Customer Reviews

Saviour

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dark and sad. Those are the words of choice for describing _Saviour_. It just bleeds those senses out of every note. From the production's haunting echoes, the forlorn melancholy of the vocalists, lyrics of lost beauty, sorrow, loneliness.... not fun stuff, but it makes for a great album. So what is this stuff anyway? In case it matters, Antimatter is the project of Duncan Patterson and Michael Moss, the former having once been a member of Anathema. I can't really comment much on their background, but their somber inspiration on this album leaves a mark and has inspired me to look into their credentials some day.

Although Michael Moss sings parts of the songs "Over Your Shoulder" and "The Last Laugh", the vocal performances are largely handled by a pair of female vocalists, Michelle Richfield and Hayley Windsor. Both voices are lighter than air, crystalline and pure, pretty and delicate, and it's hard to imagine singers more perfectly fitting for the melancholy music of this release: dark, ambient pop with a haunting production that is all perfect clarity and harrowing echo. Richfield's voice is a little more robust, breathy, and sexier, while Windsor is almost elfin with her heavier accent and silky smooth quietness.

As I said, the music is basically just beautifully crafted, chilling dark pop. Sparse arrangements of percussion (electronic and acoustic), bass, and perhaps a keyboard and/or guitar leave lots of breathing room for the vocals, which are treated with an overlay of reverb to give the whole album's sound deep space and resonance. "Over Your Shoulder", "Angelic", and especially the sad "Flowers" are stunning songs among great songs. A pair of largely instrumental tracks attain levels of dark atmosphere and mood I've heard few accomplish. "God Is Coming" is a frightening smother of beats that is quite disturbing in the dark. "Going Nowhere" is the album's final cut (not including the bonus tracks), carrying the album off into the darkness with a minimalist four-note synth pattern, a ticking clock, and other harrowing textures that build and shift around these things.

I'm not sure who this is going to appeal to on a general level, since a lot of people who might like the style will never hear of _Saviour_ and those who hear of it might not like the style. Anathema fans? Maybe, heh - I have no idea. In either case, it is excellent music and I recommend it highly.

The feel of the cd is dark, dreamy pop. Although it isn't Pop-ular like the name may suggest, it uses elements from pop music and makes them better. Texture is very spaced out, deep, and rich, but with a lot of melody and rhythm. Instrumentation certainly isn't intricate. Vocals are handled mostly by two female vocalists with very fitting, clear, light voices, with Mick Moss singing some parts too, and a duet going on between 2 of the three quite often. It seems like the whole cd is overlapped with an echo to make a soft, dream-like feeling. "Flowers" particularly feels the most dreamy to me. My favorite songs are "Over your Shoulder," "Angelic," and "The Last Laugh."

There are a lot of instrumental parts in songs. Most of the time just a soft melody with percussion. "God is Coming" is a barrage of scary electronic pulses. The last song, "Going Nowhere" is largely instrumental and if you listen carefully you can even hear a hint of melodies from a couple former Anathema songs. I don't know if that was intentional or not.

This version comes with 2 bonus tracks which are acoustic versions of songs on the CD. While Mike Moss' vocals aren't exactly the greatest, hearing the songs in acoustic "form" is very nice.

As for what kind of fans this will appeal to, who knows. It seems that it's not really advertised in the right place, such as metal sites and metal magazines. Even though Duncan Patterson is involved, this is drastically different from anything Anathema has ever done which was mostly doom metal and then emotional alternative rock, but I enjoy both Anathema and Antimatter.

It's hard to simply describe an album such as this. It's too slow and spooky to be pop and too subdued to be rock; it's atmospheric but not psychedelic, and unquestionably dark but not quite gothic. I once tried to describe it to someone as "what Sarah McLachlan would sound like if she turned evil," but that doesn't quite sum it up either. Whatever you call it though - Saviour is a compelling experience. From the big cocoon of sound they build with washes of eerie synths to the spine-tingling female vocals throughout, it's a musical journey that's as gripping and enveloping as it is bleak and sad. The guitars alternate between fiery scorching and slow tones bordering on ambient minimalism. The keyboards build a marvelous world of ether to get lost in, and listening with headphones only opens the door to a whole new level of aural discovery. From the driving beats on the opening track to the subtle echoing clicks and taps on the slower songs, the rhythm is provided by a simple bed of electronic beats (there are no drums).

Antimatter is the project of two men, Duncan Patterson and Michael Moss (with two female sirens stepping in to provide almost all the voices), and though there's some good studio wizardry at work, it's the songs that make Saviour the wonderful album it is. Moss's more catchy subtle hooks make a wonderful complement to Patterson's songs, which overall are much more slow and moody (except perhaps for "God Is Coming," which erupts into an unexpected burst of techno thuds that's downright menacing). It's a balance that makes for a nicely effective flow to the whole thing, since the sonic textures and the scary mood are consistent through both their modes. The more slow-paced tunes ("Holocaust," "Flowers") may take a little longer to grow on the listener than, say, "The Last Laugh" or the darkly gorgeous "Over Your Shoulder" - which is definitely the disc's high point for me - but even through the less accessible moments, it's a solid 43 minutes without a weak point anywhere (not counting the two acoustic remakes that top everything off, which are just icing on the cake).

Give it a couple listens and Saviour should grab you at least at some points; give it a few more and it'll start revealing its depth and its textures a layer at a time. Give it a while longer than that and maybe the nightmares will stop too.

A nice album by Antimatter. It has a dark mysterious and slow feeling and a little bit melancholic i can say. Its not so masculine music but ok you can hear this album sometimes.

1. Saviour 5/5
2. Holocaust 3/5
3. Over Your Shoulder 5/5
4. Pslams 5/5
5. God Is Coming 5/5
6. Angelic 5/5
7. Flowers 5/5
8. The Last Laugh 4/5
9. Going Nowhere 5/5

TOTAL = 42/45 = 93% = 5 star album


this is one of the best albums i have heard in a long time, every song is so good, like really deep and interesting and easy to listen to, its really beautiful even though its a bit on the darker side of music, i still enjoy the whole album and the melodies are soft and just make you dream and relax...
i highly recommend this album if you are a fan of anathema riverside or pink floyd...it is really good music.

Antimatter is the band of ex-Anathema bassist and main songwriter Dunkan Patterson with the help of vocalist and guitarist Mike Moss and two female vocalists. Antimatter's music is very somber and relaxing, consisting mainly of clean guitars playing in a standard motive accompanied by sampled drumming and keyboard parts. The vocals are mainly female but they are sometimes mixed with the vocals of Mike Moss to create an ever-changing atmosphere. The whole music sometimes reminds of a more rock version of Portishead, especially the female vocals. Highlights of the album include the title track, "Over Your Shoulder", "The Last Laugh" and "Angelic". I must admit that I like the acoustic versions of the two songs much better than the originals and must say that the acoustic style suits the band much better after also seeing them perform live with acoustic guitars and acoustic bass. Nevertheless, "Saviour" is a very good and consistent release, handy for those hours when you want to relax and drift away. Fans of Portishead and late Anathema will definitely enjoy this album.

Just thought to use this opportunity to sing praise to Antimatter, as they still are virtually unknown despite their undisputably high-quality releases. If you are into goth, darkwave, even dark pop with female vocals, do check their records out. As for some odd reason Antimatter only seems to get attention in metal oriented media, their albums are one of the best kept secrets from the followers of other genres. A class act.

what the hell is doom metal or whatever they call it? this isn't metal. this isn't rock. this is electronic. not the raver beats, slow electronica. the cd is bring a relaxed dark mood to life. its not depressing. just dark. whoever said dark was wrong or bad anyway? the vocals and music on the album are amazing. it is definitely not the 'normal' cd you would buy. it has a lot of feeling and emotion involved. highly recommended.

Former Anathema bass player Duncan Patterson is back! After his split with Anathema in the Summer of 1998 after the recordings of the "Alternative 4" album he chose his own path. Besides his activities in the band Dreambreed (with Dave Pybus, the one who replaced him in Anathema and now is on tour with Cradle of Filth, on guitar and vocals he decided he wanted to change his musical direction. He found Michael Moss as his new compagnion and got vocal assistance from Michelle Richfeld (who we know as the female vocalist on the first album of Dominion) and Hayley Windsor as well as former Cradle of Filth and nowadays (again) Anathema keyboard player Les Smith who helped with the sampling. So what can we expect from this gathering of musicians who have paid their debts to the melodic metal scene in Great Brittain? Music like the earlier mentioned bands probably? Wrong!! According to Duncan Patterson, the music can be best described as "experimental dark orchestral ambient electronic dub with female vocals". To be really honest I have nothing much to add to that. I always like to compare the music to other bands and so I do now. Antimatter's music can be compared best to acts such as Portishead and Massive Attack I think. If you would say that that's no metal at all I can't do anything else than fully agree with you but in my modest opinion it's a risky experiment for musicians with such a different musical background which turns out really cool!! For instance songs like "God is Coming" with even a few breakbeats in it, my personal favorite "Psalms" (download it!!) and "Going Nowhere", which even contains some Anathema riffs which we know from "A Dying Wish" and the "Alternative 4" album, proove that even non-metal music can be really good to listen and sit back and relax from time to time...