COVERED IN BLACK

In the prog metal horde, Anubis Gate have always held a distinctive place. Starting from a power metal base, as much as catchy riffs they also create heavy, dense soundscapes with industrial, Eastern and Pink Floydian touches with melodic vocals. On their previous album, the retro-infused Horizons, they took an increasingly more friendly sound approach, so it's understandable that some people expected more along that route on Covered in Black, but were kind of surprised to find the band adopting the heavier, darker approach of such albums as Detached. It's still the same easily recognizable Anubis Gate sound, but with a slightly altered balance of the ingredients. The album is short by prog standards, though, and has a somewhat large amount of filler, so that gets them minus a star.