Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here

Genre: Prog, New Prog
Name: Anathema
Album: We're Here Because We're Here, 2010
No more are they subject to the Anathema...

Anathema, one of the original Peaceville three, never really seemed to hold a place in my heart as a really good band. This was for a number of reasons, partly my annoyance that they gave up being a doom metal band, as did Paradise Lost, with only My Dying Bride retaining, in my eyes, some form of integrity; I perceived that the others had sold out. As a result, I didn't follow either career with a great deal of interest, which is why it's taken close to a year for me to actually listen to this release.

Certainly, it is nothing like the original Anathema. It bears little or no resemblance to An Iliad of Woes or Serenades, with their low-tuned guitars and heavy atmosphere. But that is because it is now a completely different genre. Anathema, once the pioneers of doom metal, are now not even part of that scene.

I'll admit that this is old news for many of you; they've been drifting this way since Eternity. However, for those readers who were not aware of the band's history, I felt it important to make this clear. This album, I think, is somewhat of the antithesis of doom metal, and therefore, once you know the background, the inception of Anathema's career, it bears witness to their excellent talent as musicians, that they are capable of composing music in such a wide variety of styles.

This album, I feel, is the epitome of New Prog, a combination of progressive metal and rock with alternative music, and showcased in bands like Coheed And Cambria and The Mars Volta. The album showcases this excellently, combining heavy sections that are indubitably metal with light, atmospheric sections that would be hard pushed to be called rock. As a result, you have an album which fills the roles both of background and foreground music, something you put on and also something you listen to.

It comes, of course, with an extensive credentials. My first thoughts of this album were that it sounded like a heavier version of Porcupine Tree, and I was not mistaken in my sensing of Steven Wilson's hand in this work (He, and Jordan Rudess, seem to be appearing on everything I listen to at the moment) - he produced and mixed the album. On the exceptionally well-written keyboards, you find Les "Lecter" Smith, of Cradle Of Filth (Specifically, he was on, amongst others, the album Cruelty And The Beast, one of their best). Beyond this, you have the Finnish singer Ville Valo making a guest appearence on Angels Walk Among Us. And, of course, you have the Cavanagh trio and the Douglases making up Anathema. In short, it has got an excellent cast.

Musically, it's very well good. There are a range of vocal styles and vocalists, combined with the occasional use of samples, all of which combine to carry the album. The guitar work is excellent, as is the bass. The drumming is very well done, at times the background and at times leading the piece. But the keyboards are by far the best instrument in this album, creating excellent atmospheres and stunning music. To point any track out as the best would be to undermine any others, and it is their role as an album that makes We're Here Because We're Here so great. Each song is brought in by the one before it and carries into the one after it so gracefully and elegantly to say that any individual piece is better than any other is to say that you like that corner of the painting more than anything else within it. It is the painting as a whole, the album as a whole, that is so excellent, and why this one is worth a listen.

Summary: A must for Porcupine Tree fans; brilliant new prog.
Lyrical Themes: the philosophical and actual roles of love and the fragility of human life.
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. Thin Air
2. Summernight Horizon
3. Dreaming Light
4. Everything
5. Angels Walk Among Us
6. Presence
7. A Simple Mistake
8. Get Off, Get Out
9. Universal
10. Hindsight

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