ANUBIS GATE — Purification (review)

Album · 2004 · Progressive Metal

3/5 · 2022-05-25
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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.