A Natural Disaster

This is a revision of an old review written circa 2008.

”A Natural Disaster” is Anathema's fifth full-length album since the band's transition from doom metal to rock, though regarding to this record, rock seems a very insufficient label to describe the music, which ranges from very high intensity to complete mellowness, all of which is blanketed by a very strong emotive load and ample experimentation. Followed by the already quite spectacular ”A Fine Day to Exit”, Anathema's 2003 full-length album is the band's most focused and developed effort yet: the emotional elements in Anathema's music have never been this tangible and well-executed. There's a new, pronounced emphasis on atmosphere in their music that lends immense gravity to the artistic expression. Following the lines of its predecessor, ”A Natural Disaster” is considerably more artistic in nature than the bands' earlier works, at least since their transition from metal. While ”A Fine Day to Exit” blundered somewhat with excessively far-ranging and clumsily implemented influences, its follower elaborates on what was succesful before, and brings new elements that work fantastically as parts of Anathema's sound. ”A Natural Disaster” is, in both style and quality, several notches away from the band's previous and later works.

The background of ”A Natural Disaster” is somewhat different from most of the band's work. To date, it's arguably the most personal album to Daniel Cavanagh by Anathema. All of the songs, with the exception of ”Balance”, were written by him between 2000 and 2002, during a time which Daniel describes as particularly tough. In an interview, Daniel also mentions that most of the inspiration came to him late in the night, which I like to think shows in the music as an all-encompassing shroud of nocturnal atmosphere. All the songs revolve around personal matters, with the exception of ”Violence”, which is intended to express the unstable political climate of the early 00s.

Though Daniel Cavanagh's composition skills have been noteworthy since the early works of Anathema, his aptitude for writing intense build-ups and emotional climaxes here is particularly noteworthy. Bolstered by the excellent arrangements and dynamics, his skills have turned essentially simple songs into captivating compositions. Ranging from melancholic acoustic chords and arpeggios to intense distorted guitar riffs, the guitars are a driving element of the music together with tasteful keyboard themes. A third driving element is certainly the vocals. The majority of tracks are sung by Vincent, as usual, but Daniel performs lead vocals on two songs, ”Are You There” and ”Electricity”, which in comparison to the Vincent-led songs are softer and calmer. Vincent's singing has softened somewhat as well. His voice struggles to have enough authority to represent the intensity of Daniel's songwriting at times, but the emotivity of his delivery makes up for lack of power and range.

Like its predecessor, the album is full of experimentation, but it seems noticeably more focused and pointful than previously. On ”A Natural Disaster”, the musical elements seem to be far more intuitive and natural, whereas ”A Fine Day to Exit” seemed to delve in experimentation for its own sake – or to supplement for lack of inspiration – making it seem pretentious and thematially overcomplicated. While Anathema's songwriting has always been cutting-edge, this album improves it even further, and arguably unlike anything since ”The Silent Enigma”, ”A Natural Disaster” is not a mere collection of songs, but a focused and well-designed whole. This helps to create a distinctive atmosphere for the entire album, improving the listening experience. The way ”Balance” builds up into a relentlessly powerful climax that bursts at the end, then abruptly transitions into the hypnotic ”Closer”, showcases an unprecedented ability to arrange songs into a fantastically well-flowing whole by Anathema, where each song contributes to the entirety of the album. The cliché of an album being more than a sum of its parts is certainly applicable.

The album starts in a relatively slow and relaxed manner, with the opener ”Harmonium”. Rather than laying all their cards on the table like openers often do, it creates atmosphere as it subtly rises towards its climax. Despite the tranquil melodies and harmonies, there is a feeling of mystery, contrast and unpredictability in the song, like a storm warning. It concludes in the same tranquil manner as it starts, only to be followed by the passionate and emotionally affecting song ”Balance”, which is one of the most intense songs Anathema has written. Its subtle beauty, emotional expression and breathtaking build-up are certainly a high point of the album, as the song is driven by a beautiful theme, first delicately played on a rich-sounding keyboard, then gradually built up into a crushingly heavy climax. Followed by ”Closer”, a song with one of the most breathtaking build-ups on the album, these two songs showcase fantastic songwriting ability and emotional expression. With the keyboard arpeggio accompanied by a vocoder, trance-like drum beats and heavy atmospherics, ”Closer” concludes in the most satisfactory manner possible as it burns out reaching an atmospheric and emotional climax. Similarly, ”Pulled Under At 2000 Meters A Second” introduces bleak and hopeless themes, builds up into a frenzy of misery-ridden despair and aggression, and then burns out. To balance the depressive and heavy emotions on the album, there are light – yet wistful – songs like ”Are You There” and ”Electricity”. Still, even the production of this album seems to be dedicated to sorrowful, desolate sounds. The keyboards tones are deep and rich, and the distorted guitar tones are full of fire and passion when Daniel Cavanagh unleashes his heaviest playing since ”Eternity”.

Arguably, the intensity of the band's earlier years has been brought back. Anathema has simply channeled it to the emotional aspects of their music, and though metal riffs are absent, the music may just be all the more powerful for it. Some influence from post-rock genre can be heard, particularly in the closing track ”Violence”, and clearly, considering the build-ups and epic climaxes, the songwriting on this album is perhaps not unlike how many post-rock bands compose their songs. However, unlike most post-rock, Anathema's music is on another level of intensity altogether, both in terms of heaviness and passionate emotional expression. There are positive and hopeful sounding moments, like small glimmers of hope, that are, still, ultimately swallowed by the dark, merciless reality of sorrow, longing and loss that Anathema masterfully expresses.