Dugu>>ANATHEMATISE - CHINA

ANATHEMATISE - BIZARRE TALES FROM THE PAST AND THE FUTURE - AWAKENING  
Heavy metal has long gone global and infested every nook and cranny, which probably speaks to the talent embedded in every territory and triumph of art, but underground acts out of China are likely still a novelty outside that region. Metal aside, Anathematise’s Bizarre Tales From The Past And The Future through Awakening Records is a China-based band issuing an album centred mostly around Chinese culture courtesy of a Chinese label. Do not stop reading however. This is not Amorphis or Korpiklaani style crap. For one, these guys are actually metal and bereft of Chinese music or anything like that. For another, the music is delivered with as much commercial potential as intelligence at a Finntroll convention. Moreover, let us address it upfront, the female vocals have as much to do with Nightwish, The Gathering and Within Temptation as those bands do with heaviness.
OK, great. What are the specifics around Anathematise?
The band has its longest tracks at the beginning and end of the album with the shorter tracks sandwiched in-between. Revenge Of The Corpse is the lead track of the 55-minute-long album and is a good representation of what this quintet intends to deliver. Theirs are pretty standard bread and butter death metal titles, but at the same time there clearly is an authentic feel and an extra spooky twist to the songs. This is owing to the presence of a theme throughout of titles derived from Shaw Brothers’ studio from Hong Kong. The female vocals invite comparisons to early Kreator and that band’s Terrible Certainty era. The deathrash metal of this band is solely built upon the primitive and crude side of things, eschewing anything remotely slick or polished. Revenge Of The Corpse’s intro is one such spooky moment and leads into such a 1986 sounding deathrash sound production. Is this circa 1986 Sodom-like sound truly Anathematise’s sound or is it deliberately tweaked to be retro? The gruff vocals certainly have an effect applied and the aggressive music is akin to early Incubus material with a drummer reminiscent of Possessed’s Mike Sus who consistently chops and shreds the songs. There is one instrumental at the end of the album, but the group likes to deploy instrumental passages. A hint of bass can be heard. In short this is not just in possession of an early death metal production, but is also composed of early death/thrash metal instrumentation that should delight fans of early Possessed, Bloodlust, early Sodom, Germany-based Poison and 1980s' Kreator. The group itself cites Morbid Saint as an influence. That band, unsurprisingly, had toured China and even released a record of the sojourn. Oily Maniac sounds funny until one remembers that it is the title for a movie. Then one notices that it sounds funny anyway. The noise solo is so early death metal. Haunted Tales’ intro introduces the rare Chinese movie dub. Next comes a cover version. These things are a dime a dozen and been done to death. Worse, the cover version of Possessed’s Death Metal lacks the ferocity of the original and only serves to place Anathematise in a bad light. Think about it, 40 years later the original cannot be matched. Well, cover versions are all useless anyway.
If any song on this CD was to have a grinding sound then Corpse Mania would be the most appropriate given the title and so the track has this brutal grinding sound. It hits hard. Likely the most intense of the tracks here, the song hits hard even if the band’s playing ability, as far as lead guitars are concerned, is almost non-existent. Noticeably, this lends even more credence to the 1985 vibe. Ghost Eyes has a death/doom quality to it. Another ghost follows and is called Seeding Of A Ghost. It contains these cool chords the band throws with a crackling distortion. Spirit Of The Raped is frenzied and includes the band’s noise solo. More riffs, smashing drums and a crazy noise solo on this that make it worthy. The seven-minute long closing instrumental is satisfactory, but repetitive. Slayer had Evil Has No Boundaries and Anathematise has Hell Has No Boundary. Perhaps this is a good time to point out that the English lyrics display a good knowledge of the language. Chinese folks mastering English is no surprise of course, but it is worth pointing out given the intricate and horrific lyrics.
Are we sure and can we prove this album contains new material and that the band didn't originally record this prenatally back in 1986?
One can either buy this because he likes the music or pick it up in order to hear what deathrash metal sounded like in the underground before any of the members were born. - Ali “The Metallian”