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All Music Guide:
The death metal band Anata was formed by Fredrik Schälin (vocals, guitar), Mattias Svensson (guitar), Martin Sjöstrand (bass), and Robert Petersson (drums) in the town of Varberg, Sweden. Although they first began jamming in 1993, it was quite a few years before they got around to recording their first demos, 1995's Bury Forever the Garden of Lie and 1997's Vast Lands of My Infernal Dominion. The latter earned the group a deal with Season of Mist Records, which released their debut album, The Infernal Depths of Hatred, the following year. Combining the raw aggression of American death metal with the more melodic sensibilities of Anata's Swedish kin, the album also introduced new members Andreas Allenmark (guitar) and Henrik Drake (bass). A split LP with Bethzaida named War, Vol. 2 followed in 1999, and after welcoming new drummer Conny Pettersson (ex-Beseech and Eternal Lies), Anata delivered their second full-length with 2001's Dreams of Death and Dismay.
Wikipedia:
Anata is a technical death metal band from Varberg, Sweden that formed in 1993.
To date, they have released two demos, four albums and a split album with Bethzaida. In 2005, they completed recordings for an album titled The Conductor's Departure, released in June 2006 on Earache Records/Wicked World Records. Anata have toured Europe with death metal acts such as Dismember, Decapitated, Rotting Christ, and Psycroptic. In 2006 Anata played at Maryland Deathfest, Baltimore, their first United States appearance to date. Anata have also performed at festivals in Europe such as Fuck the Commerce, Neurotic Deathfest, and Gothenburg Deathfest.
Musical style
Their style employs significant and unique use of dissonance, including contrapuntal structures employing whole- and half-step harmony, as well as dissonant chords. As their music relies greatly on melody and counterpoint, in contrast to most death metal bands who focus more on moving chords and percussive effects (especially complex palm muting patterns), they are sometimes labeled melodic death metal. However, most fans consider this to be an inaccurate characterization, as the term generally refers to a particular style of death metal, namely, the "Gothenburg metal" sound pioneered by bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, rather than simply death metal with a strong melodic element. Anata, though hailing from Sweden (considered the birthplace of melodic death metal), bears little resemblance to these bands; they bear a stronger resemblance to technical death metal pioneers such as Cynic and Atheist, who also employed a great deal of counterpoint (for both bands, the two guitars and bass are rarely playing the same part). However, Anata has little of the jazz fusion influences that Cynic or Atheist had, instead fusing the contrapuntal style with the modern technical death metal style of bands such as Psycroptic and Decapitated.