Over the past 20+ years, few bands have seen the unique evolution and career arc that beloved Liverpool experimental/progressive rock band Anathema have pursued. Starting out as a death-metal influenced doom metal band in the early 90’s, Anathema slowly moved away from the style to pursue a more gothic metal direction, and then fully embraced their Pink Floyd influences with 1999’s Judgement, possibly the band’s magnum opus. The fact that Anathema have continually evolved and switched entire genres multiple times, yet never truly wavered from their core sound, is something to behold.
On the subject of their upcoming 11th (!!!) full-length album The Optimist, vocalist/guitarist Daniel Cavanaugh had this to say about the new track, “Springfield”.
“Here we present the song ‘Springfield’, it’s actually the song that closed our unforgettable Wembley gig with Opeth and it seemed to be a track that just fell into place without much effort,” explains singer/guitar player Daniel Cavanagh. It seemed to do itself. The song forms part of a narrative that runs through The Optimist album, it’s a narrative that begins where A Fine Day To Exit left off. The album is a journey. The songs are ambiguous. There is no right or wrong way to take them. Make of them what you will.”
Regardless of how some long time fans of the band feel about their stylistic shifts, it’s clear that Anathema are one of the most treasured bands ever to come out of rock and metal. Continually pushing boundaries while keeping your core sound intact is a difficult thing, but on The Optimist, Anathema seems up to the challenge. They’ve proven it for almost 3 decades – why would they stop now?
Interested parties can also stream the aforementioned new song below, along with upcoming tour dates in the EU, with Alcest opening (!!!). Those will probably be fun.
