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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