:: Apocalyptica - 7th Symphony

Apocalyptica

Initially starting out as a Metallica tribute band, Finnish instrumental symphonic metal act Apocalyptica have emerged as an act that have created a unique sound and niche for themselves within the metal scene. Despite having several guest appearances on many of their albums throughout the years, it wasn’t until their sixth release ‘Worlds Collide’ in 2007 that the four piece act had created an album that comprised of two distinctly different styles – one being their trademark symphonic metal instrumentals, and the other being more traditional sounding rock/metal outing that featured a guest vocalist. With ‘Worlds Collide’ going on to become one of the band’s more successful and critically acclaimed releases, it really doesn’t come as any great surprise to see that with the band’s latest release ‘7th Symphony’, they’ve once again put together an album that melds some instrumental originals alongside several collaborations with some well known guest vocalists. Apocalyptica open up their latest album in a fairly impressive manner with the thrash-like epic ‘At The Gates Of Manala’. Catchy, heavy as hell, expressive and well constructed in terms of dynamics, ‘At The Gates Of Manala’ is certainly one of the album’s genuine highlights, and definitely Apocalyptica are their most inspired both in sound terms and the songwriting sense. The guest appearance of Slayer/Fantômas drummer Dave Lombardo on ‘2010’ is an obvious highlight, with the heavier edged thrash-like song given an extra metallic edge with his powerful contribution, while the epic ‘Rage Of Poseidon’ is an atmospheric masterpiece that showcases the band’s ability to create stirring monumental pieces of captivating music filled with plenty of twists and turns and dynamics. Finishing up the instrumental pieces is the gentle ‘Beautiful’ and the dramatic ‘On The Rooftop With Quasimodo’, both of which are excellent pieces in their own right, and showcase the diversity of sound capable from the group. But for all the strengths shown on the instrumental tracks, it’s the guest vocalists that prove to be the weak element on Apocalyptica’s latest effort. Bush front man Gavin Rossdale puts in a solid performance on the album’s first single/promotional video clip ‘End Of Me’, even if it doesn’t stray that far from what you would normally expect from such a pairing. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Shinedown’s Brent Smith and Flyleaf’s Lacey Sturm, who appear on the Diane Warren penned ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘Broken Pieces’ respectively. Although O.K., both tracks are fairly generic and bland efforts, and don’t really help elevate the album or the artists involved. The only real collaboration worthy of a mention is Gojira’s Joe Duplantier on the faster paced and aggression driven ‘Bring Them To Light’, where the symphonic aspect of the band’s sound is nicely balanced against Duplantier’s guttural growled submissions. Overall, ‘7th Symphony’ is a worthy follow up to ‘Worlds Collide’, providing of course that it’s judged purely on its instrumental compositions. Because when it comes to the guest vocalists, the songs presented this time around simply aren’t strong enough to match what the band achieved on their past effort. In the end, it would appear that Apocalyptica’s strengths lie solely with their own song writing, rather than alongside collaborators from outside the group.