I hate doing this.

When I first heard the track, “The Art Of A Soft Landing” from Antimatter’s latest disc, Lights Out, I was definitely intrigued. It was kind of moody and mysterious, with a faint touch of Goth and a slight dash of Floyd. There is another cut, “In Stone”, which is darn near everything you could hope for… Darn near, except if what you’re hoping for is more.

Unfortunately, those two are the cuts that are exceptions to the rule, for the rest of Lights Out is repetitive, tedious, trying too hard to be dark and sinister but succeeding in sounding like a parody. For instance, “Expire” features a slight electronic – trip feel but shoots itself in the foot near the end when the line “I’ve a solution, a final solution” is repeated over the same musical phrase for four minutes.

The same thing happens in the album closing “Terminal” where a keyboard phrase repeats over and over again, each time pointing out the silliness of the composition, like “villain music” played to old silent films of men in black tophats and capes, twirling rat-tail mustaches after having tied the heroine to the tracks. However, one gets the impression that Antimatter masterminds Duncan Patterson (formerly of Anathema) and Mick Moss thought this was really a good idea.

Well, it wasn’t, and the lack of more fleshed out ideas and songs like “The Art Of A Soft Landing” and “In Stone” keeps me from recommending this disc.

Search Tour Database by: Artist City Venue

Antimatter

Lights Out

Released: June 28, 2003
Origination Year: 2003
Time: 49:48
Tracks: 8
Produced by: Antimatter &
Stefano Soffia
Style: Studio
Format: CD
Enhancement: None
Label: The End Records
Website:
www.antimatter.tk

Lights Out
Everything You Know Is Wrong
The Art of a Soft Landing
Expire
In Stone
Reality Clash
Dream
Terminal (Instrumental)