Customer Reviews

Harmonizer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First of all, I've read some reviews elsewhere that complained that APB is selling out...WHAT!? If this is what's popular where you live, please tell me where you live so I can move there! This album is amazing. I honestly did not expect it to equal Welcome to Earth. I was very pleasantly surprised, though, when I first listened to it and found out it's even better than Welcome to Earth. There are so many songs on Harmonizer with single potential. The only skippable track is "Detroit Tickets," which isn't even that bad - just kinda boring. Every other track is a masterpiece. I don't think I could pick a favorite, but some highlights are "Spindizzy," "Suffer in Silence," "Unicorn," "Until the End of the World," and "Rollergirl." Okay, I just named half the album. But really, it's that good.

I am definitely not a fan of his older stuff, though. The growly vocals, the dark industrial sound, and the not-so-great production didn't do much for me. Welcome to Earth was an enormous evolutionary step for APB, and this evolution only continues with Harmonizer. He's not selling out. If anything, he's moved away from the stereotypical goth-industrial growly stuff that to me seems more of an image than something that's actually from the heart. He's realized his musical strengths and true interests and spun off on those. So glad he did.

So if you're a fan of his old darker growly stuff pre-Welcome to Earth, then you probably won't like this album. But if you love "Starsign," "Eclipse," and "Kathy's Song," you should love Harmonizer. It's definitely bumped something off my "top 5 albums of all time" list.

For long-time APB fans (like me) that were hoping their last album, "Welcome to Earth", was a one-time, failed experiment in synth-pop (unlike me--I think it's brilliant)... Bad news: "Harmonizer" makes it totally clear that APB is now all about dance/synth-pop music.

And Stephan Groth does it extremely well here. Near-perfectly crafted and produced, the album is a natural progression from their last one. The second track, "Suffer in Silence," is the first evidence of that--and also the best song on the album (maybe I'm a bit biased because the lyrics hit pretty close to home). The first single ("Until the End of the World") is also astounding--and features some nice guitar work that's usually reserved for their live shows, not the albums. Another track, "O.K. Amp - Let Me Out" is ready-made for the dance floor, and I can't wait to dance to it--hopefully at their upcoming live shows in America.

In short, this one may be a disappointment for some old-school fans of APB, but it's defintely a disc that I'll be keeping in my changer for quite a while.

Another future pop style album one of the most important artist in regards to the future pop genre. Much like the prior and far better album (Sighns) this album is verry poppy...verry emotional...verry dancey. However, it is missing all of that fun sci-fi weirdness that was on the 'sighns' album and sadley, most of the darker elements of Apop's early material seems to be long gone. This album is catchy, and well produced...but it has no edge to it whatsoever. A good album...but a further step into the mainstream, and a long sprint away from the days of songs like "Deep Red" and "Bitch". I wish that Stephen Groth (creator of Apop) would go back to his dark side again...his music is loosing it's meaning.

I was skeptical about buying this album. The little sound clips I had heard didn't make it sound like anything special, and I hadn't really heard of the band otherwise.

After hearing it twice, I feel in love with the band and I rushed out to get another CD. I especially like the interesting rhythms and the vocals. I would recommend this CD to anyone who liked VNV Nation, or any other band unter Metropolis Records.

Harmonizer has been receiving a lot of criticism for being a sell-out album. If you listen to Apop's older material you can begin to understand why. I'm not saying apop has sold out, rather just changed gears. Too many people, I think, are trying to compare this album to previous APB material and are becoming dissappointed or whatever. What you need to do is let the album stand on its own and forget the past. Apoptygma Berzerk happens to be my favorite band and if you're new to them I would suggest you buy "7" or "Welcome to Earth" first. I think one should really check out these albums as they're what APB derives their success and following on. If you were to buy "Soli Deo Gloria" you would be delving into harder (but still melodic) industrial beats/sounds. Harmonizer isn't as hard or industrial as the previous albums and is a mesh of EBM, synthpop and trance with some techno flavors: hence the title Harmonizer. If you like Apop's older material you will find that the album explores more of the trance/synthpop side of things yet manages to retain an industrial edge keeping true to the "Apoptygma sound". This isn't an album that I fell in love with immediately and it took me awhile to appreciate all the tracks. However, tracks like "Unicorn", "Spindizzy", "Until the End of the World" and "Pikachu" make it all worth while. In a nutshell Harmonizer is a truly cross-genre album. If you're an Apop fan and don't mind synthpop & trance, get this album. If you just like synthpop or EBM, get this album. If you hate synthpop/trance, don't even bother. All in all a decent album that will probably take you awhile to get used to if you're used to the older APB. I will say that Harmonizer is my least favorite APB album but Stephan has, nonetheless, created a very unique work worth checking out.

Great album. Its good to see bands not affraid to make changes. Its not hard to see he puts his life into his music and that is why this and Welcome to Earth is such a far leap away from earlier works. Sometimes artists have to mature in there writing and I think that is what has happened. Sometimes "cut your throat, and blood runs out" just gets kind of strange the older we get. the concerts however are still as great as before and gives every song a new sound to them.

With the release of "Harmonizer" Apoptygma Berzerk removes any doubt that the band is still an EBM band. They are not. Loaded with bubblegum pop type songs "Harmonizer" is a logical follow up to commercial smash "Welcome to Earth". The album as a whole leads my thoughts to the early 80's and synthpop a la Vince Clarke. If I am to be brutally honest, and I usually am, this album is good if you're looking for something to have playing in the background while doing dishes. In other words, don't expect to find the meaning of life hidden on this album.

This album is fantastic. The store that i go to so that i can acctually buy quality music was playing this album on the in store sterio system and i fell in love with it instantly. From start to finish the songs are great, they make you want to dance no matter where you are. I love every song on the album , there is not one that i could not list as my fav, even my 6 year old song likes this album. So like i said worth every penny and i look forward to their next album.

I bought this CD on a whim one day while looking through the goth/industrial section at a local music store. I had remembered hearing some APB before and liking what I heard, so I picked up this CD because I didn't have any APB in my collection. Well, whatever I had heard before, it apparently wasn't this CD. It's a bit too poppy for my taste. The only really good song on this disk is "Unicorn" (track 3). Track 5 is ok too, until you get to the end of the song. The synth sound on track 3 is a bit darker than the rest of this disk, kind of reminds me of VNV. I know some people consider VNV to be pretty poppy, but they look like Skinny Puppy next to this.

**EDIT** I'm not sure why I even gave this one 3 stars, considering that I only liked about one and a half songs and could easily dispense with the rest. I think I'd downgrade this one to 1 1/2 stars.

Having followed Apop since the glory days of "Bitch" and "Deep Red," I loathe this album. Inspired by the popularity of "Kathy's Song," Groth has essentially stretched its flavor out for a whole album, attempting to appeal to ravers and goths alike. It's an admirable goal, admittedly, except that it's horrible. Attempting to straddle two fairly well-established genres, the lyrics come across as the puerile whining of a preadolescent bedecked in his mother's mascara layered over generic trance programming more at home... well, nowhere. This album doesn't deserve a home. Skip it and, as the song says, let it suffer in silence. Don't waste your money.