Review Summary: At the time of its release, The Silent Enigma was Anathema’s most ambitious effort yet, and to this day, despite heralding some failed experiments, its raw creative energy fails not to still be captivating.
“We entered Lynx Studio in Newcastle to record the album that became The Silent Enigma with only two fully arranged songs. Once we had quickly recorded these two songs, we would then get together in the studio with riffs and melodies we had lying around, and arrange songs such as The Silent Enigma or A Dying Wish in a matter of moments, and record the tracks live, there and then, complete with drums, bass and two guitars. … There was a magic in what was coming through us.”
-Danny Cavanagh, September 2008. Excerpt from the liner notes of The Silent Enigma’s 2008 reissue.
It was during the writing sessions of 1995 that the creative juices really began to flow through the veins of Anathema’s music. Their first vocalist, Darren White, had made his departure from the band early on in these sessions, and instead of the band holding auditions for a new vocalist, it was decided that guitarist Vincent Cavanagh would take over the vocal duties. It was this change in line-up that prompted the beginning of Anathema’s departure from the familiar style that they had so firmly established in their first three releases, and this departure is clearly evident in the resulting piece of work.
The Silent Enigma isn’t a doom metal record. Not purely so, in any case. It may have its roots in the genre, but its expressive range is far beyond what most would consider a standard doom record, and it’s certainly not in the same field as its predecessor, Serenades. Vincent Cavanagh’s vocal style does have an influence in this, as it’s clearly quite a bit different from Darren’s, but the music itself has also changed dramatically. The slower, more brooding guitar riffs that were so prominent in Serenades are not as much the focal point of this record; they are still present, but The Silent Enigma seems to be much more directional and driving than its predecessor.
Nowhere in Serenades is there a song with quite as much energy as, for instance, “Shroud Of Frost”. Vincent’s powerful mid-range growls are the highlight of this track, often accompanied convincingly by a wall of sound created by massively heavy guitars, pounding drums and even lush synthesizer effects. But at the same time, nor is there a moment in Anathema’s full-length debut that is quite so desolate as “The Silent Enigma”, where Vincent’s wailing vocals express a delicate yearning and sadness previously unknown in Anathema’s music. It is in the brilliant moments of tracks like these that The Silent Enigma truly shines. Vincent’s vocal performance is not only outstanding throughout most of the album, but the songs themselves are just so much more powerful, heartfelt, and original than anything that Anathema had created up to this point. In the strong tracks (which make up most of the album) there is not a single note that doesn’t seem fit to burst with creative inspiration, not a single moment that is wasted. These tracks are “Restless Oblivion”, “Shroud Of Frost”, “Sunset Of Age”, the title track, and “A Dying Wish”.
Admittedly, the album does have its share of dull, unfulfilling moments. “...Alone” would ideally offer the listener a chance to catch their breath after the massive first two tracks, but it ultimately fails to do much of anything. It is a meandering track filled with perfectly good ideas but lacking in focus. “Nocturnal Emission” is the weakest track on the album, a confused jumble of uninteresting musical content, strange vocal effects, and perverse lyrics. It’s hard to say what the role of the track was intended to be in the context of the album. The unusual “Cerulean Twilight” shows great potential, but its lack of direction and repetitive ending bring its effectiveness down considerably. Finally, “Black Orchid” is a perfectly nice ending to the album, but it is far from necessary after the monumental “A Dying Wish”, not to mention that it is also extremely repetitive. Perhaps most notably, the production of the album is mostly quite sloppy, which takes a toll on many potentially great moments.
But despite its inherent flaws, there is something about The Silent Enigma that is truly remarkable. Perhaps it was Vincent, with his new and fresh vocal style, who brought the album to success. Perhaps it was the daring, complex, and dense songwriting. Or maybe it was something else entirely, but one thing is for sure: something amazing happened when Anathema entered the Lynx Studio in 1995. There was a particular chemistry that took place, a particular thing in the minds of the musicians that just clicked, and while the final product may not be the most perfectly polished effort of the band’s career, the spontaneity of it all did ultimately result in five classic tracks that gave the album the distinction of being Anathema’s most accomplished effort at the time of its release. You can listen to any of those tracks, be it the agitated, aggressive “Restless Oblivion” or the booming, powerful “Sunset Of Age”, and hear an incredible energy, the creative energy of a band who never stopped believing in progress and who would soon enough be churning out the masterpieces that now make up Alternative 4, Judgement, A Fine Day To Exit, A Natural Disaster, and We’re Here Because We’re Here – and this from a band that only two short years before had released an album like Serenades. Now isn’t that quite something.
