Apocalyptica - 7th Symphony

Artist: Apocalyptica
Title: 7th Symphony
Genre: Cello Metal
Release Date: 20th August 2010
Label: Columbia / SonyBMG



Album Review

This year, Finnish cello metal band APOCALYPTICA releases already the 7th studio album symbolically entitled ‘7th Symphony’. So the album contains 10 tracks, four of which were recorded with featured vocalists. It opens with instrumental composition ‘At the Gates of Manala’ where rich, deep, dynamic and rather heavy sound absorbs all the space around but on the other hand the melody is too gloomy or dark to be associated with Manala that is the realm of the dead in Finnish mythology. The drums diligently keep a steady rhythm while the tempo becomes slower, sometimes almost fades and then again gains speed and strength. Actually this atmospheric track is long enough to allow the musicians to express themselves to the full.

The next song ‘End of Me’ featuring BUSH’s singer Gavin Rossdale in whole seems to be fairly good but a little bit commercial I must say when the music is too smooth and plain but still vigorous with a catchy chorus. The tendency to soften and smooth the sound can be noticed on the other tracks as well: in ‘Not Strong Enough’ with Brent Smith on vocals, the voice prevails while the instruments are almost moved to the background. Of course, the track is quite good and qualitative but there’s nothing more. ‘2010’ featuring Dave Lombardo,, drummer of SLAYER, is much more interesting, emotional and typical for APOCALYPTICA that pleases a lot and you just listen to it without a pause.

The following tuneful, leisured ballad entitled ‘Beautiful’ is indeed a touching and beautiful piece of music that impresses from the very beginning. It changes into another song with a featured vocalist, who is Lacey Strum from FLYLEAF also display the tendency mentioned before but this time it’s not too apparent and the music perfectly combines with the vocals. ‘On the rooftop with Quasimodo’ stands out not only for its title but for the peculiar sound and the more you listen to it the more sides of the compositions reveal. The next song is simply great and Joe Duplantier from GOJIRA contributes his mate in the best possible way but this time even the music is getting more various, driving and even aggressive.

The two final instrumental tracks produce really great impressions: fascinating, dramatic ‘Sacra’ surprisingly calms while intriguing outro ‘Rage of Poseidon’ sums up the whole material of the album. So speaking about ‘7th Symphony’ it turns to be very nice and diverse with rapid and slow, complicated and simple compositions which are worthy to listen to anyway.


Tracklist

01. At the Gates of Manala – 7:03
02. End of Me (ft. Gavin Rossdale) – 3:29
03. Not Strong Enough (ft. Brent Smith) – 3:36
04. 2010 (ft. Dave Lombardo) – 4:32
05. Beautiful – 2:19
06. Broken Pieces (ft. Lacey Sturm) – 3:55
07. On the Rooftop with Quasimodo – 5:00
08. Bring Them to Light (ft. Joe Duplantier) – 4:42
09. Sacra – 4:22
10. Rage of Poseidon – 8:49


Line-up

Eicca Toppinen - Cello
Paavo Lötjönen - Cello
Perttu Kivilaakso - Cello
Mikko Sirén - Drums


Website

http://www.apocalyptica.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/apocalyptica


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10


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