Anathema has done something rather unique in the metal world. They
have managed to maintain, and even grow their fan base, despite moving
outside of metal. They are an ambient band now, yet their music still
connects to people who crave the pounding heaviness
of metal. I don't quite understand the overlap, but I see that it
exists. I have a theory or two, but those thoughts aren't fully fleshed
out right now. What I can say is that Anathema is a band I've been
hearing about for years, but one that I never tried
to get into, because the word 'ambient' is one that scares me. It is,
pardon the pun, anathema to my perception of what music is supposed to
be. But, fair person that I am, I decided I would give them a chance.
Being a conceptual piece, the album starts with the obligatory and
useless set-up piece, which is thankfully only a minute long. The first
real track is "Leaving It Behind", which opens the album with a
shuffling electronic beat. I am not a fan of these
artificial sounds, which gets reinforced when the whole band joins the
song. The drums come in, but the electronic beat plays undernearth the
acoustic drumming. Two different beats fighting each other to establish
the song's rhythm, with neither winning out.
It's hard for the song to gel together when it doesn't lock in with any
one particular groove.
It doesn't take long before the nature of ambient music reminds me
of why it is I usually avoid it. The way the songs are composed is
supposed to use the tension of repetition to build drama, but what I
hear is the same few ideas being repeated again and
again, to the point where I'm desperate for the song's development to
come along. It isn't the laid-back energy that bothers me, it's the
balance between length and volume. There don't seem to be enough
developments in the songs to best use their running times.
That carries over into the ideas themselves. By nature of the
atmosphere the band is going for, neither the riffs nor the melodies are
of the big, hooky variety. Everything is subtle and subdued, which has a
place, but struggles what it's all that the
songs have going for them. "Endless Ways" has some nice build-up and
vocal deliveries, and it would work nicely as a palate-cleanser in the
middle of a weightier album, but it's as propulsive and central track as
anything on the album. It barely gets into
second gear, and that's the closest the band gets to putting the hammer
down.
Here's the thing; Anathema can make beautiful music. Sonically,
"The Optimist" is a gorgeous record. It has strings of melancholy
running through it that glisten like liquid diamonds. I can't fault
their taste when it comes to picking tones. But like most
music that falls into categories like ambient or post-rock, I don't
hear enough songwriting to engage me. My belief has always been that
song is defined by its melody, that melody is the most important thing
in music. You can change everything about the backdrop,
but the song will always be the song if the melody is there. Anathema
takes a different tact. These are songs based on the coloring, not the
outline. It doesn't make it good or bad, but it means it's basically a
foreign language to me. "The Optimist" isn't
at all for me, but maybe it'll be for you.
All I can do is be honest here.
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