Distant Satellites to their early material is a pretty big jump, especially if you're not a death doom fan. They're kind of like Katatonia in that it's really better just to work an album at a time backwards or forwards. More than a few albums in any direction is going to be a more drastic change in sound. They're closer to Ulver than they are to AC/DC.
Yep, agree with this. What's your favorite era/album in their discography?
I like the 10s material best. Weather Systems, The Optimist, and We're Here Because We're Here are my top three. The Vincent/Lee vocal interplay is a good part of it, not too many bands have a dynamic like that. I enjoy the early material as well, but I don't have as much time invested into it yet. It's weird, I was aware of them back in the mid-00s when I was really into Katatonia, Amorphis, Porcupine Tree and such, but I heard some of their material and it didn't connect with me at the time. It wasn't until a couple years after WS came out that I heard it, it really clicked and unlocked the earlier albums as well.
I sort of became a fan around A Silent Enigma, but I truly started paying attention with Eternity. In a way, that's their most Floyd-ian album. I'm not really into Pink Floyd, actually, but funnily enough I like how their influence finds its way in the sound of certain bands. And Eternity has such a unique, dreamy, and at times almost desperate mood. Very cool album. Then came Alternative 4, and it was an instant favorite. Fragile Dreams, Empty, Lost Control, Inner Silence, Regret...I could mention them all. Very bleak-sounding, but beautiful too. As I said before, I always felt the follow-up Judgement suffered from losing Duncan Patterson as a songwriter, but at the same time it saw amazing growth from the Cavanagh brothers. Vincent really came into his own as a vocalist - and Deep is one of my favorite Anathema songs, period.
I was super-glad when they came back after the "hiatus" - and while I didn't connect with the more recent albums quite the same way as the mid-to-late 90s ones, their quality is undeniable. Weather Systems, especially, is fantastic, and the two "Untouchables" are outstanding songs.