230503

With the recurring motif of a ringing telephone that's never answered weaving its way through the album, 230503 by Anubis revolves around a mysterious concept surrounding the death of its protagonist. With touching lyrics and emotional performances, the band deploy a particularly masterful form of neo-prog which sounds extremely up to date at places whilst still tapping in to time-honoured prog traditions - imagine a fusion between Muse and IQ and you might get some idea of where things are going here. Although the concept seems a little muddled - perhaps as a result of it being repurposed as a general sort of everyman story as opposed to being a veiled tribute to a departed friend of the band - on the whole this is a pretty decent first album which put Anubis on the neo-prog map, though I find it less compelling on return listens.