Way back in the ancient times of 2011, Anubis Gate surprised and impressed me with their self-titled album full of progressive writing and thrashy power metal. Being the cranky Gator that I am, I am almost physically unable to listen to power metal. But Anubis Gate write engaging songs and inject a healthy dose of thrash metal in their work, punching away all dragons and crooning bards. Horizons saw the band take on a heavy pop sound to great effect but then they swung low and attempted something darker with Covered in Black, an album that did not sit well with me. Interference arrives after a mildly interesting covers album and six years of Anubis Gate-less space, leaving me apprehensive. Yet the new songs sees them trying some new things and puts a finger on how unique they are in the overly polished progressive metal scene.
Most of the tracks on this album are built around distinct ideas, like the techno like melody in “Equations” offset by aggressive drums and shouts in the chorus, or the dark RPG dungeon synth-work of “Dissonance Consonance”, a song that plays with contrasts in an intriguing way. These songs are some of the best on Interference and they disclose a confident band that is experimenting with ways of mixing dark and light moments, a heritage of the last collection of original Anubis Gate songs. Of course, you will find the usual odd time signatures, Jazzy influences and noodly guitar leads and solos that is implied in the progressive metal genre. Henrik Fevre‘s vocals are as great as ever, leaning more into powerful statements of cadence and even some wonderfully used harsh shouts (though I cannot find information on who does them). The drummer is also the hidden weapon of the band, going from adding tasteful fills and groovy rhythms to outright thrash metal assaults and double kicks to the face.
However, as much as I enjoy the great vocal moments and unique ideas present in this album, not all is well with the songwriting. First, there are songs here that sound like stock Anubis Gate in “Ignorance Is Bliss” and “World of Clay”. These songs are not exactly bad but they sound like outtakes from previous outings. “World of Clay” and “The Phoenix” in particular sound like they were cut from Horizons. Then there are the constant builds. Most of the songs spend their first minutes setting the mood like they are all the last song on the album. In practice, this makes them stretch out far in length. Another problem that is even worse is that while the songs have their own character, few of them have that final push for the end of the song that made albums like Horizons and the self-titled so good. Meaning they often end in a repetition of the chorus or the main song idea. This makes the length of the songs even more questionable as they could have been cut to make them much snappier. It is unfortunate that a great set of songs be taken down by not having enough development but as I have spun this album over a week it feels less interesting than when it was just gracing my ears for the first time. Interference is a swing and a miss from a talented band that I am rooting for, but they are at least heading in the right direction again.
