### Anathema, The Wounded, 2010-04-23

#### 30/04/10 || Altmer

Who: Anathema, The Wounded Where: Bibelot, Dordrecht, Netherlands When: 23rd of April, 2010

Ok, so, strictly, maybe one song played during this gig was metal. But Anathema used to be a metal band anyhow, and I’ll cover their gig anyway. Because I love Anathema, and this is my third time seeing them live – of which they have disappointed exactly zero times. If you don’t like slow, atmospheric, moody alterna-prog-rock, turn away. Don’t go to their gigs and expect a mosphit, ferocious blastbeats, or death growls of yore. Their new material is even more of a slow, melodic rock fest that all ye metalheads won’t appreciate. But despite this image – their show is really fucken strong.

You wanna know why? Engagement. Those guys look like they love being on stage. The crowd banter, the expression on their faces: they love playing so much you can tell it’s in their hearts. They tour a lot, in small bars, clubs, and everywhere, and still when they play to a few hundred people only you know that a band with a status this legendary are good because they love what they’re doing. It’s the smile on their faces when you clap after a song that makes you know these guys won’t leave the stage until they’re absolutely sure that every fan in the crowd has had their due.

Openers for the gig were The Wounded, some boring combo of goth rock, indie, and post-rock. You know what? They weren’t bad, but it’s dull, dull stuff, and not something I’m gonna waste more than a paragraph on because even though it was all solid I got too bored to actually pay attention. My phone was more interesting than these guys. That about says it all.

Anathema, however, fucken dominated again. The previous two gigs were nothing less than divine and this was no different. Even though most of the new material was a bit tepid and slow, I enjoyed it, and during the old songs, I went crazy. “Deep” is a masterpiece and belongs on the setlist, always. Faster, “Panic”-y (get it) numbers create a nice distraction from the slow pace the band sometimes sets into and I enjoy how they switch from one extreme to another. They even pulled out oldie “Sleepless”, which is actually the only metal song they still play often (apart from A Dying Wish sometimes).

New full-time member and chickvox mistress Lee Douglas also did a lot of female vocals for the songs, and it made “A Natural Disaster” a delight to hear (even though the lyrics from that song piss me off and “Temporary Peace” is better). The performance of Danny Cavanagh on guitars blows my mind – he’s Gilmour and Thom Yorke meets Steven Wilson, all rolled up into one mindblowing package. I love the slow, bluesy guitar solos he does and the closing solo to “One Last Goodbye” gave me chills. In fact, closing with that and “Fragile Dreams” – my two all-time favourite Anathema songs and maybe two of my all-time favourite songs period made for the best ending of a set I’ve seen in a while.

Even though this band seems like it’s music for narcoleptics and comatose lizards, they have an extremely fun and engaging live demeanor and you are encouraged to go check this band out. They know atmosphere, songwriting and performance inside out and there is nary a band I have enjoyed more than the three times I have watched this band play. It is worth every penny.

10 narcoleptics out of 10.

- Band
- Vincent Cavanagh: lead vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar
- Daniel Cavanagh: lead guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Lee Douglas: vocals
- Les Smith: keyboards
- Jamie Cavanagh: bass
- John Douglas: drums

- Setlist
- 01. Thin Air
- 02. Deep
- 03. Forgotten Hopes
- 04. Destiny is Dead
- 05. Empty
- 06. Get Off, Get Out
- 07. Angels Walk Among Us
- 08. Presence
- 09. A Simple Mistake
- 10. Closer
- 11. A Natural Disaster
- 12. Everything
- 13. Dreaming Light
- 14. Judgement
- 15. Panic
- 16. Flying
- Encore
- 17. Universal
- 18. Hindsight
- 19. Sleepless
- 20. One Last Goodbye
- 21. Fragile Dreams