October 9, 2001 - A Fine Day To Exit

A week after my last release and over two years since "Judgement", Anathema released their sixth album "A Fine Day To Exit" on October 9, 2001. Anathema have grown into a five-piece once again with the addition of keyboardist Les Smith to the fold, but they are still playing the same style of alternative rock, albeit with a bit more progressive vibe with longer songs on this album. Let's check out the latest from Anathema!

The album kicks off with "Pressure" and Smith leads the way with a cool piano riff. Dave Pybus and John Douglas add a simple rhythm section and the Cavanagh brothers play some light guitar. Vincent sings a nice verse overtop this piano-driven verse and chorus and things aren't very flashy, but they are pretty smooth and solid. One of the Cavanagh's eventually switches to electric guitar to add a bit more gusto to things, but it's still the same slow, rolling riff with some cool piano by Smith throughout. Six and a half minutes may have been a little too long for this song, but it was a smooth opener still. Up next is "Release" and it starts with a cool light guitar riff and some psychedelic keyboards by Smith. Vincent sings another nice verse overtop this epic and space-y music and then Danny joins him on vocals in the chorus! Danny holds some long notes in the background while Vincent sings the chorus and together they sound pretty good! Pybus adds some cool bass to the next verse and the drums are very light to complete this interesting main riff. Then the other guitarist comes in with a cool new lead guitar riff and they shift into a solid rock version of this same riff. After this louder round there's a cool guitar solo that fits the mood really well and it evaporates into a space-y and cool finish to another pretty prog-y light rock tune. Track 3 is "Looking Outside Inside" and it has a very light and breezy feel to it driven by some solid light guitars and some string-like keyboards in the background. After a couple of minutes of this they turn things up with a pretty cool and heavy new riff that somehow rolls smoothly from the last riff. Their progressiveness is top notch and it's a pretty cool verse and chorus that Vincent leads with some nice vocals and some cool guitar. A couple minutes of headbanging to this and things die down into a space-y new riff with some cool light guitar and some nice drumming by Douglas as well, that takes us to the end of this pretty cool song. The next track is "Leave No Trace" and it's driven by a solid acoustic guitar riff and the other guitarist adds some nice backing electric guitar to this quieter but very smooth and decent main riff. Vincent sings softly to match the mood and they don't stray far from this main riff, meaning the song is decent, but not one of their better ones. Track 5 is "Underworld" and it's led by a solid main guitar riff with a catchy rhythm section and Vincent sounds solid singing overtop. They turn things up in the chorus with some cool louder music, including some nice drum fills by Douglas. A pretty solid tune overall! Up next is "Barriers" and this song marks the third album in a row that John's sister Lee Douglas contributes vocals on a song. Vincent starts us off with a linea then that line is echoed back several times while slowly fading out. Smith plays some cool slow piano, there's some acoustic guitar, and then Lee enters to sing harmonies with Vincent and together they sound pretty good! The rhythm section completes this slow main riff, but things sound very smoothly epic with some cool electric guitar mixed in as well. I didn't even notice that it was almost six minutes long and that's the sign of good prog when longer songs don't drag. Track 7 is the only song under four minutes on the album and it's called "Panic" and it's also probably the fastest song on the album with a pretty cool main guitar riff that is nice and speedy! Vincent sings quickly to match the what seems like a furious pace (definitely by Anathema's standards) and things sound pretty good! It's like a hard rock single and I was happily headbanging the whole way through! Great guitars from both Vincent and Danny Cavanagh. The next song is the title track "A Fine Day To Exit" and it starts with a nice light guitar riff, some trippy keyboards in the background and a nice soft verse by Vincent. After about three minutes things finally pick up to a louder version of the main riff with some cool guitars. They quiet it down and then pick it up one more time, but this was another decent song but nothing really jumped out and it was almost seven minutes. The final song on the album is by far the longest and it's called "Temporary Peace". We hear waves crashing in the background and one guitarist leading the way with a slow and creepy main riff while the other Cavanagh plays some high and trippy stuff. Vincent sings a good verse overtop, then some piano, drums and bass fall in to complete this slow but interesting main riff. Lee Douglas shows up again to add some backing vocals and things sound very light but also very smooth. This song really ends at the 5:40 mark, then we just hear the waves crashing for a couple minutes. We start to hear footsteps almost ten minutes in, followed by a man talking and some dark, quiet piano. The ramblings are very strange, including a repeated "what about dogs? What about cats? What about CHICKENS?!" that is very weird and pretty funny. Then there's five minutes of silence before we get a bonus acoustic track! It sounds almost like an early Pink Floyd song and has some solid acoustic guitar. Everything after the actual song was all very unusual for Anathema.

That is the end of "A Fine Day To Exit" and I thought it was a good, but not great album from Anathema. They went more progressive with longer songs, but they didn't really maximize that extra time and most songs were on the lighter side once again. The face that it's debatable with their debut album is telling and ultimately, I think it's their worst album so far. Anathema continue to morph and shift, what will the next one be like?