Band:	Anathema
Album:	Serenades
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	February 1993
Guest review by:	Gothic Metalhead

01. Lovelorn Rhapsody
02. Sweet Tears
03. J'ai Fait Une Promesse
04. They (Will Always) Die
05. Sleepless
06. Sleep In Sanity
07. Scars Of The Old Stream
08. Under A Veil (Of Black Lace)
09. Where Shadows Dance
10. Eternal Rise Of The Sun [2003 remaster bonus]
11. Nailed To The Cross / 666 [2003 remaster bonus]
12. Dreaming: The Romance

What a prolific year for the growing death-doom sub-genre. 1993 not only saw some of the best releases from Disembowelment, Katatonia and My Dying Bride, but this was beginning of some of these bands transitioning into the developing Gothic metal subgenre. Anathema's debut album was one such death-doom release.

The timing of this album was better than their previous EP The Crestfallen, as Serenades is another installment in the band's death-doom era that was unique at the time of its release. This was always my least favorite Anathema record out of all of their metal albums, and there have been reasons why. I listened to this album recently for the sake of this review to see if anything changed about the album.

Let's talk about the positives. Rhythmically, Serenades is a great album from a death-doom perspective. The tempos and John Douglas' performance is really where the album shines; as bands like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost had tendencies to speed up their tempos at certain points into death metal territory, Serenades stays slow and heavy throughout the entire album, sounding more doom compared to the band's contemporaries.

The first half of Serenades has some great songs, with "Lovelorn Rhapsody," "Sweet Tears" and "Sleepless" being the highlights of the album. The band uses some really catchy rhythms in the guitar work and the use of melodic Gothic elements as heard in "They (Will Always) Die." Those who have the fortune to grab their hands on the CD with bonus tracks will be treated with a remastered version of "All Faith Is Lost", a relentless death-doom song that managed to be one of Anathema's most brutal tracks. I will also admit that I like the vocal effects heard in the beginning of "Sleepless" because of how atmospheric and dreamy it sounds.

However, the biggest issue I have with Serenades is how inconsistent it sounds, more particularly with some of the songs on the second half of the songs, as well as Darren White's performance and the lyrics. Some of the songs are not really that good, with a few of them ending with endless noodling like in "Where Shadows Dance" before then fading out. "Dreaming: The Romance" is obviously my least favorite song off the album because 1) it's far longer than it needed to be and 2) all it is is just holding notes on a keyboard for a long time for the sake of atmosphere, which becomes really boring considering the length of the song. Some lyrics on the album are good, but some were too minimalistic without a clear message. Some are just not as good as I thought they would be; even in the first half of the album, "Sleepless" was just alright. Darren White has had good moments on this album, but for the most part his voice sounds dry, making his voice sound deteriorated. Most of the second half of this album leaves much to be desired.

There is a bright side about Serenades in writing this review. I do like it a little more after listening to it a few times. I used to not like the song "They (Will Always) Die", which has now warmed on me, and I do feel that it has a lot of potential as a death-doom record. However, this still sits as my least favorite Anathema record from the 90s. It's definitely not an album I see myself sitting through the whole thing, but there's still songs on the record that make me go back to listening to it.