Anubis Gate 2011

"As I have mentioned before, I rarely feel national pride, but every now and then a Danish band releases an album which makes me proud of being from the same country as them. And with their latest eponymous album, Anubis Gate have just scored a hat trick with me. I absolutely loved "Andromeda Unchained" and "The Detached", and "Anubis Gate" immediately became a hit with me, too. The overall sound is lush and melodic and at the same time quite heavy and hard rocking. After Jacob Hansen left the band, bassist Henrik Fevre took over vocal duties, and while he does not deploy the same number of singing techniques, opting for a comfortable midrange voice, he does a very good job of it, and his voice suits the music perfectly - and especially lends itself well to the choral harmonies that often pop up in the choruses on this release. There is more focus on riffage, I think, on this album than on the previous releases, and the album - while definitely a melodic metal album - contains some of the most aggressive passages I have heard from Anubis Gate, who also bring power metal back into the picture to a greater extent than on their two previous albums. Interestingly, the album is tinged with quite progressive keyboards, but overall the synths seem less prominent than on the two Hansen-fronted albums; still, "Anubis Gate" strikes me as being much more lush. "Anubis Gate" is a very focused album, but rich in different expressions and moods, and there is a certain dynamicity to the juxtaposition of heavy groovy riff-based passages, mellow clean passages, uptempo passages and more progressive and lush passages. Anubis Gate are good at what Queensrÿche used to do: write progressive and different music which was still incredibly accessible and full of hit potential. While musically quite different from Queensrÿche, Anubis Gate are still a more than worthy contender for the title of "the new Queensrÿche". Lush, heavy, expressive, progressive and accessible, "Anubis Gate" is definitely one of the strong contenders for the title of progressive metal album of the year, and fans of melodic metal and power metal should definitely check it out. (review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"