Basque’s Song of Anhubis unleashed their sophomore album “Reversed Reflection” via Rockshots Records on October 23rd, 2020. The band creates a passionate, introspective, intense, and diverse gothic metal that was first introduced to the world on their 2016 debut full length “Revenge As Redemption“. Not quite following in the exact musical footsteps of their precursive album, their second record takes a 180-degree turn as it experiments with electronic elements and sounds more akin to rock and metal along with their staple gothic influences.

Featuring 10 tracks, “Reversed Reflection” is a journey between two opposing worlds, light and darkness, the instinctive, and the rational. Blunt guitars and arpeggios are combined with electronic elements, very melodic passages even melancholic in some cases, with the strength of double bass drumming and simpler fragments with the addition of some extra ingredients that will surprise listeners. All of the emotion on the record is felt through the diverse vocal range of frontwoman Rei Reych – here’s our interview with her!

Beginnings:

The band has undergone several changes over the years, but generally, all the members who have come and gone knew each other. I only knew the guitarist (Polvareda) who is the one who originally proposed to me to create a band with a gothic metal style of the ’90s and early 2000s. So, we started this project between both of us, releasing our first album with that style we were looking for then. Later, once we had acquired experience and consolidated as a band, we decided to go in search of a more own sound and far away from that first album, as you can see in our recent CD “Reversed Reflection”.

Behind the name:

At first, the band had another name. After several changes in the line-up and a bad period with several unfavorable circumstances, we decided to go ahead with our first album more strongly than ever. It was then when we thought it was convenient to adopt as the name of the band something we could identify with. It was clear to me that I wanted to include a mythological element, as I have been passionate about the subject since I was very young. We decided to include the Egyptian god Anubis since it symbolizes in a way the rebirth and that dichotomy between light and darkness, something that matched very well with the moment we were in and with the spirit of the band. We put the “h” in-between as a differentiating element. As Anubis is also the god that in a certain way judges the souls and our lyrics are usually about the injustices, the duality of the human being, the rebirth, the light, and the darkness…we decided to call our band finally “Song Of Anhubis”.

Inspiration:

Let’s say that, although we usually listen to very diverse music, metal is the genre we like the most and therefore what we want to do when we play our instruments. However, I suppose that you can also notice in our music those influences of somewhat different styles that we sometimes listen to. We try not to close ourselves off to anything, there’s no need to close our minds, just let the musical notes flow in your head and all sorts of ideas appear. It is not good to put barriers to your creativity and unfortunately, sometimes it is done unintentionally, perhaps having as the main objective to try to reach the maximum audience possible. You may like our music more or less, but it is made from the deepest part of us and we try to make it authentic.

Inspiration behind “Reversed Reflection”:

I am inspired mainly by my own experiences, by issues that affect me, or perhaps by the experiences of people close to me. Normally, music is my escape route, the way in which I exteriorize all kinds of feelings, which sometimes are difficult to express with words alone. There is no word or phrase that can substitute a good melody that comes from the deepest part of you when you are inspired or when you feel something very intensely. In fact, that’s the perfect time to compose. I always carry a pen and paper with me for any idea I might have wherever I am.

Describe the new album in 5 words!

Passionate, introspective, intense, alternative, and diverse.

Teamwork:

Usually, Polvareda, the band’s guitarist, composes the guitar lines and on them, I compose the lyrics and vocal melodies. Then we add the other instruments and arrangements. This order changes when the song is more electronic and the composition of the song starts to be created with the synthesizers. As right now it is impossible to play live we are focusing on composing the third album.

COVID-19:

Unfortunately, we have had to stop rehearsing because of the COVID-19 and until this issue is clarified we will be on Stand-By. Once the light is seen, we will start rehearsing again and in a month we will be ready for the road again! Mythical concert halls have closed in our area, several bands have disappeared and it doesn’t seem that this will be solved in the short term. However, I am hopeful that after the pandemic the venues that have now had to close down will revive and that people will be more encouraged than before to go to the concerts of the emerging bands in their cities. I suppose that this will make us more aware of how valuable it is to enjoy, as we did before, live music.

Online concerts:

It’s not a bad idea but organizing such an event requires a lot of time and infrastructure. We’re not a famous band so I don’t think it’s worth doing.

3 fun facts about the band:

1. Our graphic designer realized that our first album and my name had the letter “R” in common as initials and thought it would be a good idea to repeat that pattern in the title of the new album. So, the double “R” has become a kind of identity sign. We even have some ideas for the title of the next album!
2. We’ve had problems at times in choosing song titles because we put them in consensus. I am passionate about mythology and I’m also a doctor, so I love to suggest titles that have to do with mythology and issues related to medicine. Sometimes I bring in some crazy ideas. (laughs) In fact, on the previous album, there are two related songs called “Serotonin I” and “Serotonin II”. For this album, we agreed on that with “Persephone’s Call” and “Teratos”. Persephone is a goddess of Greek mythology and “Teratos” means monster in Greek and is a prefix widely used in medicine.
3. When I finished composing the melodies and lyrics of the song “My own enemy”, I thought it would look great with a guttural scream in the pre-chorus of the song. My idea was to have Paul do it, as he had been a singer in several hardcore groups before the creation of Song Of Anhubis. However, he insisted that I do it. I had already been working on the guttural voices at one time, but the main reason to do it was my curiosity about that vocal technique. Besides, I hadn’t been heard much singing in that style either, so I wasn’t sure I could do it with any quality. On the day of the recording of that track, both he and the producer insisted on it and I promised them that I would try. When the time came, my most monstrous side came out without knowing how, hahaha, and surprisingly we were very happy with the result.