### Anata: The conductor's departure

#### 09/11/07 || The Duff

Unless you’ve been hiding under a stone with no inscription the past four years, you’d be well aware that Anata’s last album was one to be sought out, possibly boasting some of the most technical yet at the same time catchy music death metal has to offer. The band, ever the productive outfit, didn’t take long to release the follow-up, and although they have not surpassed their brilliant 2004 effort with “The Conductor’s Departure”, they have matured and evolved to a sound that in many ways betters what came before it.

The biggest noticeable difference between both albums is that on this here effort, the number of seriously grooving, catchy riffs has been reduced – there is still many a killer moment in the death metal vein, but overall, Fredrik Schalin (responsible for writing about 95% of the music) has focused a lot more on dark, brooding leads and getting an atmosphere a-swirlin’ (some very inventive harmonies going on here) to the point where it actually sounds depressing – regular death metal this ain’t.

What’s more is that one of death metal’s finest, Conny Pettersson has upgraded his playing remarkably, toned-down his death approach, and become a lot more playful, making him one of the sub-genre’s most promising up and coming performers. On “Under a Stone With No Inscription”, he was a talent to behold, but on this, he has shown himself to hold his own against the elite of death metal drummers.

Anata have really worked hard on the arrangements too, for every song seems to twist and turn in a most unpredictable fashion, unlike the band’s 2004 release, where things were a lot more straightforward despite the nature of the music. Every musician pulls his weight, and what’s more the solos on this piece are jaw-dropping, yet never in a gratuitous sense – recently been witnessing a lot of death metal bands pulling their socks up when it comes to soloing, yet Anata really take the cake.

Finally, what I really dig about “The Conductor’s Departure” is its continuity, and that every track on the album offers something of worth. Personal standouts include “Complete Demise” and “The Great Juggler” for their mix of heavy and downhearted riffing, “Better Grieved than Fooled” for the climactic closing crescendo, “Disobedience Pays” for the awesome breakdown in the unusual Anata style, “I Would Dream of Blood” with its slow-pace and Slayer-worship, the “Children’s Laughter” and “Renunciation” combo, and the mini-epic, darker than Wesley Snipes’ undercarriage closing, title-track.

9 must-have albums for the thinking metalhead out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Earache
- Website: www.anata.se
- Band
- Fredrik Schalin: guitars, vocals
- Andreas Allenmark: guitars, vocals
- Henrik Drake: bass
- Conny Pettersson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Downward Spiral
- 02. Complete Demise
- 03. Better Grieved than Fooled
- 04. The Great Juggler
- 05. Cold Heart Forged in Hell
- 06. I Would Dream of Blood
- 07. Disobedience Pays
- 08. Children’s Laughter
- 09. Renunciation
- 10. The Conductor’s Departure