Review by JD on December 19, 2017.

Hailing from France comes Eths… a band that packs many styles of metal into a Potpourri.  They have groove metal, along with shadings of death metal, alternative metal, deathcore and nu metal.  Combining so many metallic ingredients like this can be a tricky thing… can this band pull it off?  Just got to read on, my friends.

Brutal, extremely harsh music with a female vocalist who is as crushingly heavy as any singer out there, the band has the making of something to shout about. Sung entirely in French, it brings a sort of mystique to it all- especially when you don’t speak it.  But the novelty does burn off rather quick.

Musically strong, the quintet seems to barrel along at a break neck pace, changing between influences as fast as you can think. The music cracks your skull many times in one second, but sadly it leaves your consciousness as fast as it enters. It never retains in your memory… it blurs as the product as a whole hold no one’s attention span for any length of time except for scattered moments here and there.  What is there is enjoyable to here, and makes you headbang along, but as soon as the song is over, you forget it.

Eths are a great collection of musicians and well executed songs… but those just do not stay with me.  I enjoyed it, but alas… none of it stayed long enough for me to have the urge to hit play again.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Review by Adam M on May 21, 2012.

The new Anathema album "Weather Systems" was a pleasant surprise for me after the somewhat inconsistent and uninspiring "We’re Here Because We’re Here" because it injects a new style and substance into the band that is pleasant and welcoming. The nature of this album is in fact very relaxed, but it manages to be vibrant and very emotional as well.

The first two songs on the album set the stage nicely for the remainder of the material because the 'Untouchable' tracks are indeed two of the finest songs to be found on the entire album. The use of female vocals adds a nice flavour to the album and the general vocal choices are a strong point as with most Anathema albums. The band seems to have found a more appropriate style than on their previous album, which seemed confused and incomplete to some extent. Here we have them creating a more complete work that harkens more to what they were able to do in the past. Though the band still has shades of Radiohead in their sound these days, this is still more in the vein of the quality of their "Alternative 4"/"Judgement"/"A Fine Day To Exit" period. Some fans will find the album to soft and poppy in nature, but with the way the band has been evolving one would expect this from Anathema. I was entrenched by the atmosphere with reflects the album title very well here.

It’s not as good as "Judgement" or "Alternative 4", but this is still a very strong album that is now one of the necessary pieces to own by the band. "Weather Systems" is one of the most poignant listens in the whole catalogue of the band and a nice return to form for a band that I was worried would become uninteresting to listen to in the long run.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 9
Originality: 8
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.8 out of 10