Review by Ben for Anathema - The Silent Enigma (1995)

An intensely moving release and probably my favourite Anathema album.

The Silent Enigma is a damn beautiful album! Unlike many Anathema fans, I'd already been really impressed by the band's debut album Serenades, despite that release having its fair share of flaws. The most obvious area of concern was with vocalist Darren White. While his dreary vocals may have worked perfectly well amongst the extreme melancholy of Serenades' raw death doom, they were clearly not going to be good enough for the band to branch out into more creative and dare I say commercial ventures. As it turns out, the band didn't have to look very far to find their answer. Guitarist Vincent Cavanagh takes over vocal duties for The Silent Enigma and while he certainly has some awkward moments of his own, he brings a totally fresh and effective emotional range to their music.

The vocal department isn’t the only area where significant changes occurred in Anathema’s sound. The bass is much more prevalent in the mix and far more impacting than before and while there were always exquisite melodies suffusing their music, there’s now a much more mellow and almost ambient aspect that sits neatly alongside them. It all adds up to a rather unique sound that can’t really be labelled purely death doom metal and yet hasn’t completed the band’s journey towards a more Pink Floyd inspired rock. The lyrics are poetic, and Vincent’s varying styles really get the most out of them. He occasionally takes the “woe is me” approach a little too far, but his spoken word and aggressive growls are immensely effective. He appears to put a heck of a lot of passion and feeling into the performance which really moves the listener, particularly when combined with Anathema’s typically stirring melodies.

The only thing stopping me from giving this album 5 stars is the odd track settling into lengthy interludes that are perhaps not as interesting as what the band were going for. I appreciate the effort the guys put into creating some epic stirring experiences, but there are some cases where a little focus would have worked better (Cerulean Twilight is an example). But when it works, it works wonderfully well! Restless Oblivion, Sunset of Age, the title track and A Dying Wish are all amazing and some of Anathema’s finest achievements to date. It's so strange to me that some of the later Anathema albums receive similar or even better ratings on RYM than this wonderful release. As much as I enjoy the odd track off both A Fine Day to Exit and A Natural Disaster, neither comes remotely close to The Silent Enigma. I can only conclude that those rating this album poorly are simply not really into doom metal and so find much more enjoyment in the Pink Floydisms of their modern material. But everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.