A TOWER OF SILENCE

Anubis were a band originally formed to bring a very specific concept to life, but evidently the warm reception their debut had amongst prog fans convinced them to give a shot at making something more of the band. A Tower of Silence is the make or break point - where it will either be shown that Anubis can create compelling material independently of the original concept, or where it will turn out that when you take the original idea behind the band away the whole thing collapses.

As it stands, the band survived the move away from their original reason for existence reasonably well. A Tower of Silence is a neo-prog release broadly in the same style as its predecessor, which will be enjoyed by those who enjoyed that one. Standout track on the album is probably The Holy Innocent, which incorporates a blazing saxophone performance to back up the usual neo-prog guitar solos and keyboard flourishes. Few neo-prog bands have really used saxophone to such good effect - IQ on Capricorn from Subterranea is the only other example I can think of.

I was initially very enthusiastic about this, but on revisiting I feel it's aged poorly. There's a certain blandness to it: it's undoubtedly very nicely presented, but it just doesn't quite resonate with me, and I'm not sure it really stands out from the pack.