PURIFICATION

Purification is the debut full-length album by Danish progressive metal/ power metal act Anubis Gate. The album was released through the Locomotive Music label on the 26th of April 2004 and produced by prolific Danish metal producer Jacob Hansen ( Invocator, Maceration, Pestilence..etc). Anubis Gate has roots back as far as 1984 and at one time featured Per M. Jensen ( Invocator, The Haunted) on drums. The core of the band on this album is Morten Sørensen ( Drums) and Jesper M. Jensen (guitars,bass,synthesizer) along with lead vocalist Torben Askholm (Prophets Of Doom and Northern Empire). The album features guest appearences from Kim Oleson (lead guitar,synthesizer) and Henrik Fevre who would both join the lineup for the second album from the band. Producer Jacob Hansen plays some guitars on the song Before Anubis and would actually become a member of the band on their third album.

The music is progressive metal/ power metal with lots of keyboards but also with lots heavy yet melodic guitar playing. The music is a bit darker than what is usual for the genre and Torben Askholm´s commanding and powerful voice also means that the music gets a dark mood. Most songs are mid paced heavy affairs so don´t expect any fast euro power metal tracks on Purification. The progressive elements are also quite few and the music on the album might have more in common with traditional metal than with the more technically focused progressive metal of say Dream Theater. There are enough changes in the music to keep it from being trivial though.

The musicianship is excellent. Lots of great soloing and a tight rythm section. Torben Askholm also needs to be mentioned as his vocal style is really powerful. He is capable of high pitched singing but it´s not the style he uses the most.

Jacob Hansen´s production is good. He is a very professional producer but personally I´m not to fond of his style but that´s an aquired taste.

Purification is a good progressive metal/ power metal album to my ears, but it lacks the final originality to make it excellent IMO. It´s recommendable to fans of the genre though and deserves a 3 star rating.