is that one makes no money doing it and has to come up with other ways to pull together an income. I’ve been trying to do that, plus, other things. Anyway, this is the stuff that I’ve been up to and listening to in my freetime (of which there is actually very little). In this time, however, I have pieced together a list that I would call the “best albums of the 2000s.” I don’t know if I’d actually call them the best, so much as the ones that have really stuck with me. As a guy who thinks that it was actually the mid/late 90s that were really the defining point in heavy metal for the modern era, and that what we’re dealing with is very much the outcome of this, this list was actually very difficult for me to produce.

1. Opeth // Ghost Reveries — This is always the toughest for me. Choose which Opeth record I think most defines the modern era. I finally always decide on GR, which incidentally I hated when it came out. But it totally grew on me after that and now it’s probably my favorite.
2. Katatonia // Last Fair Deal Gone Down — Again, this is tough. I love all of their modern stuff, but I think this is probably the most consistent of all their albums. Another defining record in my life, I think, too.
3. Turisas // The Varangian Way — I consistently come back to this record over and over. It pretty much represents everything that big, awesome extreme metal should be. I also think it was very much new. It combined much of that power metal and viking metal stuff that’s been threatening to merge for years into a cohesive whole.
4. Vintersorg // Visions from the Spiral Generator — Again, how do you really choose? I chose this one because I think the whole album is fantastic. But they’re all fantastic. It’s definitely between this one and Cosmic Genesis. I chose this one ’cause I love Digorgio and Mickelson’s performances.
5. Amon Amarth // Versus the World — Again a hard one to choose. But this record has some of the best tracks these guys ever wrote and some of the best melodic death metal ever.
6. Anathema // A Fine Day to Exit — This record is fucking tremendously written and perfect from first note to last note.
7. Amorphis // Eclipse — The rebirth of Amorphis is quite possibly one of the greatest things that happened in the two-thousandsies. This album, and the two that have followed since, are some of the finest metal records produced in the modern era.
8. Rhapsody // Power of the Dragonflame — Sets the bar for orchestrated, ridiculous over-the-top metal. They’ve never produced anything like it since, nor has anyone else for that matter.
9. Ihsahn // angL — I love Ihsahn’s solo stuff. It’s a perfect blend of extreme metal and prog. His writing is massively improved since being out of Emperor, in my opinion, but I’m sure there’s a black metal guy on this board who will shriek in horror at those words.
10. Shining // V:/ Halmstad — This record hooked me immediately and hasn’t let go.

You have absolutely no idea how difficult it is to write a list like that. And I do really like writing lists, I think it’s a good time. A game for me has always been top 5s or top 10s.