Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Anubis Gate - The Detached CD (album) cover

THE DETACHED

Anubis Gate

Progressive Metal


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Bookmark and Share
4 stars I haven't heard this album many times and in adequate depth(which is inexcusable for progressive listeners)but because I have focused oon some of their previous works such as Andromeda Unchained and Purification I can make some comparisons. This one is much as its predecessor but with an evolution in their sound. First of all, I totally agree with the continue of their cooperation with Jacob Hansen in vocals, who is better than the first singer. Secondly, the music is more heavy and aggressive in parts but without lacking complexity and progression. Following the path they established,they keep the oriental-'Egyptian' elements in their music which renders it more interesting. I alwas like songs with east touches like 'home' from Dream Theater, 'Egypt' from Symphony X etc. And the song 'Pyramids' is no exception to the rule. I would like also to point that the power elements that their music contains are not cheesy and imbecilic happy(like power metal is now)and they fit with the rest music. In general,all the album is very interesting and if you like progressive metal you ought to give it a chance. However, I will select some tracks,the 'hits' of this album: Pyramids,Dodecahedron,Bloodoath,Options-Going nowhere and Find a way(or make one). We can expect great things in the future if this band earns the recognition it deserves(come on guys, Mastodon increased their reputation vastly, can't Anubis Gate make it?).
Report this review (#221107)
Posted Sunday, June 14, 2009 | Review Permalink
5 stars Attached...

On "The Detached", Anubis Gate pretty much continue where they left off with "Andromeda Unchained", although keyboards and electronics seem to have been given a slightly more prominent role on "The Detached".

There are no weak tracks on this CD as such, but my personal favorites are "Find a Way (Or Make One)", "Yiri", "Lost In Myself" (which starts out with a Queensr˙che-style great guitar harmony riff), the epics "Options - Going nowhere" and "Pyramids", with its many Middle Eastern elements and 90s Depeche Mode-ish electronics, and "Bloodoath" which has a number of Invocator-like qualities.

While the Queensr˙che and Fates Warning influences are still there, I think this album is beyond Queensr˙che-taken-to-the-next-level - I think this album is an original prog metal treasure just waiting to be unearthed by the international prog metal fan community (so, Mike Portnoy, consider including Anubis Gate on the next Prog Nation Tour, huh ;-) )

If you're into prog metal, you're likely to love this album.

Report this review (#254533)
Posted Sunday, December 6, 2009 | Review Permalink
UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars The Detached is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish progressive power metal act Anubis Gate. The band really surprised me with their last full-length album Andromeda Unchained (2007) and luckily I´ve been givin the opportunity to make a review of The Detached too. There´s been no lineup changes since Andromeda Unchained and it seems that Anubis Gate has now found the right constallation with lead singer Jacob Hansen who joined the band on the last album.

The Detached pretty much starts where Andromeda Unchained ended. Quality progressive power metal with an excellent flair for melody, heavy yet melodic riffs, great synth/ keyboards, a powerful rythm section and Jacob Hansen´s strong high pitched vocal delivery. Of course my surprise over the high compositional quality on Andromeda Unchained means that I had high expectations to The Detached and they´ve been fully met but unfortunately there were no surprises this time. My complaint is that the two albums sound very much alike and I´m not detecting much development on The Detached compared to Andromeda Unchained. Please regard this as a minor complaint though as the quality of music on this album is very high.

The production is very polished yet powerful and detailed.

The Detached is another excellent release by Anubis Gate but this is one of those cases where I demand to hear something different on the next release. I´m not sure I will be as impressed with the next album if it´s subtitled Andromeda Unchained number III. Still you can´t deny quality and The Detached is certainly a quality product and a 4 star rating is fully deserved. Anubis Gate has proven yet again that they are one of the most professional and well playing Danish progressive metal acts out there.

Report this review (#266708)
Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 | Review Permalink
4 stars a difficult one for me to review/ rate. falling as it does between Andromeda Unchained (arguably the band's best effort to date) and the self-titled Anubis Gate (a great album in its own right), The Detached has:

some fantastic stuff: Yiri, Dodecahedron, Pyramids, Out of Time, Options - Going Nowhere

and some average stuff: Lost In Myself, Bloodoath, Find a Way (Or Make One) (which are all not bad songs but sound suspiciously like some of their other songs, so i cant quite figure out what i'm listening to) and A Lifetime to Share (again, not bad but i'm always tempted to skip to the next track, so i don't really remember what it sounds like!)

in any case, the good stuff far outweighs the not so good stuff, so i would say 3.5 stars rounded off to a 4.

Report this review (#775455)
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2012 | Review Permalink
4 stars Anubis Gate are without a doubt one of the most interesting contemporary progressive power metal bands in the world and as far as I am concerned the best metal export from Denmark. It's a shame that those guys haven't made their breakthrough yet especially as they are able to not only maintain their high level but to improve it in regular time lapses. At least, they got a lot of favourable ratings from genre experts and their growing fan base.

This album is a really inspiring and diversified progressive metal album. It's filled with atmospheric parts, technically addicting progressive passages and a good amount of catchy melodies. It's easy to listen to this record if you listen to it as background music at one side but also easy to listen to if you concentrate and focus on the songs. This is a quality which many progressive bands don't have as they sound too complicated, ambitious and diversified for their own good. With an average length somewhere between six and seven minute sper song, Anubis Gate just found the right mixture in my ears. They sound fresh and addicting but still complex and creative. There are really many interesting changes in style to observe but the band doesn't lose itself in musical masturbations with endless guitar solos or keyboard intros like many other bands of the genre. Anubis Gate are creative and surprising like in the epic hymn "Yiri" or the amazing and exotic "Pyramids" but also easy and coherent to approach, catchy and straight like in the more commercial and addicting "Lost in myself" or the darker and hypnotizing "Out Of Time" that sounds like a Dream Theater classic and I mean this in a entirely positive way.

This would be a perfect album for someone who would like to discover the progressive metal genre and who wants to start with something original of a high quality but nothing to complicated. Anubis Gate delivers the best deal here. It is a very good progressive metal record that fits to any occasion and the best thing is that this record grows more and more with the time. The only small negative element that keeps this record away from being perfect and not just very good is the fact that there is maybe neither a good single choice nor a truly outstanding epic masterpiece on this album that could gather further attention as most of the tracks really are all equally great.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on October 5th of the year 2011.

Report this review (#808888)
Posted Thursday, August 23, 2012 | Review Permalink
3 stars I can understand a song about Pyramids. After all, Western man has always been fascinated with them. But dodecahedrons? (see also : the namesake band, Daal). You're out to prove something. Anyway, industrially-laced dark power proggers Anubis Gate have a praiseworthy work ethic, after a 20-year gestation period releasing quality albums about every two years. Coming on the heels of a praised album, Andromeda Unchained (their highest rating here on PA), you have a choice of doing something different or piling on. They took second option. So the sci-fi story concept is more impenetrable, there's more electronic layers, multi-tracked vocals, melodic shifts from metallic techno to power riffage to harmonic soloing to doomy sections to sudden snippets of, wait, wasn't that a five-second futuristic disco sound? Well, there's a time when the best is the enemy of the good. They are better when not over complicating things (curiously, it is the other way around for 2011's Anubis Gate). Songs like Lost in Myself, Dodecahedron or A Lifetime to Share, while retaining the complexity, pack it into the more accessible 5-6 minutes.
Report this review (#1162344)
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2014 | Review Permalink

ANUBIS GATE The Detached ratings only


chronological order | showing rating only

Post a review of ANUBIS GATE The Detached


You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.