Alright, there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for the EP, so let's move on to the proper debut album:
Serenades (1993)
1. Lovelorn Rhapsody
2. Sweet Tears
3. J'ai fait une promesse
4. They (Will Always) Die
5. Sleepless
6. Sleep in Sanity
7. Scars of the Old Stream
8. Under a Veil (of Black Lace)
9. Where Shadows Dance
10. Dreaming: The Romance
Line-up:
Darren J. White - vocals
John Douglas - drums
Duncan Patterson - bass
Vincent Cavanagh - guitars
Danny Cavanagh - guitars
Ruth - vocals on "J'ai fait une promesse"
After the release of
The Crestfallen EP Anathema toured the UK supporting Cannibal Corpse. Although both bands were metal back then, the tastes of the Anathema guys were already veering away from heavy music, as Vincent recalls talking about The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to the CC guys.
Serenades was released in February 1993. A music video was made for "Sweet Tears" and it received a fair amount of airplay on Headbangers Ball. According to Duncan Patterson, that song and future fan-favorite "Sleepless" were the last ones written for the album, as Peaceville had asked them to write something more accessible, presumably with the promo video in mind. With the help of the video and touring in Europe with bands like At the Gates, Cradle of Filth (Darren played drums for COF in the early days and made a guest vocal appearance on their debut) and fellow doomsters My Dying Bride, the ball started rolling and Anathema began to build a fanbase. You can find professionally filmed footage from one of the shows in Romania in 1994 -
this video of They Die includes an incident where the band apparently got mad at the violent security guys and Danny shouted obscenities at them (right before the 7-minute mark).
Serenades has gems like "Lovelorn Rhapsody" and "They (Will Always) Die". "Sleep in Sanity" is great as well, although it might've been better as an instrumental, and "Sleepless" has deserved its popularity, although it's not a top 3 song on the album and sounds a lot better with Vincent's vocals live. The biggest problem with the album is that there are way too many filler interludes - they prove that Anathema wasn't a standard metal band, and it may have been cool to experiment in the studio, but they make the record feel unfocused and fragmented, and only "J'ai fait une promesse" is worth listening to. Darren White's "clean" vocals are another weakness and it's no wonder he didn't stay in the band for too long when their music started to change. Despite these shortcomings, I think
Serenades is the best classic death/doom debut from the early 90s I've heard, but it's clear that while Anathema were pretty good at what they were doing, they were still finding their feet and looking for ways to expand their sound.
(Full review:
https://echotester.blogspot.com/2015/06/anathema-discography-2-serenades-1993.html)
Some extra listening for those who are familiar with the album already: the early demo song
"All Faith Is Lost" was re-recorded for the American import version of
Serenades. It's much more primitive compared to the songs on the actual album, even with the more polished production and is in (drop?) A tuning, which is the lowest ever used in an Anathema song. There's also an earlier recording of "Lovelorn Rhapsody" on the Resonance 2 compilation - it's a little faster than the album version, but not drastically different.