Year : 2012
Genre : Walt Disney Lion King Rock
Label : KSCope (EU) The End Records (US)
Origin : United Kingdom
Rating : 3.0 / 10
Buy it now
Anathema's latest sounds to be the direct spiritual continuation of 2010's We're Here Because We're Here. I want to tell you right off the bat that the record, in my opinion is highly annoying and contains perplexingly narcissistic music. Anathema seems to have constructed an in-house song generator that is capable to produce smarmy songs, exclusively, as every single piece on this 55 minute affair exhibits the same premiere core characteristics and compositional tactics. I will get into those traits with ruthless efficiency later on. The disc shows constant preoccupation with the establishment of compulsive discomfort-elimination. This Anathema record is here to make you feel OH!, so special, you cosmic schmuck. Luckily, the cosmic schmuck who is writing this, warns you about this dangerous fact. Listen to this music, but know that it is a fragile lie and is designed to make you feel : - surprise! - ssssssssssssssspecial. But "you" are not special, "you" are "only" the expression of an unrelenting process beside an infinite number of other ones, and only this process that gives you the capacity to delude yourself into such ridiculous notions, IS special. It is consciousness medium, looking for lower entropy states. As for Anathema, they are looking for money for assuaging your fears. (Which is the same thing in a physical universe, funnily enough.)
In Anathema's domain, the only bird is the swan and the three colors that are most fervently encouraged to be used by everyone are blue and white and green. Your wasp is not allowed. Boosh! Boosh! Yellow, black, evil, stingy, evil! Boosh! Boosh! This is relentless Nazi music in the sense that it is arrogant enough to assume that the listener is retarded enough to not be aware of the fact the she/he is being fed the same daaaaayuuuumn trick for the 32423423rd time. This is Nazi music because it wants everything to be OH!, so peaceful and OH!, so eloquently and pretty much disgustingly and homogeneously beautiful. Like those posters with the dolphins and the naked ladies and the sunrise from the early '90s. Your receptors are in a constant harassment to submit to the limited/fabricated toy-beauty the songs actually reflect. Their capacity to entertain is vastly constrained by a self-congratulatory artistic behavior and related techniques that the music is forced to vomit out sugar-overdose accessibility for. This is an attempt to commit the slaughter of beautiful music. I adore beautiful music, I "only" demand it to be made from heart to heart, as this Cynic release sounds to me as. This is not the case at all with this baby, designed to sell good in the family friendly section of the record store, right next to Disney's Lion King. You are expected to be affected and be satisfied by very cheap and predictable patterns and methodologies. Read on to find out more about this vastly predictable pink plush toy music that secretly sucks immense demonic alligator dick in putrid anxiety-hell when you are not watching.
This release is relevantly sorrowful and kind of tolling to the core to tolerate once you are accustomed to its silly little cardboard tricks it relies on and hasty to showcase the full set it possesses of. The Anathmema song structure reeks Lion King Walt Disney rock music, only with more saliva, sugar and slime. The chord passages never change in anatomy, they always give you these semi-bloated wall of sound structures, amidst which you will be shot through by a giant sling, and : LOOK! there are pretty thoughts and percepts around you in the sky to comfort you for your money. It's a trade, yes? The vocal contribution is even more annoying than the vastly limited music lingo is. The Anathama singers do the following, almost always : they create a guitar arpeggio in the tradition of peaceful retirement home music - this is the max intensity encouraged to be used therein with safety - aaand then !!
And then comes to stretched-out vocal belting. No exception. I encourage you to test this notion of mine. Every single song on this delivery is based on the same-, highly annoying and self-indulgent "idea" of belting out a loooong-long note to the harmonic backdrop structures.
Look, I loooooooooooooooooooooooove to bath in my vooooooooooooooooooice, mom.
The more stretched the note is, the better the Anathema siblings seem to feel about their music. Check out track 7, "The Beginning and The End" for a horrifying example of the effect I'm describing to you. By that time, you are taken for such a sedated sloth of a spiritual construct that the singer seeks to serve out your comfort-needs with two impertinent stretched out notes in one single idea. Oh my fucking God. The more stretched the note, the more the Anathema siblings think that they have successfully served out your stock-needs for emotional comfort. Yes, they LOVE to bath in their voices. I'm not a mean person, by the way. My heart is butter, my intent is to contribute. I'll give proper hell to impertinent doom. I just demand exigency and spiritual hygiene and I won't submit to threshold level toy-beauty cultivation that is not worth taking a decent shit on.
This by far is the most annoying, smarmy-ass and dishonest release I have encountered since Modern Talking tribute bands, and I admit that it is superbly constructed at that. I admit I found the Anathema song "Energy" an interesting one from their previous out, and the problem is this : Anathema simply got stuck in this marshmallow feelgood-belief system of said track, which, I think might have become a "Sacred Prison" for them no member of the group is allowed to point out or acknowledge, and they project their deluded-ass pink-balloon cake-music from there ever since. Disturbing, demonic shit. If you want to torture me, give the tracks of this camelsnot LP with 1 minute intervals of silence between them, so I can suffer through legendarily during this minute with the horrid memory of the previous piece. Homo music, - no, I'm not homophobic and I love the music of Jimmy Sommerville, and demand the right to use the word "homo" nevertheless to describe this LP, because I feel it is the precise word to tag this insult with - but the best at that without a doubt.
Rating : 3.0 / 10
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"Lion King Walt Disney rock music"??? I wonder what kind of drugs you took to write such a ridiculous review like that, I never read so much shit like in this review...
ReplyDeleteThen you should definitely visit these pages more often. Or not at all. The choice is yours, and I accept each. Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteP. S. : I'm sober as a crowbar.
If you were drunk, would have been better. Now makes you look like a complete sober idiot... no excuse for that, blame it on your parents.
ReplyDelete@Vic : does that mean that the method you suggest works for you?
ReplyDeleteIt was expectable that I will get my ass kicked around a bit for this review, courtesy of rabid Anathema fans. I am definitely not against this kind of music, - as I am not against any kind at all - I just think that this release is not the evolution of the genre, but the blaming and exploitation and the stagnation of it. If you, Vic, have amazing fun listening to this LP, then congratulate yourself, your taste has been served.
As for me, I'd pick the Cynic Portal Tapes LP anytime anyplace instead of this.
For all other Anathema fans, bring the flame if you must, but ask yourself before you treat me if everything I say about the album is unjust.
Actually this review is pretty astute. Beneath all of Anathema's bombast and new-age spiritual nonsense beats a shallow and quite deceitful heart.
ReplyDeletedeceitful? nonsense?
Deletei guess at the end of the day it is the meaning you derive...you either loathe the spiritual deceit their feeding you... or you dissolve yourself in the vast expanse of spiritual consciousness,a sort of an awakening....to not ignore your immediate reality yet find peace and happiness in the unity of the soul with its power.....and as far as other kinds of music in comparison is concerned...everything has its own place...and i guess its time now....
Well, I'm not a fan of the spiritual teachings they try to get across on their last two albums. But I do like both of them and consider them the best things they have done so far.
ReplyDeleteIf you think these guys aren't making music from their heart, than you couldn't be more wrong! This is more connected to who they are than what they did in the olden days.
I hope they feel that they said enough about their new found spirituality though. So hopefully the lyrics will focus on something else on future records. But musically, I absolutly love where they are going.
@alternative4783 : stopped reading your comment at the expression "spiritual consciousness" - hilariously enough, you are sPoT on - sToP on?? in your cluelessness. This release, in my mind, indeed seeks to serve out the shallow and deceitful heart and the expectation and cravings of it, as trevorclever wrote. I would stand by this impression as long as I'd thought it is legitimate even if I'd be totally alone with it, - and would be happy to get rid of it if Anathema were to play serious music once again - but nice to see that at least ONE person understood where I'm coming from with this review. I still claim that the disc is a routinely engineered/assembled commercial Lion King Soft Rock toy-product designed to comfort a needy-, laughable ego with shit that smells like roses.
ReplyDeleteIf you are serious about your spiritual and exigent music, once again, listen to Cynic's Portal Tapes. I can take THAT music serious, because it gives the listener the same courtesy.
The latest Anathema is demonic android shit Philip K. Dick and Meshuggah warns you about, and has nothing to do with spiritual development and consciousness evolution, it is about receiving money for making you feel good about your clueless spiritual misery. This is the latent denial of genuine and beneficial efforts that seek to better a consciousness and its surroundings, and it is inviting you to cultivate a feelgood delusion-system in yourself with which you can be "happy for yourself" instead.
If this is your Eminent Album of the Year, you can't say I did not try to save you, C3PO.
@GyZ
ReplyDeleteYour diss against Anathema is really amazing. I don't know if you want to be respected as a professionell writer, I wonder if you will get that kind of respect with this "review". Normally I don't care about negative reviews at all because mostly the writers can establish their opinion in a professionell way without using swearwords. It seems that you are not able to do that so I have absolutely no respect for you as a writer and especially for this "review"....
"professionell?"
ReplyDeleteTell me about it.
I don't diss Anathema at all. I simply think their recent music creation ethos is dishonest to the core. The first ever song I have heard from them - "Sleepless" is very kind to me, and I found their 2010 album adorable, too.
I can express my sentiments without swearwords, but don't always choose to.
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
God save all from "professionelism".
Hehehe!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this review!
Although I really like the album I was having a similar conversation with my mate (another massive Anathema fan of 20 years or so) that I feeeeeeeel, that they are fiiiiiinnnnndiiiiinng a niche of loooooooosing themselves in a sea of long vowels and inspirational lyrics and major keys (in the sunshiiiiiiiine)
I can't complain that it makes me feel good, but the jaded and cynical part of me feels similar to how I feel every time I hear a Slayer album.
Haha, you think Sleepless is a more honest song than for instance Untouchable??? Surely, you can't be serious?
ReplyDeleteI also don't get that you seem to like WHBWH but you hate this one so much? They aren't that different. Not in musical direction nor in the passion with wich they were created.
And what's the thing with the loooooong notes in their vocal delivery you're on about? They've ALWAYS done that! Hardly the time to start whining about it now.
I have no problem with you hating the album. In fact, I can understand quite well why a lot of people wouldn't like this music. I have to protest to your accusations that their music is dishonest and only created to cash in though. Because that is complete and utter bullshit! What you say is no more than a bunch of spiteful lies! And I wonder why you come up with something like that.
Anathema was a doom band as far as I know. I don't yet know any other songs than Sleepless from them from that era. And yes, I consider one bar of said song more significant than this entire deceitful disc. You don't agree? You really are breaking my heart you know.
ReplyDeleteYet, you don't need to have your period regarding the matter on these pages as far as my musical tastes are concerned, - or yours, for that matter - because doing so probably would yield little consensus interest. Here is why : I don't really have a musical taste, because musical taste bores me immensely and I consider it something that limits and harms the awareness. Just look at you, how hooked and deluded you are about the greatness of this release. You can't seem to accept that someone has an entirely different impression of it than you, because it serves our your cultivated anticipations sooooooo efficiently, eh?
I still claim that even the music ITSELF - without the vocals - on this release is constructed in a dishonest, uninspired, non-thrilling and routine-way. Cheap-ass mechanics. Lion King music. Like : "you see, we need to press these buttons in this particular sequence and they will look at each other and smile, Edgar!" The same over-tolled musical ideas and mechanics repeated throughout the entire LP. The whiny prolonged vocals are hideous in their anatomy and agenda, yes, but they are just one premiere element of other hideous galore of entirely different, horrifying aspects. I already wrote about those, and all I have written regarding the matter I still stand by.
If you still claim that the music on this delivery has potential to express anything more than their song
everythiiiiiiing is energyyyyyyyy I chose looooooove tralalaaaaaaa
I'm waiting for your example-song. Name your big favorites from the album if you want. I don't hate the album, I just find it dishonest and audience-targedet to the core. There is a need for audience-targeted and dishonest to the core albums, and this is a perfect representative of those in my book.
Since you are so "emencely" offended by this review, I think you should do yourself the courtesy of listening to the Cynic LP I recommended which I still consider a serious variant on THIS particular niche of music. Then compare the two and see that the new Anathema is stagnation-bullshit in the projection of said release.
Or feel free to love this android album all the more, if that is even possible.
"I think you should do yourself the courtesy of listening to the Cynic LP I recommended which I still consider a serious variant on THIS particular niche of music. Then compare the two and see that the new Anathema is stagnation-bullshit in the projection of said release."
ReplyDeleteWell I've listened to the Poratal Tapes LP from Cynic but it hasn't touched me like the music from Anathema (you can call me crazy or anything you want but that's my opinion). I wouldn't call Portal Tapes stagnation-bullshit like you did it with "Weather Systems", sorry but this kind of level is very low to me and I don't want to discuss in that kind of way any longer....
Sorry, "stagnation" indeed should have been enough. Thank you for your input. And, for checking out the Cynic album, too.
ReplyDeleteI know Cynic and they are great musicicians. Their music doesn't do anything for me though. Just like Aghora, another Sein Reinert band. Great skills, but there's no true emotion in it if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteAnd like I said, I have no problem with you disliking this record. The accusations you make don't have any ground though.
Sleepless is one of the few none-doom songs on Serenades so I suggest you listen to it before you say it is better than the new one, lol.
On a sidenote: AC/DC stagnated after their first release. I still like their later albums though (well at least those with Bon Scott).
Even dislike is a strong word. I like it for being so uncompromisingly deceitful. I suppose we can agree that this disc shows very little if any "true deviation" from the previous Anathema LP. It is made in the exact same spirit, in the exact same musical rhetorics, that which I think already has been explored by the group, and I feel the band now is exploiting it knowing it steadily serves out a fanbase. That is why I claim it is a disk of stagnation and deceit. I'll admit stagnation is not necessarily always a harmful state per se, as Yngwie Malmsteen, who I think is top 10 material guitarist, makes the same music since 1863 or so.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you are not being so rabid, yet saying that my accusations do not have any ground devolves this whole debate to its very starting point. I understand you know Cynic, but this Portal Tapes stuff if pretty unorthodox compared to their previous out. Definitely give it a chance if you did not yet, because, here is the thing : I'm 101% sure I would have been kinder to this Anathema release had I've not heard Cynic's Portal Tapes exactly before it.