Monday 10 June 2013

Archives of the Dead part II… Anthony - Two Songs of Sorrow



Archives of the Dead part II… Anthony - Two Songs of Sorrow (EP1991)
Line up: Miitse (vocals / guitar), Jato (bass / back vocals), Toto (guitar / back vocals) and Vesku (drums)
It amazes me sometimes how many metal bands are there and how many you still don’t know, how many are waiting there to be discovered… And not only new bands, but there are also many old acts, which you’ve never heard before and one day you find out about their existence. Here is such band, which I discovered lately and which I have never heard about at all… This is Anthony. Fuck, what a stupid band moniker! Anyway, these guys were from Finland and were a four piece, with Miitse (vocals / guitar), Jato (bass / back vocals), Toto (guitar / back vocals) and Vesku (drums). Of these four, you should know Vesku - Vese Ranta - who have been Sentenced drummer for over 15 years. “Two Songs of Sorrow” is Anthony’s EP from 1991, recorded at the legendary Finnish Tico Tico Studio in 1990. Wow, long time ago, don’t you think? Anthony actually has been formed a bit earlier, somewhere in the late 80’s and debuted with a demo “Perfect Violence and Concrete Destruction” in 1989!! But I couldn’t find this demo anywhere.
 
On Metal Archives Anthony is actually labelled as a thrash metal band, but honestly, when I listen to “Two Songs of Sorrow” I feel like there’re equal portions of the death and thrash metal to their sound and style. And when I write death metal I mean not only the legacy of the Suomi scene, but also of the Swedish underground. This EP sounds like a classic death metal release from this country, with the difference that unlike many early Swedish bands Anthony is completely bereft of the grinding parts. The first song “Revolution of Death” is a nice death metal tune, with a strong thrash metal influence, quite technical, but as overall it is pretty aggressive and in my opinion it is too brutal to be classified as simple as plain thrash metal. I like it a lot, anyway, the riffs are great and so are the vocals, which are like a mix of thrash singing and death growls, maybe if you think of the guy from Afflicted, who I have an impression sounded similar. Side B track, “Scream Beyond Grave”, is just a killer song, very much in classic Swedish vein – and obviously it also reminds me Finnish bands like Sentenced and Convulse. It begins with pretty melodic riff, sounding similar to bands like Crypt of Kerberos, Sentenced, Afflicted, Utumno… Well, I think these bands would be the best, if someone wanted to compare Anthony to any more popular bands. Whatever… “Scream Beyond Grave” is really crushing song, again some riffs sound a bit like thrash, they’re even a bit melodic sometimes, nicely technical, with the mid tempo all the way through, but the overall atmosphere is brutal and really violent. Good stuff, but, sadly “Two Songs of Sorrow” (what a misleading title, one could expect some doom metal here!) was the last recording of Anthony, which soon split up… But I couldn’t really find any information about that anywhere…
Final rate: 69/100

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