In 2017, Australian Prog Rock sextet Anubis release their fourth studio album, ‘The Second Hand‘, following on from their critically acclaimed release ‘Hitchhiking to Byzantium‘ (2014). ‘The Second Hand‘ is, like the band‘s earlier work, a return to the narrative driven concept album format, charting the downfall of an aging media mogul, James Osbourne-Fox, who, after a severe brain injury is left paralysed and imprisoned in his own body and left to contemplate the futility of his life of corporate success. The album seeks to address the notion of balance, the media‘s influence on those who consume it, and how the bias and hysteria benefits no-one but those who sign the cheques, dividing people and leading to political turbulence and unrest. The lyrics - written very early in 2016 - had, by the end of the year and recording process, become seemingly even more prescient with the media and moneyed interest‘s roles in influencing the results of referendums, elections and even conflicts worldwide. Musically, ‘The Second Hand‘ also channels some of the influence of its narrative-driven predecessors, with the stylistic diversity and dark heart of their debut ‘230503‘ (2009) and the classic symphonic progressive rock sound and style that typified ‘A Tower of Silence‘ (2011). In a departure from previous albums, after the group returned from its 2015 European Tour, they spent 4 months in a studio creating the music together, before recording the album in a traditional way with amps, microphones, acoustic instruments, vintage and analogue keyboards - even a Mellotron. In this way, ‘The Second Hand‘, though very much an album written for 2017, is still a performance record, and as such finds itself connected to a rich heritage of symphonic progressive music. ‘The Second Hand‘
Tracklisting:
1. The Second Hand (06:15) 2. Fool‘s Gold (6:33) 3. These Changing Seasons I (4:20) 4. The Making of Me (6:16) 5. While Rome Burns (9:40) 6. Blackout (7:45) 7. These Changing Seasons II (3:59) 8. Pages of Stone (16:45) 9. These Changing Seasons III (7:22)
