In one aspect, articles are described herein comprising refractory coatings employing an inter-anchored multilayer architecture. Articles having refractory coatings described herein, in some embodiments, are suitable for high wear and/or abrasion applications such as metal cutting operations. A coated article described herein comprises a substrate and a coating deposited by CVD adhered to the substrate, the coating including a refractory layer comprising a plurality of sublayer groups, a sublayer group comprising a Group IVB metal nitride sublayer and an adjacent layer alumina sublayer, the Group IVB metal nitride sublayer comprising a plurality of nodules interfacing with the alumina sublayer.