What can be said about Anathema? They started off as a death-metal band and now make music that can be compared with "Radiohead". Compare their first album "Serenades" with their last one "A Fine Day To Exit" and get blown away by the difference. "Resonance 2" is the second of a duo Best of-album, with "Resonance 1" being the soft and acoustic side of Anathema and "Resonance 2" the dark side. Where "Resonance 1" should appeal more to the newer/younger fans, "Resonance 2" is the one for the old fan base. Starting with "Lovelorn Rhapsody" and "Sweet Tears", followed by a somewhat softer intermission in "Sleepless 96", the mood is set immediately. Track 7, all time classic "A dying wish" (taken from the album "The Silent Enigma"), has to be on a Best- "dark"-of album. Even from their latest albums, although not being death-metal anymore, some extremely beautiful but sad songs were taken; from the album "Eternity" come "Hope" and "Cries in the wind" and from "Alternative 4", crying material like "Fragile Dreams" and the intense "Empty".

However, one could think that "Empty" is somewhat misplaced, as it has a far higher tempo than the other tracks, which are more slow moving death-metal or beautiful ballads. Concluding the CD with "Nailed to the cross/666", Anathema delivers a nice overview of their musical evolution seen through the eyes of their dark side. But with a lot of people having CD-burners these days, the real Anathema fan, unless being a real collector, is probably capable of making the same album from their own collection and would see this album as a waste of money. For starters that don`t want to buy the complete Anathema collection in order to get to know Anathema music, this is a clever commercial move. On these two albums: all killers no fillers.