Search - Antimatter :: Saviour

Dreamy

IcemanJ | Ohio, USA | 02/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The feel of the cd is dark, dreamy pop. Although it isn't Pop-ular like the name may suggest, it uses elements from pop music and makes them better. Texture is very spaced out, deep, and rich, but with a lot of melody and rhythm. Instrumentation certainly isn't intricate. Vocals are handled mostly by two female vocalists with very fitting, clear, light voices, with Mick Moss singing some parts too, and a duet going on between 2 of the three quite often. It seems like the whole cd is overlapped with an echo to make a soft, dream-like feeling. "Flowers" particularly feels the most dreamy to me. My favorite songs are "Over your Shoulder," "Angelic," and "The Last Laugh."There are a lot of instrumental parts in songs. Most of the time just a soft melody with percussion. "God is Coming" is a barrage of scary electronic pulses. The last song, "Going Nowhere" is largely instrumental and if you listen carefully you can even hear a hint of melodies from a couple former Anathema songs. I don't know if that was intentional or not.This version comes with 2 bonus tracks which are acoustic versions of songs on the CD. While Mike Moss' vocals aren't exactly the greatest, hearing the songs in acoustic "form" is very nice.As for what kind of fans this will appeal to, who knows. It seems that it's not really advertised in the right place, such as metal sites and metal magazines. Even though Duncan Patterson is involved, this is drastically different from anything Anathema has ever done which was mostly doom metal and then emotional alternative rock, but I enjoy both Anathema and Antimatter."

Dark, dark, dark.

spiral_mind | Pennsylvania | 01/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's hard to simply describe an album such as this. It's too slow and spooky to be pop and too subdued to be rock; it's atmospheric but not psychedelic, and unquestionably dark but not quite gothic. I once tried to describe it to someone as "what Sarah McLachlan would sound like if she turned evil," but that doesn't quite sum it up either. Whatever you call it though - Saviour is a compelling experience. From the big cocoon of sound they build with washes of eerie synths to the spine-tingling female vocals throughout, it's a musical journey that's as gripping and enveloping as it is bleak and sad. The guitars alternate between fiery scorching and slow tones bordering on ambient minimalism. The keyboards build a marvelous world of ether to get lost in, and listening with headphones only opens the door to a whole new level of aural discovery. From the driving beats on the opening track to the subtle echoing clicks and taps on the slower songs, the rhythm is provided by a simple bed of electronic beats (there are no drums).Antimatter is the project of two men, Duncan Patterson and Michael Moss (with two female sirens stepping in to provide almost all the voices), and though there's some good studio wizardry at work, it's the songs that make Saviour the wonderful album it is. Moss's more catchy subtle hooks make a wonderful complement to Patterson's songs, which overall are much more slow and moody (except perhaps for "God Is Coming," which erupts into an unexpected burst of techno thuds that's downright menacing). It's a balance that makes for a nicely effective flow to the whole thing, since the sonic textures and the scary mood are consistent through both their modes. The more slow-paced tunes ("Holocaust," "Flowers") may take a little longer to grow on the listener than, say, "The Last Laugh" or the darkly gorgeous "Over Your Shoulder" - which is definitely the disc's high point for me - but even through the less accessible moments, it's a solid 43 minutes without a weak point anywhere (not counting the two acoustic remakes that top everything off, which are just icing on the cake).Give it a couple listens and Saviour should grab you at least at some points; give it a few more and it'll start revealing its depth and its textures a layer at a time. Give it a while longer than that and maybe the nightmares will stop too."