Why...? - This album thoroughly disappointed me. I had been holding my breath for two years for this record, and when I put it in, I was blown away, but not in a good way. There s not much to say, except that the overall quality of the songs is mediocre at best, and John Douglas (who has always been such a tasteful drummer) somehow manages to heavy-handedly destroy every song that had a possibility of being enjoyable. I hope this album is just a fluke and that Anathema has not left us forever...
A natural achievement - A Natural Disaster is a beautiful album, full of great melodies, musical ideas, song structures and just the perfect amount of aggression.It works on a global level, was made to be listened from beggining to end and it is never boring or uninteresting.This is not the doom/death Anathema we all knew some years ago, instead we have a band were the influences of Radiohead, Portishead and other more commercial, melodic bands is visible, something they have hinted with the previous A Fine Day To Exit, only this time the Pink Floyd influence is not so strong.Even with all these influences coming from outside the metal area this is still easily a record recognizable as Anathema, and i don t think this will appeal to fans of more commercial music, as it don t have the pop groove ,that makes Radiohead so big, for example. The album kicks off with three great songs, that instantly set the ambient for the whole thing, with the end part of Balance as the higlight. The uninspired Are You There? only makes the intermission Childhood Dream fit perfectly, and then the second half of the record just gives you some more agressiveness alonside strong melodies, something more in the vein of Judgment. Pulled Under At 2000 Meters A Second and Violence will appeal to the fans of the more heavy Anathema, while A Natural disaster show us the best they can do on the commercial side of music.In my opinion, lyrically the album is not so strong as musically, with some cliches being used here and there.The artwork is beautiful and it makes this album worthy of a vinil release.
Conflicting kind of album - This is definitely a mood-centric album. And after inventing a term, I have to describe it, so...By mood-centric, I mean that enjoyment of this album is more based in a feeling than an appreciation of the songs themselves. Have a listen to Are You There? (which is available for free download from Anathema s site...or was at last check), and you ll see what it means. These songs will put you in a mood, but you have to be half-way there already or it just won t work.None of the songs here are particularly strong from a songwriting standpoint. It s in the atmosphere where A Natural Disaster shines. Wind-swept backgrounds and blurriness are the staples here, and they work. For the most part. If you re trying to listen to this album on poor speakers, it ll fail miserably. Headphones work better, a surround sound system is best. Immersion is the point. Anathema have worked very hard to get the spectral effects down pat, and little flitting synth effects are the stars of the album.Side note that s not really too important: the artwork for the album truly is beautiful. It fits very well with the music itself.Anathema are going in a direction more towards the niche. I don t pretend to know exactly what they re doing, but I ll admit they ve become more unique. Where they are right now is wedged inbetween the Anathema of Judgment and the band Antimatter (which features a former member of Anathema and *another* Cavanaugh...how many are there?!). I hope they don t quite as far as Antimatter, but experimentation is fine by me.
Major disappointment - The only good thing about this album is the wonderful cover. There are too many ideas and styles here and none of them are mature enough to be considered for an album. This sounds like random selected Anathema songs that did not make it on to previous albums. This cd is boring just like A fine day to exit was. If they listened to it Beavis would probably turn to Butthead and say hey you fell asleep dude. Sounds a lot like Radiohead in many places. Progress and innovation is good but can t it please be in the direction of Judgement? Even if you are a hardcore fan this album will still disappoint you.
Too many sounds... - This album is alright...I m not giving it 3 stars because of the change like some people might have mentioned, I knew Anathema would be changing as soon as I first listened to A fine day to exit.This CD is just too mixed up with different sounds. I think they should have stuck with ONE sound...female vocals, computerized vocals, 1 or 2 more hard songs and the rest reminds me of stuff from judgement and a fine day to exit Its too much, they are such great musicians and some of the songs are amazing but this album as a whole just doesn t do it for me. In a way I think this was just an experimental album, maybe the next will be a little bit more focused, I m still a hardcore fan anyways =)