ANATHEMA IN MOSCOW — The MetalList

In August through November 2005, russia was visited by nearly all the most celebrated bands that began playing doom-death in the early 90s — the absolute majority of whom subsequently changed their style. SENTENCED and KATATONIA visited moscow for the first time; AMORPHIS and PARADISE LOST were there for the third time; TIAMAT visited moscow for the second time. Earlier in 2005 CREMATORY and LAKE OF TEARS had also honoured the russian capital with their presence. In 2006, having once again heavied their sound, MOONSPELL played russia for the third time, drawing an astonishingly large crowd. In September 2006, LAKE OF TEARS returned and gave a whole series of concerts in Ukraine and russia.

An impressive list — the only two names missing from it are MY DYING BRIDE, the only ones among those mentioned who have remained faithful to doom metal, and one other band… In fact, if you hand my preamble to anyone who listens to this kind of music, they will immediately say that what's missing is a magnificent English collective from Liverpool, who recorded their first demos back in 1990, released gorgeous doom-metal albums in 1993 and 1995, and later effectively changed their style and sound — since then five more albums have appeared, each of them wonderful in its own way. The band is instantly recognisable by their signature keyboard parts, memorable vocals, melancholy mood, and inimitable atmosphere. SO: ON 22–23 SEPTEMBER, ANATHEMA VISITED russia FOR THE FIRST TIME.

This was one of those cases where the concert was known about four months in advance. The excitement among the band's numerous fans was immediate. The result: not long before the start of the September 22nd concert, the queue to the "Tochka" club stretched almost as far as Leninsky Prospekt. And from that point, in order. TheMetalList.com representatives — your humble servant and Mr. McAllen — were at the club from around 5 in the afternoon. The press conference was delayed due to a number of issues, but once inside the "Tochka" chill-out room, everyone forgot about that.

There are pretentious bands; there are boring ones off-stage; and then there are direct, entirely unpretentious, and unbelievably friendly ones. In the chill-out room, half-reclining on the furniture, sat brothers Vincent, Daniel, and Jamie Cavanagh (guitarist-vocalist, guitarist, and bassist of the band), with keyboardist Les Smith squeezed between Jamie and Vincent, and the other family in the form of John Douglas (band drummer) and Lee (backing vocals) — here, in the flesh, was ANATHEMA.

The first thing Daniel did was take the lion's share of the beer sitting on the table in front of the musicians and hand it to the journalists, after which he spent more than half an hour answering the bulk of the questions. The band is looking for a label; once found, another studio release will follow; the musicians would very much like to visit and perform in the USA; they rate their popularity in their home country — Britain — as lower than in other countries. Questions were asked about Darren White. Daniel said they have little contact with MY DYING BRIDE, while maintaining a friendly relationship with Nick Holmes of PARADISE LOST. On the band's name: "we were young back then — and then it became impossible to change." And now the press conference's climax: in response to the question of whether the Cavanagh family offends the Douglas family, Lee affirms that they absolutely do; Vincent unexpectedly almost rises from his half-reclining position, glances at the notepad, and delivers a phrase in russian that is unprintable here — despite his English accent, it was pronounced correctly. The press conference paused naturally, as everyone needed a moment to recover from the ambushed laughter. To my question of what other russian swear words Vincent knew, I was directed, as if on cue, to a classic three-letter address. That was the spirit in which the press conference was conducted — quite unexpected. What particularly deserves mention: the presence of a competent translator who was familiar with the band's work and understood metal music. Against a backdrop of press conferences that had turned into comedies of errors because the translators knew both rock music and English equally poorly, this was a very pleasant fact. After it concluded, the journalists descended on Daniel and Vincent — and to a lesser extent on everyone else — requesting autographs and photographs.

Throughout this time the crowd in the hall was growing. The support act had been cancelled; after a while, when there were already very many people, the concert organiser came on stage and said the show was about to begin and was running late because of large queues at the club entrance, as an enormous number of people wanted to see the band.

In the end the first floor of the club was packed absolutely to capacity; even the third floor (with free access) had a significant number of people; people sat on the windowsills, stood on every staircase, looked for a spot with a better view that didn't require standing in the main crowd in front of the stage. A full house — over a thousand people, all of them waiting impatiently for the musicians to take the stage. Finally the intro plays; the musicians appear. And the hall is healed by the G-minor melody better known as "Shroud Of False" from the 1998 album Alternative 4 — a brief prelude to that album but with a vocal part. Here comes the first minor disappointment, probably the only one of the whole wonderful evening: the sound was, to put it mildly, uneven in different parts of the hall. Meanwhile the instrumental section of "Fragile Dreams" begins. Even by that point I felt a singular atmosphere, something I had never felt on the studio recordings. This was enhanced by spectacular lighting design. As on the album, "Fragile Dreams" flows into "Empty," and rounding off the opening phase of the concert is "Lost Control" — unlike the fairly sharp "Empty," during this quiet, slow, and sombre song, in which a significant portion passes with only keyboard accompaniment, you could clearly hear the overwhelming majority of the hall singing along, especially on the chorus.

The next "block" from the latest album, A Natural Disaster. It should also be mentioned that for around half the concert, Vincent played an acoustic guitar (one would love to believe that Vincent and Daniel might one day give an acoustic concert in moscow — they have extensive experience in this and the band's music is absolutely brilliant and inimitable when played acoustically). After the brief "Balance" comes "Closer," during which Vincent approaches an additional synthesizer (besides the two in front of the keyboardist) and a specially positioned microphone above it — producing a voice-distortion effect, just as on the album.

Lee Douglas appears on stage and performs "A Natural Disaster" — a beautiful song written in the manner of old American blues. She stays on stage to sing one more — "Everything," a new composition that had been available online for quite some time, posted by the musicians themselves, who asked fans to purchase it for a nominal sum and thereby support the band in difficult circumstances following their label dropping them. The performance of this psychedelic masterpiece is the most enchanting moment of the evening for me personally.

Then comes "One Last Goodbye" — a wonderful example of the acoustic guitar sound; the song ends and, to the cries of the crowd joining in, Vincent reads the spoken-word intro to "Hope" from Eternity (1996) — a beautiful composition built on an unbroken guitar solo motif. A triumphant conclusion, followed by the title track from the 1999 album Judgement; it is a composition built on an escalating dynamic, with the pace constantly building — but it was destined not to be played to its full conclusion, as the rushing section organically merged into "Panic" — one of the band's fastest and most aggressive compositions. The live performance is simply something else: the inimitable energy — it doesn't sound anywhere near as fierce and raw on the studio recording.

The melancholy, drawn-out "Flying" from the latest album closed the main setlist — but the music didn't stop. Throughout the break before the encore the closing motif continued to play while the stage, bathed in blue light, emptied.

The encore began with "Angelica" from the 1996 album, greeted with enthusiasm by fans of the band's older work; but on the next song the fans of early ANATHEMA simply erupted — and immediately, from the opening guitar solo — because what rang out was the defining hit of the band's early period: "A Dying Wish" from Silent Enigma (1995) — in the new version, naturally, with clean vocals, but with the atmosphere fully intact. Then another new song — "Simple Mistake," written in the canon of progressive rock — followed by a very old song from the band's very first album of 1993, Serenade; the song's name is "Sleepless." After that: the concert's closing piece — "Comfortably Numb," the PINK FLOYD cover from the second disc of the legendary The Wall.

The concert is over. More than a thousand people struggle toward the exits, but on every face a smile, and joy — the concert was simply magical. An indescribable atmosphere and mystery, an enchanted feeling that persisted throughout the entire evening. Let us hope the band unfailingly includes our part of the world in the schedule of their future tours.

Report by Alan Photo report — McAllen

Special thanks to Delta Mekong Concert and personally to Vladimir and Leonid for the accreditation provided /and for the absence of a time limit on photography!/

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