Band:	Anata
Album:	Dreams Of Death And Dismay
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	April 02, 2001
Guest review by:	Visioneerie

01. Die Laughing
02. Faith, Hope, Self-Deception
03. God Of Death
04. Metamorphosis By The Well Of Truth
05. Dreamon
06. Can't Kill What's Already Dead
07. Insurrection
08. The Enigma Of Number Three
09. Drain Of Blood
10. The Temple / Erratic

Anata is a band that merged over a decade ago bringing us death metal lovers their unique and wicked take on the genre. Dreams of Death and Dismay is an album that didn't quite do much for me at first listen but struck my curiosity nonetheless due to how strangely different yet how conventional it sounded. In just over a year or so, this album climbed highly in my regards. Why? Because Anata brings the perfect balance between innovative, strange and familiar sounding death metal.

All throughout the album you get a sick taste of what this band brings forth to the table. The band carefully craft their songs to bring out the most of them. Whether it would be their eerie take on melodies found on tracks like 'The Enigma of Number Three' and 'Can't Kill What's Already Dead' or maybe their heavy driven groove sections scattered throughout the album. We can throw in some technical intricacies in the overall structures of the songs as well like the beloved time signatures changes or the mad swirling guitar riffs. Pitch in some strange but spectacular guitar harmonies and some evil sounding chord progressions easily comparable to some of Morbid Angel's works and you've got a minim idea of what the album sounds like. Anata bring us the best of many worlds into their focused songwriting while being able to make their songs sound very organic.

The sound on the album is heavy and raw giving it an old school edge or preferably your trademark Swedish death metal sound. For the music's sake everything is very discernible whether it be those razor sharp/fast paced guitars not over clouding the tasteful drum playing of Conny Peterson nor the pounding bass of Henrik Drake. Fredrik Schalin's barking vocals are well blended into the mix and sound freakishly similar to those of Dismember's. All this put into account and how Dreams of Death and Dismay seems to feel like a darker and more evil display than most of the death metal that we're accustomed to hearing these days bringing us back to the more sinister sounding bands of the genre (Morbid Angel, Incantation, [band]Immolation[/band) all while composing highly technical music. As a listener, you can't help but get a psychedelic vibe out of the strange and neat melodies these guys put together.

Anata knows the game all too well and they are a rare breed in today's death metal scene. Dreams of Death and Dismay is a perfect showing of balanced and rich songwriting reflecting an ideal example of the genre. It's the mixture of the strange and the familiar that make for this album an interesting listen and of lasting value. Anything you can ask for in a death metal record is here. If you're looking for a special take on the genre all while maintaining its fundamentals then let this be the first album to show you how it's really done.