Never mind the ballads.
British hard-rockers, Antimatter, bring us their fourth album entitled 'Leaving Eden', and from the off you can see what the major problems are. The album has a sound that although at best is haunting and atmospheric, is all too often slow-paced and slightly dated in it's sound. There is not one fast paced, or real hard rocking tune here, and so what we get are nine slow thoughtful tunes; the sort that when you first get an album you may forward through for the first dozen listens, and then later on you will understand the depth and creativity in these tracks. Now don't get me wrong, if any of these tracks were, the pause-and-get-your-breath-back track of a hard rock album then I would probably be full of praise, but it's hard to see just who wants a whole album of these little blighters, no matter how good they are!
Mick Moss has a strong and powerful voice, however even as the opening track, 'Redemption' starts up with strings and acoustic guitar, you are already thinking whether or not it is wise to start of with a slow number, and after nine of them then you are totally bemused by it all.
The songs aren't from the simple ballad, boy-meets-girl type with gushy lyrics riddled with clichés, so this at least is a bonus, but like in, 'Another Face In A Window' it's almost 3 minutes before a drum beat kicks in. 'Ghosts' is a beautiful song, whereas the instrumental 'Landlocked' doesn't really build on the slight melody and ends up being more of a very long intro to a song that never arrives.. Only the title track, 'Leaving Eden' shows real promise from the outset, starting with a big guitar riff and a tempo that at best, with a stretch of the imagination could be mid tempo. The sound is a little like a cross between Staind and Type O Negative. It is the best track on this album and a sign that there could even be a rocker somewhere there trying to get out.
We have the gentle piano playing on, 'The Immaculate Misconception' which again is another instrumental, albeit better than 'Landlocked', before last song, 'Fighting For A Lost Cause' says it all in the title. This is a gutsy attempt at a good collection of rock ballads, but does the world really need that? The answer of course, and possibly due to it not being 1981, is an emphatic no.