666sharon666 A Perfect Forever is the first Anubis Gate album to credit a full band, though bassist Henrik Fevre didn't actually play on the album for some reason, only providing backing vocals and additional lead vocals on a couple of tracks. This was their last release with singer Torben Askholm. Their next vocalist Jacob Hansen guests on the album but not as a lead vocalist.

A Perfect Forever shows a big improvement over Anubis Gate's debut album Purification. The traditional metal roots heard on the debut are all but gone. The music is more progressive, the riffs better and the song-writing more memorable. There are also a few more power metal elements to be found, but this is still most firmly in the progressive metal camp. People seem to always call the band prog/power metal but I think that's misleading. What they are at this stage is a guitar driven progressive metal act that uses but doesn't overly rely on keyboards (that starts to change after this album). I think it will appeal to progressive metal fans who don' necessarily want an over-polished production. I personally prefer the stuff that was still to come at this point, but A Perfect Forever is also a must own progressive metal record in my book.

Time Signature Forever perfect...

Genre: progressive power metal

Their first album was good. This is better. The production is much better, and the compositions tighter but also less conventional. It's a tad heavier in guitar riffage and guitar sound than the predecessor, which works quite well.

Speaking of riffage, I really think the guitar riffs on this album are superb and even more varied than on "Purification", and I also like how they incorporate harmonies and melody into the riffs. I think the drumming is much more engaging and less "careful" than on the debut album, starting to experiment with odd time signatures as well, and the keyboards are less prominent, giving the album a hint of Fates Warning-ness. "A Perfect Forever" also offers a lot of changes in time and every song contains numerous riffs which are very well stitched together - without ever reaching the extemity of Metallica's "...And Justice for All"; it is more like Queensrÿche taken to the next level.

The intro riff to the "Sanctified" is really cool; it is complex, obviously requiring some skill to perform, and melodic at the same time. In fact, the entire song is somewhat of a bullet train progressive metal journey through a number of breakdowns, buildups, abrupt time changes, and loads of cool riffs - all within the time span of 6:36 minutes. "Kingdom Come" is melodic and contains twin leads galore, while "Future Without a Past" combines power metal melodies with percussive guitar riffs and constitutes another of the albums high points. The track, "Curfew" includes a duet which really highlights Torben Askholm's odd but drawing use of vibrato. In fact, I dont's think there are many weak moments on this album, other highlights being "Approaching the Inner Circle", "The Wanton Blades", and "A Perfect Forever" all of which carefully combine compositional complexity with heaviness and guitar melodies.

"A Perfect Forever" is a really good album. I think it will appeal to fans of both progressive metal and power metal.