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.

Purified...

Anubis Gate's debut album "Purify" is not a bad album at all, but it's not the best Anubis Gate album either. It's a solid blend of power metal and not-too-quirky progressive metal. An, while not ripping these bands off, Anubis Gate do remind be a bit of a combination of early Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

While the guitars and drums a dominant, as is typical of heavy metal, there are plenty of keyboards which, apart from a couple of solos, serve primarily athmospheric and background layering functions. There is a nice keyboard solo in the title track, which also employs some Depeche Mode-ish keyboard effects in the bridge, which actually works very well. There is also some interesting call-response type of interchange between the lead guitar and the keyboards in "I, Demon", and there's a certain Jean-Michel Jarre feel to "Kingdom of Duat". The guitar sound is quite heavy (and on later releases it is even more so), and the driving guitar riffs oscillate between rhythmically complex probably Pantera inspired riffs, power metal style staccato riffs and riffs based on sustained power chords and open string figures. The track "Hypernosis" is an example of this balanced combination between these different types of riffs. Some of the rhythm guitar work also reminds me of post "Excursion Demise" Invocator Anubis Gate also make use of guitar melodies and guitar harmonies, which, while simpler than on future releases, work quite well, and seem to be inspired by the work of Queensrÿche. So, there are many interesting elements on this album, but I think what makes it progressive is primarily an approach to composition which is akin to that of Queensrÿche prior to "Hear in the Now Frontier".

Especially the tracks "Hypernosis", "In the Comfort of Darkness", "Before Anubis", "I, Demon", "The Shadow", and the epic "Discrowned".

Torben Askholm's vocals may take some getting used to, because of his use of vibrato and the nature of his voice itself, but once you get your head around it, it works very well, and he really is a good singer. The downside to me is the production of the drums, and I think it's very strange that the hi-hat and ride cymbals have been panned out to the right. It gives a sense of imbalance.

But all in all a fine album that should appeal to fans of progressive metal and power metal.

One of the many bands over the decades to evoke the Egyptian god ANUBIS, the god of death, mummification, the afterlife, tombs and all things underworld in ancient Egypt, ANUBIS GATE officially formed in Aalborg, Denmark in 2003 although many members from the original lineup were working together on various musical projects as far back as the 1980s and a direct lineage of a band called Graff Spree. After many changes the first ANUBIS GATE lineup for its debut album PURIFICATION featured only three permanent members: Torbin Askholm (vocals), Jesper Jensen (guitars, bass, synthesizers) and Morten Sørensen (drums). Three additional sessions musicians would add more guitars, synthesizers and vocals. This would be only the first of two albums that featured Askholm on vocals before Jacob Hansen (who also sings lead in Invocator.)

During these early years of the band's existence ANUBIS GATE created its own style of progressively infused power metal with nods to the classic 1980s heavy metal style. Given the style the band would become known for, PURIFICATION is somewhat of the odd album out of the band's discography. The ten tracks on board feature a bizarre mix of heavy metal, power metal, progressive rock and even a bit of doom metal. The noticeable difference is that on PURIFICATION there are more slow plodding moments which is usually not the case in anything remotely considered power metal. At this point the power part of the equation was quite tamped down and the compositions were darker with less energetic outbursts. The keyboards are less pronounced than later works serving only as an atmospheric enhancer for the most part.

On this debut it's obvious that ANUBIS GATE was following in the footsteps of the pioneers of progressively minded heavy metal bands like Queensryche, Savage, Crimson Glory and even aspects of Iron Maiden for that matter however the band's first vocalist Torbin Askholm probably sounds most similar to Psychotiz Waltz' Buddy Lackey. The musical compositions though while sharing a lineage with the aforementioned bands was successful at sounding distinct even as far back as this debut release however the first two ANUBIS GATE albums are often overlooked in favor of the albums with Hansen on vocals which also found the band upping its game in terms of creativity and songwriting skills.

Personally i find this one a difficult one to swallow. On paper everything is executed as planned with excellent instrumental workouts, brilliant vocals with a wide range and subject matter that is the cream of the crop for a progressive metal band in the 21st century. What's missing from this debut are memorable compositions that really sink in. The creative mojo wasn't firing on all pistons quite yet and the weakness of the album is that the tracks pretty much all sound too similar without enough distinct personality to bring them to life. With power metal it's pretty much mandatory to craft super catchy hooks but the ones provided on PURIFICATION just seem a bit lackluster which sound even worse given the top notch performances.

Of course every band can't hit a home run first time out of the GATE, even the ones guarded by ANUBIS but it wouldn't have taken too much tweaking of the songwriting to make these tracks stand out more. Overall this is indeed a decent album but it seems to lack the most vital elements that make a progressive power metal band really stand out amongst the competition and unfortunately the album offers very little in return visits. Luckily ANUBIS GATE would soon reinvent themselves with a new singer and become one of Denmark's most famous metal exports but as far as this debut is concerned, they hadn't quite gotten there yet.