230503 review @ www.progarchives.com

Australians Anubis have released a concept album of high quality. If given a chance, it could be in many peoples collection.

It is a concept album based around the sad death of a boy who goes on a journey to search for himself. The history of his life is played out before him and he sees another way he could have travelled, an "Operation Mindcrime" type scenario with an evil doctor that is abusing him and makes him a junkie. The story ends with his death.

Musically, it is sometimes charming and sometimes deliberately ugly. It is a strength that each chapter of story strikes the listener hard. If it's your taste, you'll find it memorable. The voice is the inner monologue of a young boy. It is also by turns melancholy and angry, conveyed by the excellent voice of lead singer Robert James Moulding as he plays the role successfully. The real beauty of this album lies in the last two songs, the 12 minute 'The Collapse' and the almost 20 minute 'Disinfected and Abused'. This song is, in itself, a great achievement and demonstrates the good harmonies, progressive rhythms and melodies that truly turn the soul and, on occasion, scratch at the face.

This is a masterpiece and it makes a very good album into an excellent album. If this is the benchmark they set, then the future looks very exciting for Anubis.

Rating: 4.5/5

230503 review @ www.progarchives.com

We're lucky to have such gems in Australia. Anubis' debut album is a telling story that deals with pain and loss in the most visceral way music can communicate. A highly recommended purchase.

The albums sonic palette ranges from modern to the retro with a strong affinity for the analogue synth sounds we've come to know and love from the 70's. The vocals of Robert James Moulding cover a gamut of expressions and tone colours whilst still adhering to a sense of consistency which gels together the album's narrative structure.

The definite highlights as pointed out by the other reviewers are the album's ultimate and penultimate tracks which took me on an aural adventure that I have not experienced since Marillion's 'Marbles' and Pain of Salvation's 'Remedy Lane'. Pay special attention to the vocal harmonies and guitars solos in these tracks as they're truly breathtaking.

I have only painstakingly minor gripes with this album on a production perspective and that is that the drums are rather boomy (read: Bonham on heat), however this does not detract from the rhythm section's razor tight precision.

230503 is a near-perfect Progressive Rock masterpiece and belongs heartily in any true Prog Fan's collection.

Rating: 4.5/5

Progarchives Stats

Some impressive stats for tonight:

On ProgArchives, the internet's #1 Progressive Rock resource, our 230503 record was listed as currently:

#61 Top Neo-Prog Album (of all time)

(ranking above Fish's 'Sunsets On Empire' LP and Porcupine Tree's 'The Incident')

#1 Australian Neo-Prog Album (of all time)

#2 Australian Progressive Rock Album (of all time)

(ranking above the amazing Sebastian Hardy, Aragon, and Unitopia.)

#29 Top Progressive Rock Album of 2009.

(Ranking above Porcupine Tree's The Incident' and The Mars Volta's 'Octahedron'.)

Whilst it's unlikely we'll ever be able to claim figures like this again, given the way it changes on an hourly basis with every review submitted by everybody, it's still a thrill.

One huge and almost unthinkable goal is to get inside the top 250 Progressive Rock albums of all time, even if only for a minute. But in order to do that, we need to start seeing more positive reviews posted! And seeing as how we'd then be up there with your Yesses and Genesises and Pink Floyds, it's not terribly likely either.

230503 Review @ musikreviews.de (deutchland)

The Australian Progressive Band ANUBIS have devised a concept album, reminiscent in part of "Operation Mindcrime", Progressive Rock styling was implemented, however musically, more song-oriented.

"The Deepest Wound" sounds like Pink Floyd would sound today, a heavy beat and catchy chorus in a hymnal feel. The seamless transition into "Leaving Here Tonight" is a continuation of the emphasis on the bass and lead vocals, which is suspended at once for the typically English sounding guitar lines. Advantage of the group: Robert Moulding's vocals are extremely appealing, it goes very easy on the ear without you being flattened. "Breaking Water" has something of a MARILLION mood and succeeds with little more than keyboard smudges and individually battered piano chords as an atmospheric transition to "Waterfall", a somewhat featureless, typical neo-progressive piece that laps at the edge of narcissistic melancholy . Unlike "Anonymity" in which sound experiments in the form of muffled beats and bass along with dissonant undertones - the whole thing kept completely instrumental - ANUBIS testify to the courage of the experiment in this case, with lost voice samples providing darker moods. The following song offers a good ten minute playground to let off steam for the musicians, between verses in which the front man plays the part like a young Peter Gabriel. Accordingly, dramatically decrease the overall picture is also, while a consistent chorus is missing.

To compensate, "The Doctor" rocks. Short and crisp - the last time, for an interlude followed by the final two pieces. Chris Squire-bass, melancholy middle section, reverb guitars and dreamy vocals make "The Collapse" certainly in the context of old prog heroes, and blows away the notion they've not reinvented anything, as this is a fresh presentation. With "Disinfected and Abused" - lyrically worth hearing - and a good 18 minutes, one is in all respects on to it for frying guitars and soulful, vocal oriented passages thanks to the catchy Melodies, whilst with the saxophone sounds, ANUBIS construct a final cause for innovation. Just the rhythm section here makes sure that in your time with spent with them you do not get bored - a contrast to the countless acoustic spaghetti-boiling bunglers, hiding behind the apron genre. Because in the end the radio may also play a sound collage as long as the concept is not conducive to pretentious.

CONCLUSION: Anubis is not innovative, but have produced a pleasantly unaffected prog rock concept album with a sometime harder edge, and many fans will not question its quality conventionality (design and implementation). It has a lot of commercial potential, therefore, if one enjoys the older, more symphonic ideas and largely shuns darker sound-based passages and instead enjoys consistent songs.

rating: 11/15

230503 Review @ ffm-rock (deutchland)

ANUBIS, of course, have nothing to do with the similarly titled RTL teen series. It is an Australian progressive rock band, formed in 2004, by vocalist Robert James Moulding and keyboardist David Eaton.

The two songwriters were in the studio recording the album from 2006 to 2009, and came out with the interesting concept album 230503.In addition, they found themselves still looking for suitable co-musicians. The story is briefly described as a man who chugs around with his love of his life on a houseboat and comes with an ominous accident in the water. He loses his memory, is washed up somewhere and then learns "to know The Doctor", who makes him into a drug addict (Operation Mindcrime, anyone?). Gradually, the protagonist tries to regain his former self.

Musically, this story appropriately moody and atmospheric and in a very analog-sounding way. In addition to a wonderfully raw sound of guitar, drums and bass there is still often Mellotron strings, Hammond, old-school synths and sometimes, even saxophone. The ten varied songs are arranged very differently, sometimes tonal and harmonic, the next minute atonal and chaotic. Atmospheric, beautiful widescreen melodic sections alternate with gently sloping psychedelic verses. The singer is reminiscent of a young David Gilmour, and in many ways, the name PINK FLOYD flashes repeatedly, but perhaps in a lively and rockier incarnation (for example, "Leaving Here Tonight" or the "Echoes" memory trip in "Breaking Water").

A combination of PINK FLOYD (Mellotron, vocals and melody), KING CRIMSON (instrumental parts) and some ZAPPA sound effects in the nearly ten minute "The Bond Of Mutual Distrust"- the first outstanding song - (track six). The two shorter instrumentals "Anonymity" and "Flying / Falling" are actually relatively modern sounding, featuring more modern ambient sounds, interlude 230503. These fit perfectly into the very classic analog album. ANUBIS move up to the penultimate two tracks at a solid level, to the final "The Collapse" (twelve minutes) and "Disinfected and Abused" (seventeen minutes), the great tennis (?) Only with these two giant songs do the band play fully to the songwriting strengths that they've hinted at in the shorter pieces. 230503 is a nice concept work, which has one hand raised classic but also plays with modern elements. If at first there are doubts, as the shorter songs don't always ignite immediately, one penetrated by the long finale in the ANUBIS work, which after all, is more than a good third of the disc.

Rating: 5/5

230503 review @ UnProgged (Italia)

One of the prerequisites of a progressive band, or the best type of progressive band, is that ability to succeed in evoking images. Clear ideas, ability to vary, a worthy concept, and above all, the complexity of the work.

Anubis, an Australian sextet, on their debut disc, have attempted, with some success, in creating a work that it is shaped in such a way.
The type of music played from the band is identified with cinematic progressive rock.

How is this cinematic effect obtained with the progressive rock? Through the flowing dynamics of the compositional ideas, with a detailed attention to the tone shading, so that the narration is never flat and monotonous, so that the listener is guided on the path, and doesn't risk getting lost on the journey.

Anubis seem to know this fact and create a fascinating concept, sufficiently catchy to hold the attention. The ear is soon accustomed to the chosen colors from the players, each piece of music slides comfortably after the previous, without annoying jumps, and all seems in service of the plot.

The plot itself is inspired by a dramatic event that affected deeply two members of the band- Robert and David. The loss of a boy aged twenty years, and of the suffering caused by the loss to their loved ones. Shifting between surrealistic images and comatose states from which emerge memories mixed to the truth, with a surprising twist in the plot at the end.

The fiction of the work comes linked also at musical level: the faster and aggressive pieces (The Deepest Wound), these moments are followed with restrained melody (Breaking Water), and the use of electronic and psychedelic effects (Anonymity).

The voice, though the lyrical focus is not always convincing, is mostly narrator, the tone sentimental, and the production is indie-rock in style, and sometimes the style is reminiscent of The Dredge or the Protest the Hero.
The musicians perform well in this newer style, listening to the whole thing unleashes all the delights of Marillion and Arena, these elaborate influences and, sometimes they clash with that indie production. But on the other hand, in this atmosphere the mellotron fits to perfection, very well played by David Eaton.

Light and shadows on 230503, therefore. Even if the first listening doesn't instantly grab you, (dismissible, certainly, with little effort), in time it will stay afloat.

For this we do not feel it in ourselves to reject this album, for which it goes recognized for it's freshness of songwriting and in total, the fact that it reflects a cohesion between it's concept and music.

230503 review @ www.progarchives.com

This is a strange one - recorded recently by an Australian Progressive Rock act. Aussies are rather more well known, on a world stage, for your hairy chested, high testosterone rock and roll, and not concept albums.

Although given all the stereotypes that come to mind with the baggage of (1) being Australian and (2) naming yourself after an Egyptian God, this album takes you entirely by surprise.

No, there's no 'Whole Lot of Rosie' here- just a whole lot of Mellotron. And let me tell you, that's a good thing.

In places it is redolent of the classic Progressive Rock we (mostly) all know and love, but in places throws up some of the more fashionable newies like Radiohead and Mars Volta and even (well not fashionable, but welcome nonetheless) Marillion.

The record sounds quite different to a lot of the Neo-Prog bands around. Can't quite put my finger on why, and indeed, it's not a critiscism. The music is moody and thats appropriate given the dark subject matter. Parts of it, actually make me draw heavy parallels to OK Computer by Radiohead, and that may be the tone in some of the lead vocals, which are very strong throughout, and the harmonies, particularly on 'Leaving here Tonight' are excellent.

The rhythms are strong and there is what sounds suspiciously like a Rickenbacker Bass chugging through a lot of it that, whilst a little riff-driven in places, does add a familiar and welcome character to the album. The rhythm section is tight and the time changes are well executed.

The guitars are exciting and stylistically very broad. The keyboards stick fairly heavily to retro sounds and whist I like that, some people may feel it is a bit deja-vu. There are a few exceptions, and this is where they dip their toes into the Floydy-atmosphere thing, and their guitarist does a very strong Gilmour-esque solo in one section of the concluding epic.

It's perhaps not unexpected that the band doesn't draw on any Australian influence, or at least any readily discernible one, and in all this album comes across as a very English sounding affair. Right down to it's faux-hipgnosis cover, which looks very good and would be right at home on an LP sleeve.

It's a record that has grown on me with repeated listenings, and although it's a bit of a search, it's worth hunting down. In particular, 'Waterfall' which is a magnificent song and 'The Collapse' which has some wonderful vocals in it.

Rating: 4/5