With Anathema bassist and song-writer Duncan Patterson having left the Antimatter project in the sole hands of former writing partner Mick Moss a decade ago, The Judas Table (Prophecy) is the sixth release under the Antimatter banner, and the third of Moss’ own making – the initial triumvirate featuring a split of compositions and recordings made by the pair mainly in isolation of each other – and continues the move to a more organic melancholy, leaving further behind the electronica that had featured in their earlier material.

Introverted and disappointed (though not disappointing), Moss uses The Judas Table as a cathartic vehicle to share his dissatisfaction with the people and situations he encounters in life, along with the betrayals and frustrations that he faces; “Just another dream that died…” he laments in ‘Stillborn Empires’.

Wholeheartedly earnest, there is no mistaking the feeling and conviction in Moss’ unassuming vocals, vulnerable on ‘Little Piggy’, a heartfelt song that builds from simple acoustic and vocal origins, or the more powerful, though still emanating a fractured soul, oration in the title track, his baritone meshing with a haunting female vocal and cello accompaniment.

The Judas Table invites reflection, it opens a forum to analyse loss and betrayal, and is a catalyst for melancholy, yet in a therapeutic way; there is something cleansing and uplifting about the introspection and realisation that occurs during the musings propagated by the subtle and underplayed despondent art rock Moss has produced. On ‘Hole’, the stark staging and gentle progression is as effective as Moss’ gets, sincere and sparse, just a voice and a guitar until the song spreads and breathy female vocals accompany a coda that slips away as delicately as it was constructed. Indeed, most of the songs here develop and sprout from clean guitar strums and soulful male vocals, building through adding strings and synths, and, at its core, are about the sharing of feelings, of sadness.

It goes without saying The Judas Table is not an album for all occasions, but its beauty and melancholy has a place and time with genuine and heartfelt emotions, it is a reserved and affecting soundtrack to reflection.

8.0/10

STEVE TOVEY