Customer Reviews

Reflections

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a brilliant piece of work. All the other Apocalyptica albums are great too, especially for their renderings of other bands' songs, most notably Metallica, but here we see this Finnish quartet (trio?) move away from other peoples' material and coming up with their own original stuff. I was amazed to see that they are exceptional songwriters in their own right!, especially Eicca Toppinen, but certainly also Perttu Kivilaakkso. I love the mix of electric guitar, drums, and strings. Works great. This is a very inspired work!! EXCELLENT songs!!!

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

I first heard of Apocalyptica from the CD single they released of "Seeman" and got that originally because Nina Hagen sings on that song. It didn't stick at first, but then I fell in love with the single and decided to get this album. I was confused because nowhere in the credits did it mention anything about electric guitars and I was convinced I was hearing that, fuzzy bass, etc.

Lo and behold, I check out their web site only to find that they would be playing at The Independent here in San Francisco. I got a ticket and was completely blown away. With three cellos and one drum set, they produced a very full sound that was in keeping with the quality of their CD-- and no electric guitars! I never knew cellos could make the sounds that they were getting out of them! And I could tell that they weren't simply goofing off and playing a recording because their fingers matched so well with the sounds that they were producing.

This music is technically superior, imaginative, relevant, and can appeal both to Head Bangers and Calssical fans (watching them head banging while playing cellos was quite the thing to see! :-D). These guys are both great showmen and artists. This is not just a bunch of parlor tricks. These guys speak passionately to the human soul!

Oh-- and I feel that I must add that their drummer is excellent! He's not just background. He really rocks!

Markus Derrer has done a great job in introducing Apocalyptica and explaining the individual tracks in this album, please refer to his review for more details. I would like to tell you that Apocalyptica stands head and shoulders above the metal groups I know and Reflections has been my favorite album for all times - it will probably continue to be so in near future. I have to state that the first track, Prologue, is the biggest diamond of this invaluable album. Especially when I am listening the part begins at 0:48, there is no way that I can resist to start headbanging! I try to make it as slight as possible when out in public but I do it heavily when I'm alone or with close friends.

They do not only make the hard stuff, they have very beautiful slow tracks, too. Even the old school classical music admirers should listen to them at least once.

I love percussion very much and they are very welcome for me. Most Apocalyptica fans think that more reliance on percussion diminishes some of the originality of their work but they still love Reflections, even they love Cult more. You can see the forum thread in their official web site. The URL for the lazy people is here : http://www.apocalyptica.com/phorum/read.php?f=11&i=6461&t=6461.

Apocalyptica has released a newer version of Reflections, including a DVD, like St. Anger from Metallica. It's only sold in a German site though and I couldn't get babelfish to translate it in a decent way. I will order it from Amazon as soon as it's available or grab it from a local music shop if it comes to Turkey - whichever happens sooner.

To summarize, if you like Metal music and do not need to hear the groaning of death-metal, don't hesitate to buy this album - you will have your ears' rust cleaned. If this will be the first time you meet Apocalyptica, you will crave for more!

P.S. S&M of Metallica is nothing compared to any of Apocalyptica's work. If you liked S&M, you will be falling all over yourself when listening to any song by Apocalyptica.

They started with Four Plays, and have experimented successfully with each sequential release. On Inquisition they started adding their own stuff. Cult was mostly their stuff, with a couple of covers. They've taken a completely original, daring, and thought provoking style to heavy metal, and taken it to new heights with this album.

This album is totally original. They've gone away from covers and do their own music on this entire album. They've gone and added drums, violins, keyboards, trumpets, and more on this awesome album.

This album features their most daring venture so far. They've added even more depth, and complexity to a great music. If you listen carefully they've crafted their skill even more. In Cult you could hear the beginning of this in the tracks. Here, which shamefully has never been released in the U.S.A, there are many levels to each of the tracks. Between the cellos the violins, drums, keyboards, they've been able to stretch out the broad strokes that they've taken with their art.

In conclusion I think that this is well worth the extra money to get the full flavor, and unrivaled talent of Apocalyptica. They have a new release coming in February and I plan on getting it the moment it comes out. I only hope that they release the music here in America.

I mean seriously this is the best possible music that could ever be by anyone. Every song on here isn't just good it's great - and the performance of course is perfect because everything Apocalyptica does is great. This revised version is so much better than the original because all the extra songs are so special

Apocalyptica are an odd proposition. The outfit made their name covering Metallica and Sepultura songs on the cello, and by and large made an excellent fist of it. But where to from there if a band wants to be taken seriously?

While the albums of cover versions were gimmicky, they caught the attention of many a Metal fan who had probably never considered Classical instruments or Chamber music. Since the beginnings of Psychedelic Rock, many musicians have tried, not always successfully, to combine Rock with the Classics.

What Apocalyptica did with album was assemble a backing band of highly capable Metal musicians, including Dave Lombardo on drums, and replaced vocals and lead guitars with strings. The overall sound is something very similar to the Melodic Death coming out of Scandinavia. Fellow Finns Children Of Bodom come to mind immediately, but there are also shades of Soilwork, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.

The tracks within are more compositions than songs, equal parts Classical and Metal. Many of the songs take on a similar structure, starting with a simple musical theme as much Classical music does, builds on it, develops the theme, and revisits it several times before building to a conclusion and then an anticlimax. Most of the development is done through the cello, but on the odd track like "Cohkka", the guitar is given more room to develop, taking on a choppy riff, and a piano adds to the musical collage.

"Faraway" holds the listeners with tones of melodrama, building slowly from a single instrument, adding a movie soundtrack backbeat, and slowly the track fills with emotion and feeling.

"Somewhere Around Nothing" harkens to Celtic Frost's oft-neglected final album `Vanity/Nemesis' in the mid tempo chunky riffing. It's not particularly heavy in a traditional Death Metal sense, but builds from such a gentle, soulful introduction, the crescendo seems like a crashing tidal wave. "Cortege" is the heavyweight on the album, unexpectedly injecting a huge riff akin to something from `...And Justice For All' into a solemn orchestral piece.

By no means is this a headbanging throw-up-your-horns-and-drink-beer metal album. It is far too subtle for that. It lives up to its title, with many tracks mellow and reflective in mood, and has a sombre, almost mourning tone. There are no leads or vocals, and is definitely not for those who like their Metal straight forward- Deicide fans need not apply. However, those who enjoy the more atmospheric aspects of Opeth, Emperor and Amorphis would be well pleased with this sometimes challenging but ultimately satisfying album.

Surpassing the album CULT was no doubt a hard thing to do but this album easily stands on the same level. I recently listened to PLAYS METALLICA BY FOUR CELLOS again and found that it was very low key and almost lackluster in comparison to their later works. It was necessary though to break into the market for who in their right mind would have guessed that a heavy metal cello quartet could ever make it. Their scope widened immensely on INQUISITION SYMPHONY but these days I usually just find myself listening to the Metallica covers on that album. CULT was a major leap forward, all original, all great. For me the album only started to sag at the end when they started doing cover songs again. The original songs had such great emotion that was somehow missing in the covers, probably because the covers were removed from their vocal frame, and the original songs had been written without vocals in mind so the emotion was right there ... raw.

Enter this album - REFLECTION. No covers at all. But yet the intensity of CULT still seems to overshadow it. They've gotten a litte more dynamic though adding piano to the ballad "Faraway" and some other flourishes. Cult though added the non-cello elements with more restraint, especially the percussion. Here most songs seem percussion dominated. This makes the percussion-less songs more soulful but seems cut the rest of the album down a notch. Their earlier material really rocked even without percussion whereas here the non-percussion songs are more the conterpoint to the rest of the material, and don't rock as much.

Don't get me wrong though, this album is still great. "Prologue" starts everything off with a blast. "Faraway" is a great ballad and was remixed as a single with vocals. Good vocals actually, they've come a long way from the clunky, awkward vocals of "Path, Vol. II". "Drive" is a better version of "Driven" first heard on the BEST OF collection ... it's more dynamic here. "Cohkka" is one of the best songs, very intense with a great, subtle bassline and some excellent understated and very trancelike percussion. "Conclusion" (in exact midde of the album) is more like an actual classical piece than anything else they've done. It's slow, mournful and very beautiful bringing to mind "Hope" from CULT. The next four tracks are more like Apocalyptica by numbers and don't really stand out in my mind. On repeated listens they may become more distinguishable. "Toreador II" is a follow-up to one of their originals from INQUISITION SYMPHONY and has a cool mariachi thing going on (complete with trumpet). "Epilogue" is a nice conclusion to the album, almost as good as as the track "Conclusion" itself.

There are some additional instruments here. In addition to a lot of percussion, and the previously mentioned piano and trumpet there are some extra cellos and parts for violin and double bass. Given their proficiency on their cellos they probably could have played the other string parts themselves ... but whatever.

Overall, it's not another CULT but it's close!

I just got back from a party, where this CD was thrown in the CD changer. Everybody was floored by the intensity and quality of music. This truly is an album with something for everyone.

This album really shows that Apocalyptica have evolved tremendously since their Metallica cover days... it's their first attempt at introducing other instruments in the fold - most importantly, drums -- featuring Slayer/Fantomas skin-master Dave Lombardo on several tracks.

The feel of the album is varied -- from a strong metal vibe on the Lombardo tracks to a more electronic feel on other tracks. Both work quite well and cater to varying music tastes.

Apocalypica's song writing skills are also much improved. While I enjoyed Inquisition Symphony, I found "Cult" promising, but still missing maturity. This album certainly succeeds on all counts.

(Side note, if you like this & like metal, check out Therion or Opeth.)