Because of the fact that Anathema just played 3 shows and one festival in Holland and Belgium, I had to set out for them, to see their show. Freely adapted from the motto, if the prophet doesn’t want to go to the mountain, the mountain has to move its ass. What happened then on this special weekend in Belgium. Combine business with pleasure... After great concerts on this weekend with Oceans Of Sadness and Manic Movement as well as Witchsmeller Pursuivant and Dark Ages, now the final ending with ANATHEMA at the legendary Biebob in Vosselaar. The club wasn’t sold out, but it was almost bursting at the seams. Anathema was the one and only band who had to play this evening, so they had have all the time they wanted...

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They opened their set with Pressure the classic example for the new album A Fine Day To Exit. Directly afterwards the audience got spoiled with a few songs from the previous album Judgement namely: Deep, Pitiless, Forgotten Hopes and Destiny Is Dead. On this occasion, the voiced differences between this new one and the old songs were very noticeable. Vincent Cavanagh’s singing sounded a bit expressionless on the new songs. Also the vibes in general were pretty different. So the new songs sounded really powerless and unemotional. You also could feel this atmosphere very well among the crowds. While the band was playing new songs, the audience was standing as if they were nailed down and you literally could read their mixed impressions on their faces. But almost ecstatically the crowds reacted by tracks from the Alternative 4 album like Fragile Dreams and Empty. Here I have to mention that Fragile Dreams mostly was sung by the audience. For that ANATHEMA played a slow and damned great acoustic version. Afterwards the guys were going on with new songs from the new album again, starting with Looking Outside Inside, Leave No Trace, followed by One Last Goodbye to turn back to Underworld, A Fine Day To Exit and Inner Silence. They finished the set afterwards with Make It Right and that’s was it! After a good one hour the show was over and the crowds was begging and thirsting after more. And yes, the audience got what they wanted. They got more. And finally the crowds got tracks like A Dying Wish and Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, but first Temporary Peace. And to the end, the elegant closer 2000 & Gone. Now the masses were completely in raptures. The heroes from Liverpool had have their fun too and Vincent couldn’t resist spicing his announce- ments with all kinds of jokes and remarks.

Yeah, and me? Well, there I stood now, didn’t know what to think about the concert. At least I wasn’t that enthusiastic anyway. I was listening to the new album A Fine Day To Exit several times before. But I have to confess, the tracks didn’t convince me much. Don’t get me wrong, it is not, because I’m still a big fan of the older albums. No! A Fine Day To Exit is for me the logical development to Judgement and the albums before. And that is good! Also the fact, that Anathema has itself said goodbye from the metal scene is ok and not a problem. Are there still a lot of great rock bands in general and some I like too. But still I miss something on A Fine Day To Exit. The old magic. And as I already mentioned above, the album and the music are lacking of intensity, passion and power. As soon as the guys were playing songs from Judgement album or older ones, the old magic we know so well was back. The British lads didn’t seem to be able to fill the new tracks with life, not even live on stage. And that’s a pity. Maybe they just need to play more live again. A proper tour is in sight, ANATHEMA are announced to play the Therion tour with Borknagar. A package of course, where I think, it isn’t exactly Danny’s cup of tea. I guess he rather would like to tour with bands like Tool or Radiohead...

But for that, Vosselaar has to offer a very special titbit. Around 2 or 3 houses further, next to the known Belgian metal club Biebob, you will find the CD store of the LSP Company. Apart from the usual business hours, this shop also open during the time when bands are playing at Biebob. So the half of the night *lol*. In these walls you only get Metal albums, in fact everything... absolutely EVERYTHING your heart is craving for! And that to an extremely good price. At least from the German point of view. Vosselaar is pretty close to the German- Belgian border, near that place where every year the Graspop Festival takes place. Ok then, those living in the area should take a lot of moneys (or dad’s credit card) and check out this store, including a concert for example, because every fucking great band who is touring Germany is honoring the Biebob too.