Judgement

by

Anathema

Edit

Anathema, and this album in particular, were recommended to me in a random conversation in a chatroom about a month ago. I was told, based on my muscial tastes, that this was an album I simply had to own and that it "even brings metalheads to tears." This I had to see. I ordered the CD that night and got it in the mail a few days later. I have to confess that my resistance to the idea of an album that could make metalheads weep like sissies probably contributed to my relative indifference to this CD at first. While I thought the melodies and overall musicianship were good for a nice mellow drive in the mountains, I have to say that there was nothing on this album that would make me sob like a girl.

I own over 800 CD's from all different genres. I've come to a point where I rarely pay attention to the lyrics in a song unless it's really catchy. Such was the case with Judgement. Nothing had really caught my ear. About a week after buying "Judgement," I was driving home from work when "One Last Goodbye" played. I felt a little spark. By the end of "Parisienne Moonlight," I had to pull over. For one reason or another, I'd actually listened to the lyrics, and it brought back a flood of memories. Every girl I'd ever loved and lost, every girl I'd loved and never told. All the things I should have said or done came flooding back like a maelstrom of pain and sorrow. No song or album has ever done that.

Since then, I've paid more attention to the album in its entirety. While I still think the aforementioned tracks are still my favorites, the emotional depth and impact of this album is undeniable. This is music with which everyone on earth can identify. The mood each song sets, the feelings described in the lyrics, and the emotions ellicited by the album overall are universal and undeniable; we've all felt them. I don't think it matters what genre of music you like. It would be a mistake not to check out this album.

though most would disagree judgement was certainly a huge disapointment. what made it worse was members being so comfortable with their work that they had to slag their earlier and better albums and other bands off . For most of the people this was the album where anathema truly reached the musical godhead and made their masterpiece. It's kinda ironic that when bands state that they've found themselves and that they have ignored the strict limitations of metal genre they start to make ordinary rock music that's been done thousands of times before. Songs on offer aren't fresh or exciting."the silent enigma" and "alternative 4 " owed a lot to "pandemonium"-era celtic frost (TSE) and pink floyd (A4) but they were still great albums full of good songs, memoarable passages and interesting lyrics.

there's nothing that wrong with this album but i think it lacks anykind of emotional power or sincierity. there's a song about every single human failure or problem like alcoholism, broken relationships, loneliness. If they really are sinciere it seems that their way to deal with these topics is as deep and heartfelt as that of mariah carey's. i'm sorry for the lads not getting that commercial breakthrought they hoped for with this album because there's not much else they could have achieved with it.