Resonance (Enhanced)

Im gonna be frank here. This review is getting bad reviews, people are [upset] that Peaceville has cheated its fans out of money with this peice of [junk] best of album.

However I disagree with the masses, this album kicks [butt] and is my favorite doom metal cd that i own. The beauty of it is that is so quiet and so incredibly mellow that its a treat to listen to. The album starts off with a short instrumental song and then goes on to, two great songs with female vocals, j'fait une promesse being one of the best on the album.

The two most popular songs on the album or of course the acoustic versions of far away and eternity (part 3), also great songs.

This is my sleeping album and to tell you the truth I have never slept better then when I fall asleep with this album. This really is the ultimate chill out album.

The songs are also very catchy after a few listens. One problem with it is that its a bit short, the songs are often just over 1 minute long making go by a bit fast.

This isn't your typical best of album and I recommend it to any doom metal fan. I still recommend the full length albums over it but this one still should not be missed.

Resonance is a compilation emphasizing Anathema's "mellow" moments (Resonance 2, released a short time after, focuses primarily on the heavier end of the band's sound'spectrum). The material on offer spans the band's career during the years 1992'1998, during which time they were signed to the Peaceville roster. The disc represents the more ethereal side of the band's music by compiling songs constructed of acoustic guitars, piano, ambient keyboards, and female vocals. Selections from the band's first four full'length recordings, as well as the Crestfallen and Pentecost III EPs are featured. Additionally, bonus tracks from the Japanese version of Eternity (acoustic takes on "Far Away" and "Eternity Pt. III"), three tracks from the 1998 Peaceville X compilation (covers of Bad Religion's "Better Off Dead" and Pink Floyd's "One Of The Few" and "Goodbye Cruel World"), an orchestral version of "The Silent Enigma", a live recording of "Angelica" from a show in Budapest in 1997, and a video enhanced track for "Hope" are also included. The addition of these non'album songs significantly enhances the appeal of the compilation not only in terms of contributing to the overall quality and concept, but also by allowing the Anathema fan an opportunity to acquire this scattered and less accessible material on a single disc.

Issue should be taken with Peaceville's marketing of this disc as "The ultimate chill out album for the metallic masses". Certainly, the material showcased here illustrates the more quiescent aspects of Anathema's music, yet quite often it is from this direction that the band's most emotionally penetrating moments arrive. The sheer emotional weight of moments such as the deeply sorrowful "Inner Silence", Vincent Cavanagh's desperately anguished cries in the acoustic version of "Eternity Pt. III", or the paralyzing beauty of "Better Off Dead", in which the lyrics from the Bad Religion song are gorgeously sung by Michelle Richfield against an achingly beautiful piano/violin arrangement, contain an essence of "heaviness" that strikes the listener in an often deeper and more profound manner than much of the band's sonically weightier material. These quieter, more musically relaxed songs express a substantial degree of emotional and intellectual agony that is intensified by its delivery through a thematically contrasting tranquility of sound, this realization exposing the inappropriateness of labels such as "mellow" or "chill out album" in application to this music. This is not exactly easy-listening music, at least not in the common sense of that description, and those listeners who are aware enough to apprehend the communicative spirit within the aesthetic will realize the distinction.

The problem with this cd is the length of the tracks. What I mean exactly is no matter if this is a retrospective album or not, hearing 10 sec. tracks like Horses is completely useless. All the tracks from the Peaceville X compilation (Better off dead, One of the few and Goodbye cruel world do not sound like anathema at all since they are covers. Only better off dead is a "real" full-length song, the two others being a minute or so.

The ONLY reason one wants to buy this album is the presence of two acoustic versions of Far away and Eternity part III. These two quality tracks stand out from the rest of this short album. (By the way, the first part of the retrospective includes only the mellow side of the band.)

The live Angelica version is REALLY bad, not because the band ... when they play live, but because they must be coming from a cheap bootleg. How stupid it is for an artist to include such a badly recorded song on their retrospective album??

The hope video is fine if you haven’t seen it before, but no more. For me, this album has two tracks, if you are fan enough to pay for it go ahead, but prepare yourself to hear too many one minute tracks!