With A Fine Day To Exit, Anathema reached their final destination. Emotion and atmosphere are seldom before portrayed as effective as on A Fine Day To Exit. The album also put the bar up high for Anathema. This doesn’t mean the end. Anathema are now in a musical zone they can call their own. From now on it’s all about reinventing themselves over and over again. A task not to envy. Sure, deep inside you hope they’ll pull off another stunt like A Fine Day, but deep inside you also know that this might not happen. It wouldn’t be fare to compare the band’s latest album, A Natural Disaster, with the enchanting A Fine Day…but there’s just no way getting around it.

There are a few changes however. The production in my opinion is not one of the strong points of the album. It lacks the depth of former work, allthough a pair of headsets will solve some of that. It sounds more live, more prominent. Second, the title track - goose bumbs - is almost solely sung by female vocals (sorry, no name; not much info in the press release).

Overall the songs sound more direct, without losing that rare magic. Anathema is still unmistakenly Anathema, no matter what they do. Tracks like “Balance”, “Are You There?” and “A Natural Disaster” are therefore stunning, and without a doubt truly recognisable. But where the concept of A Fine Day kept the album on track for the full 62 minutes, A Natural Disaster has a few tracks that are up for debate. Although most bands would chop of an arm for tracks like this, Anathema can do better.

Is there room to grow, to take new directions for Anathema? I think there is. More so than before, the band added Portishead/Radiohead type elements without neglecting the obligatory rock chords (“Pulled Under”). Also, the sound track like elements (Angelo Badalamanti) and soundscapes pull you in effectively. It will not bring the band mass succes, however it will bring the world wide Anathema clan more to look forward to. Buy this album, if only because their musical heart is in the right place!