Anathema | ‘Hindsight’
“Trapped in time / A mirage of hope and change” - so ran a lyric in Anathema’s 1997 stunner ‘Eternity’. It could have summed up this record eleven years later. Oddly, they’re still trapped even now, if hopefully not for long.
Anathema are a band long out of the metal bracket, blessed with a large fanbase but needing also a new one, and just trying to do their best with ever more touching music. That’s the flux that’s at the heart of ‘Hindsight’, and presumably that’s why it’s been released: as a staging post between what the band were and what they’re about to become. A means of reintroduction.
It’s beautiful, though not unique. We’ve heard them present a quiet album before - notably with the ‘Resonance’ collection - and as such it does retain a little of the stopgap feel, given that these tunes are all available in various formats from over the years. But the interpretations here are both masterly and impassioned, reducing each of these familiar and trusted songs down to their absolute bare essentials.
It runs from ‘Eternity’ through to ‘A Natural Disaster’, taking in something from each along the way. Doubtless everyone will hanker for the acoustic and cello version of ‘Angelica’, and they have indeed done it a proud service. Stripped back, taken with a bit more ease and reflection, it’s a gentle take on a classic song. Vinnie’s emotional input is at it’s height, with a sort of sorry langour audible in these tracks. Right up against the mic so that every cadence is caught, his voice has been captured with a fidelity that each album has almost, but never quite offered. It’s magical.
Highlights abound, and it gets better with each subsequent listen. ‘One Last Goodbye’ sounds as though it demanded much in performance, weighing heavily until the sparkling ‘Are You There’ betters its album counterpart with a quickly plucked interpretation that is immediately uplifting. Lee Douglas’ smooth vocals do the business once more on ‘A Natural Disaster’, with its drawn out refrain again topping its existing counterpart.
So why should you buy this? Something very similar exists after all in the form of ‘Resonance’, and the band might well be accused of flogging the horse en route to their new album. The answer is because these interpretations stand high beside their namesakes in the band’s catalogue. They genuinely offer something new.
They also hold out the tantalising possibilities of what Vinnie Cavanagh in particular is now capable of as a vocalist and songwriter. Few vocalists in metal could equal his emotional impact; but in taking his character into the much more affecting territory of acoustica, the results are profound. It’s a real statement, this album - you can hear them fighting to preserve their history while at the same time ushering change through the door. It makes for a remarkable mix, to which a steaming cup of Earl Grey need only be added for maximum satisfaction. Delicate, pastoral, beautiful - the three things that always summed Anathema up, no matter the guise.
4.2 / 5 Ciaran Tracey ::: 31/08/08