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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Naturally NOT a disaster., July 22, 2004
This is another successful addition to the Anathema discography, in the same vein as "Alternative 4" and "A Fine Day to Exit" (not as much "Judgement," even though that came out in between those) with its pianos and keyboards, and softer style songs. Anathema has been so far away from metal for a so long that I shouldn't even have to say this album isn't metal at all. Sure, some parts might be pretty heavy, but I still consider it heavier rock rather than metal. This album is very good but I still consider all 3 albums mentioned earlier better personally. And as always, Anathema?s lyrics are impressive.
It starts off calmly with "Harmonium," which slowly gets heavier, and is mostly a basic song? then comes "Balance" which kind of does the same thing. Here's the best part: Balance stops very suddenly and a new melody is introduced but seems like part of the same song. It starts off "Closer." This song is really cool; I don't know what it is that makes it so catchy and stuck in my head all the time. It has some very unique "robotic" vocals, and a very catchy melody with drums that keep building up. It is one of the few songs, on any CDs that I sometimes play 3-4 times in a row when listening to the CD. It?s definitely my favorite on the album. "Are you There" is a very emotional song, some may say it's melodramatic or cheesy, but it's not too much. It has prominent keyboards and Danny on vocals. "Childhood Dream" is a short but sweet instrumental, very melancholy and nostalgic. "Pulled Under at 2000 Metres a second" starts off with a very fast tempo, foreshadowing that it's going to be a relatively heavy song, and it definitely is. It contains awesome vocal melodies, guitar riffs, and lyrics. "A Natural Disaster" has nice female vocals and a very melancholy mood. "Flying" has amazing vocals and is emotional to the level of "Are you There." "Electricity" gets stuck in my head a lot? a peaceful piano melody with Danny's vocals. "Violence" is a lengthy, beautiful, elaborate instrumental. It starts off with a delicate piano melody that keeps blossoming and changing, and leads into some suspenseful guitars, adding heavier guitars, faster drumming and ethereal sounds along the way, which then fades out to reveal even more graceful piano playing. The latter half of this song is very sparse. Every keystroke seems so perfect, it seems like the ideal song to stare at the stars to, but that's getting too cheesy.
Anathema has practically detached themselves from metal at this point, and they are good at what they do now. I'm not one of those people that is so disappointed when a metal band completely changes: it's usually for the better.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maturity, November 13, 2005
It's been a fun and eventful journey listening to anathema mature, developing from their doom metal beginnings, hearing those first shy and guilty grasps toward harmony and melody, in time learning, gaining courage, growing, perfecting.
Listening to "alternative 4" there's no more doubt that anathema are speeding toward becoming accomplished alt-rock artists, the following "judgment" only confirms this and comes as crowning moment of their journey and all they've become.
Preceded by "resonance", a best of compilation, as though hinting at closing a chapter, out comes the troubling and controversial "a fine day to exit", taking a step further, forsaking all overt metal elements it employs some digital instruments and what can be best described as a metal-twinged trip hop atmosphere. The album at times erratic in styles, like in the case of "panic" sounding like punk-metal, shows a band in ambitious creative turmoil, reaching further and experimenting, sometimes falling tripped by it's own overeager footsteps, sometimes succeeding marvelously.
Finally, "a natural disaster" arrives, a mature and complete work of art, made by a group of artists comfortable with them selves and their desires, comfortable with their abilities and skills. Craftily combining the past and present, the best elements of the "judgment" era and the experimentation of "a fine day to exit". As such, a vocoder can be heard over the familiar metal harmonies of yesterday, without each component seeming out of place, but completing each other, just as anathema has finally gathered all the elements and completed it self as a mature and significant band of the alternative scene, with a sound and style of their own.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Band Apart, January 13, 2005
I own all their albums and know how they've evolved. But the post-eternity-Anathema is something so beautifully carved onto rock music that one cant really escape its grip. My mood varies in marking "judgement" or "alternative 4" as their true masterpiece simply because when I hear the intro violins of "fragile dreams" & the immaculate literature in "inner silence" off alternative 4 and compare it with the heart ripping "one last goodbye" & the perfect composition of "emotional winter" of judgement, I get confused. For me the band has no main-stream and defined genre. It might get compared to katatonia or my dying bride or the sweet sounding opeth or even pink floyd-put-to-metal, but for me its a class in its own. "Temporary peace" was enough for me to get "a fine day to exit" and the cd cover of a lonesome boat surviving a disaster is more than enough to get "a natural disaster" as it speaks on its own about the profundity in their music.
A natural disaster has got nothing to do with their roots in terms of music genre. Neither has judgement, nor has alternative 4 and obviously not "a fine day to exit". It seems as if they've been changing the nature of sadness in all their albums, sort of like a maturity and persistence in melancholy in thoughts that makes them write those kind of lyrics and convert them into small musical master pieces. Now thats art. Malady in music is not about growling gothic stuff or screaming just like a guitar, its about maturity in the expression. My dying bride tend to do it, so does opeth with their exquisite lyrics.....but anathema is something else. While clinging on to its metal roots, it transforms into celestial kind of a sad impression marked with loneliness. This band is not for someone who likes to rock hard, bang head, go wild or growl, its for someone who likes to listen to depression. Every album offers a different kind of depression. A Natural disaster not only adds another beautiful addition to the band's discography, it also takes them to a well established position where the musicians are talented, love to experiment and succeed all the time.
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album A Natural Disaster 
