ANEMIC
‘A Combination For Disaster’
(Sugar Shack)

Bristol Californians’ third album
4/5
Anemic have returned with an album that will go down well with fans of My Chemical Romance and Aiden, which is extremely dark but musically excellent. Vocalist Kevin Peter’s nasel, snotty punk screams grab you on the incredible opener, ’The Formula’, while guitarist/producer Daniel Peters shows his incredible talent with a Nine Inch Nails style break down in the middle of the track. They head into further techno territory on the annoyingly catchy ‘What You Wanna Say’. ‘A Song For The Dancefloor’ is just that, sounding a little like Head Automatica. It’s good to hear a band go seamlessly from angsty metal to disco ( a gap in the market that clearly needs to be filled!) Sometimes melodic, sometimes catchy, sometimes metal, this album has something for everyone.
Tracey Lowe
BIG CHEESE

ANEMIC
‘A Combination For Disaster’
(Sugar Shack)
KKK

It’s Screamo Jim, and just not as we know it….
With the right exposure, Anemic could be huge. The emphasis here is on BIG melodies that insinuate their way into your head and stay there all day, laced with deft guitar work and punky sneer. However, despite strong songwriting, the record does get cloying in places with gratingly nasal vocals and unnecessary keyboard squoops and weebles that seem to be there for absolutely no reason. The obligatory stomp-and –scream sections work fine but at this point in the game are growing tiresome – the few songs that eschew them actually a breath of fresh air. If you can ignore these downsides, though, this is an uplifting collection of sun-drenched screamo that will put a smile on your face and just right for those long,lazy summer days. Download: The Very Worst Of Everything
For Fans Of: The Used, Hoobastank
Dan Slessor
KEERRANG



ANEMIC
‘A Combination For Disaster’
(Sugar Shack)
6/10
On the strength of this ,their third offering, Anemic sound like a bunch of desperate try-hards playing a genre of music without any originality, wit or skill. Despite having some crucial breakdowns, catchy choruses and large hooks this record is a confusing and stressful experience. Note to budding musicians: being so desperate to cram in all your influences makes your album veer dangerously from one end of the alternative spectrum to the next at a speed that is difficult for the listener to keep up with. Add this rather tinny production that subtracts rather than adds to a testing performance and you get an album that files neatly under ‘Disappointment’.
www.anemic1.com
Andrew Kelham
ROCKSOUND

ANEMIC
‘TIL DEATH DO US PART’
( SUGAR SHACK RECORDS )
Bristol screamo troupe with much improved second album
YOU'VE got to hand it to Anemic. A year ago, hammer reviewed their debut 'New Souvenir' album and slapped a 5/10 on it, concluding the review with a phrase "We can only hope that Anemic realise and release their promise". Well, it's a joy to be able to report that the Bristol-based screamo crew have done exactly that. The band is better is just about every department, from the quality of the song-writing to Kevin Peters' impassioned vocal performance. There's a new found maturity about songs like the excellent 'I wish you well' that bring to mind the likes of arty post-hardcore chaps Biffy Clyro, rather then the standard screamo fare of old. It only gets better; the vocal interplay on 'Fade Away' leads into the touching 'Stay Together', and by the time the album reaches its stunning conclusion courtesy of the breakbeat-infused 'Forever', its obvious that Anemic have just given themselves a good chance of some real success. Now watch them go.
BRETT CALLWOOD ( 8/10 )
METAL HAMMER

ANEMIC 
TIL DEATH DO US PART
KKKK
(Sugar Shack)
Bittersweet emo-quartet return with a vengeance.
Now darker and more mature, but still as fresh and melody-driven as ever, Anemic make up in killer tunes all they lack in lyrical genius. Kevin Peter’s instantly recognisable vocals still display all the magic displayed in their debut album, New Souvenir, as he pours out tortured lines in a series of ferocious bursts and vulnerable gasps. While not to everyone’s taste these vocals certainly inject this divisive-but-comfortable studio production with the bite it deserves. Boasting fuzz-fuelled riffs, unobtrusive scratching and unexpected industrial outbursts, expect a fast-paced, passionate contribution from four Californians who’ve fulfilled their potential.
DOWNLOAD: Remember
FOR FANS OF: Senses Fail, Linkin Park
NIK YOUNG ( KKKK )
KERRANG

ANEMIC
‘TIL DEATH DO US PART’
( SUGAR SHACK RECORDS )
Anemic’s second album is a mighty step on from ‘New Souvenir’. The template is still the same – Kevin Peters snarling and whining his way through predictable post-hardcore backdrops - but the quality of the songs and the skill of the execution has doubled. ’Forfeit’, ’Fade Away’ and ‘Never Healing’ not only house cracking choruses but plenty of invention too. Okay, so they won’t blow you away, and although they desperately long to climb up to meet My Chemical Romance at the top of the pile, Anemic still have a long journey ahead of them. But Sugar Shack are giving them a rare chance to mature, and so far, its working a treat. The lyrics do need an overhaul though lads .’Can’t you see I miss you so bad? Don’t say that we are over.’ Peters warbles on ‘The Bitter End’. Hmmmm.
www.anemic1.com
MIKE HAYDOCK ( 6/10)
ROCKSOUND

ANEMIC 
CAMDEN UNDERWORLD
23.04.2005
KKKK
BITESWEET-EMO DISPLAYS DARKER UNDERBELLY LIVE
LEFT SIDE BRAIN’s metal-tinged, post-punk lacks enough tunes to rule the world, but solid riffs and vocals suggest them worth keeping an eye on. Dopamine, meanwhile, have no shortage of killer tracks. One-time-home to bassist Gareth Davies before he joined F4AF, Dopamine is South Wales’ grunge-tinged answer to Finch, and gems like ‘Beauty Queens and Bloodbaths’ and the fierce scream and stage-presence of Neil Starr, their bespectacled frontman, is wasted in the Underworld, leaving only the guitarist’s dubious obsession with moonwalking into angular emo-poses as the only ingredient difficult to digest. 
Headliners Anemic are a Bristol-based Californian quartet who offer infectious post-hardcore laced with extreme urgency and American punk twang. Now two albums wise and newly adorned in topical Goth-punk attire, they’re electric tonight, the poweral melodies and crisp vocals of ‘I Wish You Well’ and ‘Remember’ complimented cunningly with brothers Kevin and Daniel Peters’ mad gyrating and insistent gestures. Utterly hypnotic, frontman Kevin is equal-parts seductive and twisted, and vocals which threaten hard to pull-off live are reproduced flawlessly tonight with vicious emotion and added bite. Darker and more sinister than on the quietly intoxicating but starkly-produced recordings, Anemic out-do themselves live.
NIK YOUNG