Anathema – Serenades (1993)

May 13, 2022

Serenades is another one of those records that I have heard probably hundreds of times. In my teens it quickly became one of my favourite doom metal records, and I remember going to watch Anathema in 2007 at a festival without having any idea they had changed into the whole indie / post-rock thing. What a shock I had haha

Anyways, I love this. I’ve made the point on several other record blogs now, that this shares a closeness in production to Cradle Of Filth’s Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, My Dying Bride’s Turn Loose The Swans, amongst others. What is unique however, is the brothers Cavanagh and their mesmerising, weeping riffage, accompanied by Darren White’s guttural, forlorn voice. The band would become a pillar of this British approach to doom metal, before of course abandoning it completely.

Oh, and “Sleepless” is one of the greatest songs ever written.