After reviewing Danish Anubis Gate last self-titled full-length (and daring to give it a score of less than 80) I have quickly learned, formally on the forums and informally through direct e-mail, that the band has a hard and dedicated following. It is probably to this group that this year’s EP Sheep is addressed. Being the men of their word as these Danes are, they fell behind on the release of the next proper album. To keep the appetites satiated they cut a corner a bit, and released this stop-gap solution. Destined to Remember is new material, a different version of which will be heard on the upcoming Horizons, and then there are two covers, something the band enjoys doing.

If Destined to Remember is any indication of what the new album is going to be like, then the fans are in for more of diffused and relaxed dreamy atmosphere fighting it out with the mood growing more tense after some punchy double bass bursts. The interplay on wistful vs. edgy at the end of the song is something the band excels at.

The cover of Pink Floyd Sheep begins electric and shimmering in the distance, although the song is made more modernized and heavy. Henrik Fevre’s somewhat androgynous voice is different from anxiety filled Waters, but Anubis Gate kept the quiet mystery moments, the characteristic keyboard slides, and, most importantly, the spoken key part in the middle. Sheep is a multidimensional canvas and Anubis Gate does it justice.

The choice of Broken Wings by Mr. Mister would baffle some. Christian pop rock is what I think of when hearing this song. Written somewhere in mid-80s, this was the time when the Iron Curtain was about to come down, so MTV finally made it to the Soviet Union. That TV station receiving 1-2 hrs of airplay on the Soviet TV on some obscure channels was relentless playing Broken Wings then. It must have been one of its top hits at the time, and so my memories of first hearing MTV are somehow connected to Mr. Mister. Certainly, it wasn’t metal, the style of music I was really into then, but I remember the girls in high school drooling over that dude driving his Chevy in California sun singing the song’s recognizable main hook. Anubis Gate made the song a bit more polished and keyboard laden, albeit with the more percussive flow.

For all those band’s fans I referred to earlier, the whole of Sheep EP is made available for free download at the band’s website.