The
subgenre of metal music has such an aggressive and narrow public image
that when I settled down with this concert disc from Liverpool natives
Anathema — their performance from March 2006’s Metalmania Festival — I
wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Its willfully ambiguous cover
provided me no comfort or assistance. A pleasure to report, then, an
hour-plus show with a complicated underbelly, far from the empty
screaming that marks the worst of atmospheric goth metal.

Fronted
by guitarist-vocalist brothers Vincent and Danny Cavanaugh, Anathema
formed in 1990 under the moniker of Pagan Angel. Their journey to
soaring ethereal soundscapes, imbued with keyboards and moog-distorted
vocals, was apparently a winding one, but also one with an undeniably
rewarding point of conclusion. Whereas the empty posturing of so many
“heavy” bands is to me a turnoff, Anathema has both the musicianship
and the wisdom of age to pull off what is a much more mature and
interesting sound — driving guitars and drumwork laid under sparse melodies. It’s deeper and more textured work than many of their contemporaries.

Opening with a Brahms-influenced, three-minute string introduction
from the Bacchus Quartet, whose members include noted BBC Philharmonic
violinist David Spencer, the band’s 68-minute set charts all of their
best material, and concludes with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably
Numb.” That group, as well as Rush, Skycycle and the Black Horses, are
all good points of reference, as a roiling, slowly building sound marks
the best efforts here, which include “Panic,” “Shroud of False,”
“Closer,” “A Natural Disaster” and “One Last Goodbye.” (“Fragile
Dreams,” meanwhile, is carried along by a simply fantastic and subtle
guitar riff.) Drummer John Douglas plays alongside a stuffed dog
throughout, and Cavanaugh engages an alert and accessible audience, who
really get into the music.

Housed in a clear Amray case on a single disc, Anathema: A Moment in Time
is presented in a clean, 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with
Dolby digital 5.1 and Dolby digital 2.0 audio tracks. A small
collection of supplemental extras feature a clutch of Web links, a
photo gallery, desktop images and four bonus video cuts (including a
cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross”) from a 2004 Kraków show, but the
best inclusion is a 22-minute interview in which the brothers Cavanaugh
discuss various parts of their musical inspiration (Live Aid ’85 was a
kickstarter) and influences, which include usual suspects like Led
Zeppelin, U2, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath but also, interestingly
enough, Dire Straits. The title is also apparently available in a
limited edition DVD/CD swing case, with the CD containing the same cuts
as presented here in audio-visual form. B (Show) B- (Disc)