Antimatter - Planetary Confinement

*=Staff's pick	Planetary Confinement The Weight Of The World* Line Of Fire Epitaph* Mr. White A Portrait Of A Young Man As An Artist* Relapse Legions Eternity Part 24

Genre	Acoustic	Michael Moss	Vocals
Tracks	9	Michael Moss	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Duncan Patterson	Guitar
Label	Prophecy Productions	Duncan Patterson	Bass
Release	29 July 2005	-	Drums
Country	England	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	The Gathering, Creed, Staind

Antimatter was founded in 1998 by Duncan Patterson who left Anathema to team up with Michael Moss and with Planetary Confinement the third studio release from this band sees the light of day. This band is a new acquaintance to me and when I look them up on Rock Detector the band is described as playing dark ambient music. But this release separates itself from the others since this one is purely acoustic. Planetary Confinement is a calm and a very beautiful album with a touch of melancholia in the music that you mainly get from their tasteful use of violin. In the tracks where they let the acoustic guitar take up most of the space, it kind of reminds me of the ballads from American bands like Staind or Creed, calm and emotional songs with a dark feeling lying over them. Progressive band Threshold made an acoustic album a couple of years ago and there is also a similar feeling between these two albums.

Antimatter seem to have been following the "less is more" example with this album and sometimes the music just lets you float away with the subtle rhythms from the drums and the lonesome relaxed guitar while the violin sounds in the background. This acoustic album with its natural and naked instruments gives a feeling of being very personal and not least because of the touching voice from Michael Moss that has a fragile and sad touch to it. So just sit back and relax and simply let the impressions from Planetary Confinement sweep over you.

After the release of Planetary Confinement Duncan Patterson left Antimatter to focus on his new project Ion. Michael Moss will continue and is planning a new album for a 2006 release entitled Leaving Eden that will feature Anathema's Daniel Cavanagh.