Anathema will perform live at The Record Exchange (1105 W. Idaho St., Downtown Boise) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26. The band is playing the Knitting Factory later that evening and we have tickets for sale here at the store! As always, this Record Exchange in-store event is free and all ages!
Be one of the first 25 people to buy their new album Universal (available Tuesday, Sept. 24) and we’ll give you a free ticket to the Knit show!
ABOUT ANATHEMA
Anathema have been at the forefront of the UK rock/metal movement for many years. They began their journey as pioneers of melodic heavy music, influencing a myriad of bands to follow them, before outgrowing all genres and limitations as they fearlessly explored new territory and new ways to express feeling through sound.
Formed in Liverpool in 1990, the band’s sound and musical vision have continually evolved over the ensuing years while always remaining true to their original goal of creating forward thinking, meaningful, passionate and honest music.
The line-up is really a collective of two families who were quite simply born to do it. Anathema consists of brothers Vincent and Daniel, alongside childhood friends John Douglas and his sister Lee, who is an incredible singer in her own right. Live they are joined by the third Cavanagh brother, Jamie and Daniel Cardosa.
There is a deeper bond in the group that transcends usual band politics, ego, and self-interest. They have a shared vision: to make the most incredible music they possibly can, and it seems, despite the lavish praise heaped on the band for their past work, that they are now taking their work to a whole new level.
The band’s first four albums, Serenades (1993), The Silent Enigma (1995), Eternity (1996) and Alternative 4 (1998), were released on Peaceville Records. Following these four albums the band moved to the now defunct Music For Nations where they released a further three albums, Judgement (1999), A Fine Day To Exit (2001) and A Natural Disaster (2003), which was hailed as ‘darned near essential’ by Metal Hammer.
With each release, they moved beyond the boundaries of limited scenes and pigeon holes, creating a complex and emotive atmospheric sound.
In August 2008, the band released Hindsight, a semi-acoustic album featuring old and new favourites from the band’s career, with new arrangements utilizing acoustic, electrical and orchestral instruments. The album was released on Kscope, a sister label of Peaceville.
This proved the start of a successful partnership with Kscope, which continued with 2010 studio album We’re Here Because We’re Here, which was awarded Classic Rock’s Prog Album of the Year as well as a host of other accolades. The producer of WHBWH, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), has described it as “definitely among the best albums I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on.”
In late 2011, Kscope also released the Falling Deeper album, which continued where Hindsight left off, featuring brand new arrangements of songs and haunting melodies from the band’s earliest days as pioneers and co-creators of an entire genre of heavy music.
This was followed in April 2012 with Weather Systems, the band’s new studio album. Weather Systems was equally well received as its predecessor, receiving rave reviews around the world and charting across Europe.
It debuted at #14 in the German top 40 chart and it also reached the top 20 of the national charts in Poland (#9), Holland (#18), Finland (#15) and the top 40 in Norway (#29) and France (#31). In the UK it reached number #10 in the indie chart and #50 in the national chart. The album once again took the #1 place in the Prog magazine Critics Choice awards and Anathema were voted number one in the band of the year category in the readers’ poll.
The band also won the award for best live event at the inaugural Progressive awards, rightly recognizing the band’s incredible live experience. Honed over years of performing together, the band now display a rare understanding and confidence, which wowed fans across the world during the lengthy world tour that followed the release of Weather Systems.
The European part of this tour opened with a special one-off gig at the ancient Roman theatre of Philippopolis with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra. This special evening was filmed by the respected director Lasse Hoile and a concert film and live CD of the evening, titled Universal, will be released Sept. 24.
