Anathema - Original Album Classics (2011)

While Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride got more attention from underground doom metal fans, Liverpool natives Anathema were just as important in creating a new strain of doom (sometimes referred to as doom/death) that drew heavily from atmospheric goth metal and, in the early days, featured gruff death-style vocals. Guitar-playing brothers Vincent and Danny Cavanagh formed Anathema in 1990 with vocalist Darren White, bassist Duncan Patterson, and drummer John Douglas, and originally called themselves Pagan Angel. As Anathema, the band recorded a Black Sabbath/Paradise Lost-inspired demo titled An Iliad of Woes; another demo, 1991's All Faith Is Lost, and a Swiss single called "They Die," landed the group a deal with Peaceville Records. Anathema's first official recording, an EP titled The Crestfallen, was released in 1992, and was followed the next year by the full-length Serenades, the most traditional doom-styled album in their catalog.