Anubis

Anubis is an Australian neo-progressive rock group formed in Sydney in 2004. The band begins as a sextet founded by vocalist and bassist Robert James Moulding and keyboard player and guitarist David Eaton, and the original line-up also includes Douglas Skene on guitars, Dean Bennison on guitars, Steven Eaton on drums and Nick Antoinette on bass.

Style and approach

The band plays progressive rock with art rock and neo-progressive rock elements. Its music is marked by layered keyboards and guitars, vocal harmonies and conceptual lyrics, and it develops a reputation for cinematic, evocative concept albums.

Releases and line-up changes

The original line-up releases 230503 in 2009 and A Tower of Silence in 2011 on Bird's Robe Records. A Tower of Silence becomes a minor breakthrough in Europe and remains critically noted there. Nick Antoinette leaves in early 2013 while the band is writing Hitchhiking to Byzantium; the album is then recorded as a quintet with Robert Moulding handling all bass parts. By its release in 2014, Anthony Stewart has joined on bass.

Touring and later work

Anubis tours Australia and Europe in 2014 and 2015, and the live album Behind our Eyes is drawn from those shows. By the end of the Hitchhiking to Byzantium tour, the group shares bills with Anathema and Uriah Heep.

The Second Hand follows in 2017, with much of the material coming from jam sessions and group arranging. It is recorded in the band's own studio and uses vintage instruments and amplifiers, including one of only three working Mellotrons in Australia. The band tours Europe again in 2018, visiting the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and plays at Night of the Prog at Loreley alongside Steve Hogarth of Marillion, Arena, Camel, Big Big Train, The Sea Within and Riverside.

Other releases

In 2018 the band issues the acoustic studio album Different Stories, which reworks pieces from the four full studio albums and includes an unreleased song from the 230503 sessions. Lights of Change, a double live album from the 2018 European tour, includes almost the full Loreley set and a complete Netherlands recording of A Tower of Silence. The group also announces the studio album Homeless in 2019.