Tag: post metal

anathema - universal
CD

Anathema: Universal (2013)

Sometimes you pick up a live album because you want to hear a band stretch it wings on beloved songs, take them for a curved walk around the park, breathe and expand.  Or get that unrelenting push in your face, the sensation of air moving, of heat and sweat and the pummeling that only comes when a raucous roar of guitars hits your face, and this is the closest you can come to that experience.  Or, in this specific case, you see Anathema in their first NYC show in years and when you go to the merch table to you want to show your support, so you pick up a shirt and a copy of Universal, hoping it’ll be close to the experience you just had live. Continue reading “Anathema: Universal (2013)”

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anathema - a natural disaster
CD

Anathema: A Natural Disaster (2003)

In many ways A Natural Disaster feels like the tonal and musical success Anathema were shooting for with Alternative 4.  After moving into more alternative and post-rock with Judgement and A Fine Day To Exit (the sound of which I always thought was “what if Coldplay and Radiohead had a baby and it preferred metal?) the band shifts back to something darker and more reflective.  It’s a thick, lush record that stands as one of the strongest in their discography. Continue reading “Anathema: A Natural Disaster (2003)”

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anathema - alternative 4
CD

Anathema: Alternative 4 (1998)

With Cavanagh firmly working the clean vocals that would a signature of all their later albums, Anathema started working on the evolution of their music with Alternative 4, which languishes in morose moods, a bit to its detriment.  There are still whispers of the heaviness of previous albums, but when the band goes full-on forlorn, too often the songs get a little lost.  As such, it’s an interesting record of a band finding its footing in a new arena, with some really great tracks and some tracks that lack the bite or claws to dig in and be truly memorable.  Continue reading “Anathema: Alternative 4 (1998)”

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alcest - kodama
CD

Alcest: Kodama (2016)

With Kodama, it feels like Alcest finally merged genre they were influenced by into one fully homogenized style, and to be honest I’m not 100% certain I love it.  Which is not to say Kodama isn’t a very good album or that I don’t enjoy it; it is and I do.  But there was something so pure about the way the earlier albums would juxtapose black metal, post rock, shoegaze and pop into these amorphous pieces that would sometimes touch and overlap, only to pull away again that I loved; in a way it reflected my own fractured way of looking at the world.    Continue reading “Alcest: Kodama (2016)”

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agalloch - ashes against the grain
CD

Agalloch: Ashes Against the Grain (2006)

John Haughm may consider this his least favorite Agalloch album,  but Ashes Against the Grain is the album where I fell in love with the band.  Sonically more expansive, with an icy sheen that removes most of what could be recognized as black metal in favor of something more post/neofolk/progressive…call if whatever you want, but the album drips with a somber beauty that captures the essence of what Agalloch brought to the genre. Continue reading “Agalloch: Ashes Against the Grain (2006)”

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