Anathema - The Crestfallen EP - guest review
Anathema - The Crestfallen EP - guest review
Tracklist
01. ...And I Lust02. The Sweet Suffering
03. Everwake
04. Crestfallen
05. They Die
Guest review by
Gothic Metalhead September 25, 2020
To my eyes, The Crestfallen was a great introduction to Anathema's career. The music itself was different at the time, where there are Gothic elements such as in the title song "Crestfallen" where it begins with a melodic piano part until unleashing a slow and heavy doom song. Some of those Gothic elements are rare on this album, especially with the lead guitar creating atmospheric on "...And I Lust" and the interlude "Everwake." I do feel that the EP sounds similar to Paradise Lost, especially when listening to Gothic, so it's not as original as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, the music sounds terrific, sounding heavy and having that tinge of atmosphere from the Gothic influence.
Darren White who performs as vocalist on The Crestfallen actually does a solid job. He has that familiar death metal sound similar to other bands that had come out, but slightly less guttural. His approach is not unique, but I still enjoyed his performance, especially with "Crestfallen." Vincent Cavanagh did do some backup singing on this EP; he does mid-range and some spoken word stuff. His mid-range vocals sounded great, but his spoken word sounds like moaning. Besides that, the vocals were solid.
The lyrics are also well-crafted and consistent throughout this EP. Usually, Anathema write lyrics like it's coming from a Gothic horror novel. The themes that are read on The Crestfallen really work with the direction that the music is going. The lyrics are mournful and sensitive, but also have that influence from the early death-doom bands at the time. This was long before bassist Duncan Patterson would take over most of the lyricism of Anathema's career, and yet, the lyrics are still well-written.
So looking back at The Crestfallen, this was a great introduction to what would become a fantastic career. This would establish Anathema's career for the next three years, and has that raw sound that I always liked about death-doom. Slightly unique, a couple of flaws, but still a great introduction.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Gothic Metalhead | September 25, 2020
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
11
Visited by
59 users
 Posts: 3591 |
Posts: 3591
What an excellent choice for your first review on Metal Storm, congrats! I pretty much agree with your remarks, their first release under the Peaceville flag was indeed a great introduction to their career and it has contributed a lot to the early definition of the typical doom/death sound from the UK. Needless to say that I really love this EP, in my opinion it's on par with their brilliant debut and "Crestfallen", "...And I Lust" and "Everwake" belong to the ten best tracks this band has ever recorded. Talking about unpopular opinions: I know I'm in the minority, but Crestfallen and Serenades are the only Anathema releases ever I thoroughly enjoyed. You may cast your stones now. (but their recently announced hiatus is a great pity though)
---- signatures = SPAM
Loading...
|
 Posts: 163 |
Posts: 163 Written by Starvynth on 26.09.2020 at 01:37 I know about unpopular opinions with Anathema's music. I didn't enjoy the majority of Serenades and I thought eternity was their best work. I will be doing Serenades in the near future since there isn't a review of that yet.
Loading...
|
 Posts: 9641 |
Posts: 9641 Written by Starvynth on 26.09.2020 at 01:37 Truly unpopular as Serenades is my least favorite except maybe their latest, or if you count the Hindsight and Falling Deeper ones.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
|
| Posts: 9641 |
Posts: 9641
To this day I thought it was Darren who was doing those annoying moans. Might have to give these a relisten now and see if my opinion on them changes.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
|
 Posts: 64542 |
Posts: 64542
Dance of the november souls. This n their debute are good, then band died. Never listened their music in crsp era, same paradise lost in disco. MDB changed, dont like new Katatonia after Bravemurderdsy. But this band, well still dont understand Why they new sound is popular between metalheads, same the gathering. Good few bands went to roots. This well.. Like Nik said, he stop cared about it long ago. Same did many metalheads Good EP in from that time.. Roots Of genre we love so much
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| Posts: 163 |
Posts: 163 Written by Bad English on 26.09.2020 at 07:35 Some metalheads especially those who love doom like myself sometimes tend to look for the darkest and atmospheric music compared to those looking for the fastest and most brutal music. Anathema may not have played metal after the 90s but even after they're death-doom phase it was atmospheric and leaning towards a melodic style of doom or in the case of Eternity and Alternative 4 gothic metal. Usually the catchiness of the atmosphere and how depressing the music is is what drives people to love Anathema's music. Not entirely sure about their 2000s-Onwards era. I guess the reason for the praise for that era and for the gathering after nighttime birds is because they were carefully crafted musically and have experimented in a direction where the music still has great quality. Not sure if that answers why metalheads love Anathema but this what I think is a reason.
Loading...
|
 Posts: 8291 |
Posts: 8291 Written by Starvynth on 26.09.2020 at 01:37 Add The Silent Enigma (which I consider to be their absolute best) to those two and we can both have stones thrown at us. For me, Anathema became uninteresting after Judgement. It's not the fact that they ditched metal, just that their music didn't appeal to me anymore. Congrats on your first review!
Loading...
|
| Posts: 64542 |
Posts: 64542
Gothic I listen non metal music sometimes, but this band, never worked to me.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| Posts: 163 |
Posts: 163 Written by Bad English on 26.09.2020 at 10:48 No judgment on that. Anathema's later music is not for everybody. It took me a long time to really get into their later music.
Loading...
|
| Posts: 64542 |
Posts: 64542 Written by Gothic Metalhead on 26.09.2020 at 10:54 I Never even tried. Thete are millions of new bands what comes to scene whit real metal albums, even in death doom
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
 Posts: 2794 |
Posts: 2794 Written by Gothic Metalhead on 26.09.2020 at 08:43 qft
Loading...
|
Hits total: 1479 | This month: 10