review by: Roberto Martinelli

Antimatter is the band of Duncan Patterson, who used to be a member of Anathema. Saviour is being promoted as being a "more haunting Anathema," but the weight of the material is too light and poppy for that comparison.

For the truest comparison, one must think of likening Antimatter to Portishead, for several tracks on Saviour go for that same lounge/dub sound that Portishead made famous. However, Unlike Tertium Non Data, whose Hers Is Blood album actually outdid the originators at their own formula, Antimatter is a watered-down version of Portishead.

Antimatter mainly employs two women to do the vocals. The first, Michelle Richfield (Sear), is a competent singer whose voice is an asset to the six songs on which she appears. The other vocalist, Hayley Windsor (Drug Free America), also has talent but sometimes sounds like a little girl. This immaturity of her voice detracts from the four songs on which she appears. On a couple of occasions, Michael Moss, the co-founder of the band, provides some vocals, which, for lack of a better word, are cheesy. There's just something about the dual vocals of Moss and whichever woman he's singing with that makes me think of Seal, but not as good, or even Michael Bolton. To try to put a finger on it, some of the songs ("Over Your Shoulder" comes to mind) have a sort of forced soulfulness to them that ends up not being present. Curiously, the simpler, acoustic version of "Over Your Shoulder" at the end of the disk works somehow better.

I'm afraid Saviour may be doomed from the start. Considering that the album has been released on a metal label and will probably be almost exclusively promoted in metal circles, I can't see many people buying it. It's not a bad record, but it is lightweight - not necessarily in terms of being metal but in terms of what it has to offer. It makes sense that metal fans could like soft, melodic, melancholic bands like The Gathering or Amber Asylum (or even Anathema), but metallers will definitely not go for Antimatter, even if they are fans of Anathema's (like me.)