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"Covered in Black" is the seventh full length studio album from Progressive/Power Metal band Anubis Gate, released September 1st, 2017 on the Nightmare Records label.
User Album Review
After a 3 year wait, Covered in Black does indeed find the band in a different place musically and mentally. With subject matter revolving around the darker side of life and human nature, the music takes a turn for denser, heavier avenues, with more jagged edges than accessibly melodic hooks. At times it’s tough to recognize the band through all the grit and edge, but the core of their sound is still there, muddy and bloodied, but still intact.
The new approach is evident immediately as opener “Psychotopia” creeps in with unsettling harmonics and heavy, Fear Factory-esque staccato riffing. At first the clean, crisp vocals of Henrik Fevre provide the only link to their past, but as things progress, the classic Anubis Gate sound bleeds through the aggressive riffing and harder countenance. By the mid-point, it feels like the band is reversing course and fighting their way back to familiar melodic waters, only to be swept back out to sea again as the heaviness ratchets back up for the finale. Style shift or not, it’s quite an interesting song.
Covered in Black may not be the album I was hoping for from Anubis Gate, but it’s hard to dispute the talent and effort that went into creating the material. It’s a definite grower and one that will not give up all its ghosts with cursory or inattentive spins. If your issue with the band’s prior output was a lack of heaviness, this may be what you were waiting for. Definitely worth a dedicated spin for the progressive-minded among us.
Reviewed by angrymetalguy.com.
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