the official Anubis Spire fan page

REVIEW---ANUBIS SPIRE-OLD LIONS(in the world of snarling sheep)

"Remember the final scene in the movie LORD OF THE FLIES? The one where the little kids had degenerated to a mindless tribal mob and were hunting down the last non-tribal kid? Remember where they chased the poor kid to the beach and came face to face with ADULTS? The scared look on the kids faces told it all. In their little made-up tribal society they were kings. But standing before the soldiers on that beach, they were exposed for what they really were-scared, confused kids following along like the lemmings they'd become. With that little scenario fresh in your mind, let me just say that the title of this CD might be the most appropriate title I've seen in ages. ANUBIS SPIRE is a band of veterans, OLD LIONS for sure. One listen and there can be no doubt. From the opening drum beat you can tell these guys take a back seat to no one. Most of the music is instrumental and shows a laudable tendency to avoid the ordinary. Where other guitarists would go for a safe modern distortion tone, their guitarist goes for one that sounds like something squeezed out of some ancient desert wind instrument. The drums change from monstro Zepp-style in-your-face to almost sounding like the drummer was recorded from a block away. Where you expect cymbal crashes there is only unsettling silence...Where other bands would go out of their way to impress us with their slick arrangements, ANUBIS SPIRE just keeps flying along in a musical equivalent of stream of consciousness poetry....

OLD LIONS(in the world of snarling sheep) is my favorite cut on a disk of nothing but great cuts. It flows along like a gathering sandstorm on the horizon, building and rising higher and higher in the sky, folding back upon itself until you're so entranced that you don't even notice that you've been swept up and carried along with it for miles.... SO BE IT, IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME, HASN'T IT..., and especially the clean toned GONE WEST are guitar workouts par excellence. Remarkable all the more for all the cliches they avoid.

ANUBIS SPIRE have managed to craft a brilliant piece of music while rebelling against --and most of the time-- ignoring completely, the tendency of a lot of independents to over produce, over refine and over rely on slick packaging and studio sheen to cover a lack of anything original in their music... I don't really think this band fits the progressive rock genre and to be quite frank, I can't really think of where they would fit. I would definitely not recommend them to anyone enamored by today's MTV fodder. ANUBIS SPIRE are true dinosaurs, but if you'll forgive another movie analogy, I'll qualify that statement by saying that just as modern scientists now know that dinosaurs were not the slow, plodding beasts they were once believed to be, the current view that scorns any band who plays more than three minute pop tunes might in the future, actually make the term dinosaur a badge of honor. So, remember that scene in the original JURASSIC PARK where the T-rex rips the roof off the restroom? Remember what happens next? ANUBIS SPIRE is that dinosaur and the guy on the throne is just about every other band you've read about this year. Get the picture? Get this CD!"
---John Bettman--MIASMA magazine

"I think, therefore I am not"
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching