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Antimatter - A Profusion of Thought

Thursday, December 1st, 2022 at 5:00 AM #shoegaze #rock #review #psychedelic #post-rock #post-metal #post rock #podcast #musicreviews #musicreview #music #experimental #blackmetal #blackgaze #alternativemetal

" A Profusion of Thought contains excellent song-crafting with the perfect balance of vocals and musical arrangements that really complement and lift each other to a higher level. One moment it’s progressive and the other time more straight forward, but always with a sense of emotion, along with profound layers that are both interesting and impressive from start to finish "

Originally founded in 1998 by Duncan Patterson (former bassist and songwriter in Anathema) and Mick Moss, Antimatter is a dark rock band from the UK. Together, the two musiscians compiled their seperately written songs on three studio albums (Saviour, Light Out and Planetary Confinement), before Patterson withdrew himself from the project in 2005. Since then it’s completely Mick Moss’s band. Four more studio records and a couple of live and compilation albums further up the road and we are in 2022 where A Profusion of Thought sees the light of day via Moss’s own independent label, Music in Stone.

This album is comprised of ten songs that were never heard or never recorded before, they werer songs that were written during the earlier albums in the band’s discography. The risk with albums like this is that the result can turn out as loose as sand, but that’s not the case on A Profusion of Thought. This feels like a varied yet coherent, and very strong album, no leftovers or fillers on this one. During the years I have heard some Antimatter now and then, but I can’t say that I am a true connoisseur. What I do know however, is that I was addicted to these ten songs from the first time I heard them.

Antimatter’s music differs somewhere between accoustic, Brit pop, progressive rock with metal traces, ambient and grunge, and always with a melancholic undertone thanks to Moss’ distinctive and charismatic vocals.

Opener No Contact starts as a ballad with sensitive semi-acoustic guitar and Mick’s trembeling voice over it. The song grows into a heavy rock track with a singalong chorus “I can feel no contact”. Even a saxophone comes in at the end! The bar is set high immediately, and the cool thing is, that bar is not getting any lower on the following songs. Of course, it’s always a matter of taste and one always has some favorites, but that doesn’t take anything away of the quality of the other ones. Paranoid Carbon vibes the same feeling as No Contact with emotive lyrics that can be sung along all the way. By now, I am already hooked by the sound of these opening tracks, and when that bass comes in together with the subtle drums and synths in Heathen I am completely in a trance. Add to all that, a sort of wave/post-punk vibe with Eddie Vedder-ish grunge vocals on top, damn that’s awesome! The song doesn’t really need the saxophone later in my opinion, but the returning bass-rhythm makes up for that again.

And then Templates even goes one further with its high-level of songcrafting. A more mellow paced ambient song that suddenly bursts open, and that emotive Vedder-ish grunge style vocals occur again for a powerful passage. Fold slows down in a semi-acoustic way with a beautiful electric guitar solo towards the end. Highlight after highlight, Redshift is yet another top-notch emotional-laden song. Acoustic guitar with Moss’vocals and some sporadic flute and trumpet additions. Those canon vocals with that bass underneath and that saxophone just finish this song off perfectly.

At first listen, Fools Gold doesn’t really stand out despite being the longest song, but after having the album on repeat this is as equal a gem as the rest. The same goes for Entheogen with its interesting progressive drum-patterns and overal progressive vibration. Breaking the Machine with 3:46 minutes is the shortest song before album closer Kick the Dog comes in. Man, what a song to finish such wonderful album. A grunge vibe with a certain danceable bass rhythm and Anathema-like guitar soloing. Whoeha, what a ride!

A Profusion of Thought contains excellent song- crafting with the perfect balance of vocals and musical arrangements that really complement and lift each other to a higher level. One moment it’s progressive and the other time, more straight forward, but always with a sense of emotion, along with profound layers that are interesting and impressive from start to finish. Die hard fans no doubtedly have already picked this one up. If you’re not familiar yet by the band and find that these high-praised words have you interested, give it a shot. But be warned, you’ll be singing these songs coming weeks. Enjoy.