Anathema (band)

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anathema
Anathema-logo.svg
Anathema 2004.jpg
General information
Genre (s) Death Doom , Gothic Metal , Dark Rock , Alternative Rock , Progressive Rock
founding 1990
Website www.anathema.ws
Founding members
Darren White (until 1995)
Daniel "Danny" Cavanagh
Vincent Cavanagh
Jamie Cavanagh (until 1991, since 2002)
John Douglas (until 1997, since 1998)
Current occupation
Daniel "Danny" Cavanagh
Vincent Cavanagh
(vocals since 1995)
Jamie Cavanagh (1990–1991, since 2002)
John Douglas (1990–1997, since 1998)
Lee Douglas (since 2000)
Daniel Cardoso (since 2012)
former members
Shaun Taylor-Steels (1997-1998)
Martin Powell (1998-2000)
Duncan Patterson (1991-1998)
Dave Pybus (1998-2001)
George Roberts (2001)
Les Smith (2000-2011)

Anathema ( Greek ανάθεμα - 'the consecrated', 'the curse', 'the ban from church [the anathema ]') is a British band that has developed from atmospheric Death Doom and Gothic Metal to a very unique form of melancholic alternative rock .

history

Foundation and beginning as a doom metal band

Anathema was founded under the name Pagan Angel in 1990 as a Death Doom band by Vincent and Danny Cavanagh together with singer Darren White, bassist Duncan Patterson and drummer John Douglas in Liverpool . This is the composition of the first demo An Iliad of Woes (1991). Especially in the opening act of well-known English death metal bands such as Bolt Thrower and Paradise Lost , they achieved local importance, which increased even further with the second demo All Faith Is Lost . The subsequent single They Die was released on the small label Witchhunt in Switzerland and caught the attention of the record company Peaceville Records , which Anathema signed.

In 1992 Anathemas Lovelorn Rhapsody appeared on the fourth Peaceville sampler, a month later the EP Crestfallen . Then the band played as the opening act for the death metal band Cannibal Corpse . In 1993 Anathema released their first album Serenades , which received good reviews. On it you can mostly hear deep Death Metal-like shouting, with keyboard passages and female vocals it shows the elements that were later described as formative for Gothic Metal. The video for Sweet Tears was also played on MTV's Headbangers Ball . This was followed by touring activities with Cradle of Filth , Pyogenesis and My Dying Bride .

At the beginning of 1995 another EP followed with Pentecost III , recorded in May 1994, but with a total playing time of over 41 minutes the LP was long. In the same year the singer Darren White got out and founded The Blood Divine , guitarist Vinnie Cavanagh also took over this part. Without White, the album The Silent Enigma was recorded in the same year . The vocals on this EP, as on the previous EP, are partly designed as higher shouting, partly spoken monotonously. The music is still based on Doom Metal and with some orchestral keyboards and the female vocals in ... Alone on Gothic Metal.

Change of genre to alternative rock

The 1996 album Eternity goes a step further. It still partly contains Gothic Metal elements, but now for the first time clear vocals, the keyboards now dominate the music. A tour with Trouble and Massacra followed. A Vision of a Dying Embrace , a collection of videos and a complete concert recording, was released on video cassette in 1997. In the same year John Douglas left the group, but returned to Anathema a year later, but only after the recording of Alternative 4 . In the meantime he has been replaced by former Solstice drummer Shaun Steels.

After the recordings of Alternative 4 , the bassist and songwriter Duncan Patterson left the band and devoted himself primarily to his newly formed band Antimatter in the following years . Anathema found replacement for the former founding member in Dave Pybus. After the album Judgment , keyboardist Martin Powell, who had just left My Dying Bride and started at Anathema, switched to Cradle of Filth, from which Les Smith joined Anathema.

On the following album A Fine Day to Exit Anathema developed her style further. The songs became more and more atmospheric and the song structures a little less complex. Acoustic guitars and keyboards characterize the more melodic songs, into which more powerful passages are only occasionally interspersed. The now more accessible songs are partly more reminiscent of Pink Floyd than of the band's early days. Dave Pybus stayed until after the recordings for A Fine Day to Exit and then switched to Cradle of Filth, soon after founder Danny Cavanagh left and switched briefly to Antimatter , but returned to the band. This album was produced by Nick Griffith , who also produced Pink Floyd and Mansun .

Anathema's seventh studio album, almost entirely written by Danny Cavanagh in 2003, was A Natural Disaster . The band line-up consisted of the brothers Danny, Vincent and Jamie Cavanagh, the original drummer John Douglas and Les Smith. In the following years Anathema did not have a record deal, but still worked on new material. Three new pieces were initially available for download on the band's homepage. In autumn 2007 the band appeared as support for some concerts of Porcupine Tree .

On August 25, 2008 the semi-acoustic album Hindsight was released by the Kscope label. The album contains a compilation of older songs in new versions as well as a completely new track. In May 2010 the band released their new studio album, We're Here Because We're Here . Steven Wilson , the singer and songwriter of Porcupine Tree , was at the mixer. At this time Lee Douglas, the sister of drummer John Douglas, also became a full member of the band after she had been a guest singer on the two previous albums.

On September 13, 2011, Anathema announced on their website the resignation of keyboardist Les Smith due to musical differences. In April 2012 the band released the album Weather Systems , which continues the path of the band towards increasingly melodic songs with a pronounced melancholy mood. After the album was released, a tour through Europe began in Poland, which lasted from April to November 2012 and subsequently also took the band to Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, France, England, Sweden, Lithuania and Austria. Live keyboardist Daniel Cardoso has been a full member of the band since November 2012. The Weather Systems Tour released a live recording of the Plovdiv concert in Bulgaria in September 2013 . With Distant Satellites Anathema released their tenth studio album in June 2014. In the course of the release there was some restructuring in the band. Daniel Cardoso switched to drums. Daniel Cardoso and John Douglas take turns on drums during live performances. In the passages in which Daniel Cardoso plays the drums, John Douglas takes over the percussion instruments. When John Douglas plays the drums, Daniel Cardoso takes over the keyboard. Danny Cavanagh also takes over the keyboard at times.

In June 2017 the album "The Optimist" followed.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Judgment
  DE 69 07/05/1999 (2 weeks)
A fine day to exit
  DE 95 10/15/2001 (1 week)
We're Here Because We're Here
  DE 50 06/18/2010 (1 week)
Falling Deeper
  DE 60 09/23/2011 (1 week)
Weather Systems
  DE 14th 05/04/2012 (3 weeks)
  AT 43 05/04/2012 (1 week)
  CH 91 05/06/2012 (1 week)
  UK 50 04/28/2012 (1 week)
Universal
  DE 66 10/11/2013 (1 week)
  UK 81 05/10/2013 (1 week)
Distant satellites
  DE 18th 06/20/2014 (3 weeks)
  AT 42 06/20/2014 (1 week)
  CH 77 06/15/2014 (1 week)
  UK 33 06/21/2014 (1 week)
A sort of homecoming
  DE 65 11/06/2015 (1 week)
The optimist
  DE 17th 06/16/2017 (2 weeks)
  AT 37 06/23/2017 (1 week)
  CH 35 06/18/2017 (1 week)
  UK 34 06/22/2017 (1 week)

Demos

  • An Iliad of Woes (1990)
  • All Faith Is Lost (1991)

Albums

EPs

Compilations

  • Resonance (2001)
  • Resonance 2 (2002)
  • Hindsight (2008)
  • Falling Deeper (2011)
  • Fine Days: 1999-2004 (2015)
  • Internal Landscapes (2019)

Singles

  • They Die (1992)
  • We Are the Bible (1994)
  • Alternative Future (1998)
  • Deep (1999)
  • Make It Right (1999)
  • Pressure (2001)
  • Everything (2006, download only)
  • A Simple Mistake (2006, download only)
  • Everything (2007, download only)

Video albums

  • Visions of a Dying Embrace (2002)
  • Were You There? (2005)
  • A Moment in Time (2006)
  • Universal (2013)
  • A Sort of Homecoming (2015)

Web links

Commons : Anathema  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b www.allmusic.com: Band page Anathema
  2. ↑ Anathema at laut.de
  3. ↑ www.allmusic.com: Goth Metal
  4. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK