My Silent Wake - The Anatomy Of Melancholy - DCD DIGIPAK

The brainchild of this haunting, melancholic blissful masterpiece is

Ian Arkley - a real veteran in the British metal scene, paying his

dues with thrashers Seventh Angel and fellow doomsters Ashen

Mortality. Five years after the original release, Bomworks Records

brings you 2013?s digitally remastered reissue of the iconic The

Anatomy Of Melancholy (Reanimated Edition), packaged in a full color

six panel digipak that is once again divided into two parts with the

first disc laden with distorted guitars and some strong death growls.

The second disc is acoustic medieval/folk-Goth oriented doom. When

"The Dying Things We're Living For" commences you get the feeling

you're thrown back into the early 90's, hearing something that sounds

like a combination of Paradise Lost's Gothic with Anathema's

Serenades. The sound, the guitar leads, the vocals, they all fit

perfectly in achieving that feel and strength those bands once had,

but few others have managed to capture since. Expect enough rhythm

changes and progressive moments to make this magical, while never

resorting to cheap theatrics to make things sound more tragic and

depressing as many current doom bands do. The second part of the

album opens with an instrumental acoustic number that borrows heavily

from the middle-ages and fully embraces folk-Goth. Arkley makes use

of his deep and poignant voice to great effect. The well-placed

eruptions of emotion in their otherwise beautifully tragic

compositions on this release perfectly illustrate the occasional

periods of schizophrenic despair that every human experiences

throughout life. Any fan of Anathema will find The Anatomy of

Melancholy to be very satisfying from start to finish. Those

discovering this band for the first time will undoubtedly feel that

they have discovered a jewel among so many dull stones found within

this genre of music. This doom/goth music harkens back to the glory

days of British metal, where such greats as Anathema and My Dying

Bride created some of the best doom metal known to man