Do the simple words float on the strength from the last album? Is it the same lightweight boat that sails on with the same heavy load? Or is it simply just that Anathema continues to fly on strong wings despite the fact that lyrically it seems their wings have been clipped many times? Anathema is in many ways a Phoenix. The band has perhaps never been burnt to ashes, but the feeling of the music has on each album arisen and become more beautiful and stronger. In the last three albums it feels like hope has grown stronger to reach almost spiritual heights. Danny Cavanagh writes a lot of the lyrics and his depth as well as his heights are marked clearly in both lyrics and music. Anathema’s language is not pretentious but the strength of the music gives the words a strong shape and paints the emotional spectrum in bright colors.
Distant Satellites begins emotionally as an extension of the last album Weather Systems. But lyrically it feels like a brand new start, unless the title The Lost Song (part 1) refers to something that has been. Personally I find it difficult to take a step from Weather Systems that in many ways contains almost spiritually elevating songs and tells a story so beautiful and painful that it lingers and echoes. But Distant Satellites doesn’t only feel like an extension of Weather Systems. It also partly reflects on the entire journey the band has been through from the start and gives us a hint of a glance into their future. Distant Satellites is probably the “most” Anathema album ever made. With this album the band could easily disappear into a wall of smoke and never return but leave this album as their everlasting echo. Althought I really hope this won’t be the case. Some songs remind me of passed albums like Alternative 4. But this album is a bright as it is dark, as light as it is heavy and as beautiful as it is… in fact it is just beautiful.
Anathema’s voice is as pure and sincere as it is ethereal and Distant Satellites is all Anathema.