Have a Nice Trip

Entering 2003 "the apocalyptic riders" were dealing with a lot of problems. Guitarist, singer and main songwriter "Fuchs" got injured and could not play live anymore. So they had to find a another guitarist. "Dirk" filled the spot for some shows but they eventually kept "Pitrone". He didn't appear on the studio until the next album, though.

Bringing fresh blood into the band was not the only big change. This was the moment when the band were really making a statement being one of the most variable metal acts. The album title describes exactly what you experience while listening to it. You go through a very nice trip with a lot of shifts on the way. It also marks a "before and after" for this band, because for the first time the main focus is not the craziness and brutality, two aspects that distinguish the previous releases.

"Have a Nice Trip" is not an easy album to review. You will find a little bit of everything here: growling, clean singing, outstansing riffs and solos, solid bass-lines, etc. This is not one of those typical extreme metal albums where you can't tell the difference between guitar and bass, and it's impossible to put it into one genre. You can find folk, melodeath, black, heavy and some songs that mix metal with Spanish and Arabic music: "Baila Conmigo" (which is completely in Spanish) and "Fatima" (which is in German but the arabic influences are very present). The lyrics are oriented to traveling stories, apocalypse and the meaning of life, and that, in two main languages: English and German.

In general terms, the musicality is top-notch. Every member plays his instrument extremely well. The guitar riffs are melodic and the tempo varies a lot from song to song, the bass-lines are always fitting and the drumming is remarkable: there are blast-beats but not on every song, only when necessary, you won't get bored of listening to the same kind of drumming during the album. And last, but not least, the keyboards and piano play a very important role. They bring the atmospheres to the table. When the approach is melodic death metal, you will hear bombastic sounds that accompanies the guitars perfectly. If the songs turn into black metal, the keyboards add the darkness that is needed. And finally, Dr. Pest completes the softest shifts that you can find here on songs like "Das Paradies" and "Komm". Dr. Pest should definetely recieve more credit in the metal scene as one of the most talented keyboard players, in my opinion.

The vocals, as I stated before, are presented in many forms. Some songs are completely clean singing. Sometimes you will hear agressive vocals similar to Phil Anselmo's, and when the songs are more extreme the growling and screaming will blow your head. "Fatima" and "Wo die Geister ganz still sterben" are tunes where you find all these elements combined. Vocalist and main lyricist "Fuchs" makes a clear statement, showing that growling is not the only way he can sing.

In conclusion: Some people may think this was a set-back, being a completely different album, which is clearly less heavy than their previous works, but if you really like interesting shifts made with full honesty and effort, you will realize why this album is an underrated gem, just like their following album "Samurai" which is also experimental but more death metal oriented.

It is very hard to describe how this album sounds like because the style changes from song to song. There are some Reiter typical Deathgrind songs (“Vier Reiter stehen bereit”, “Wo die Geister ganz still sterben”), Industrial songs (“Warum?“, „Terra Nola“), a Spanish Folk song (“Baila Conmigo”) and a stupid Pop song („Das Paradies”).

But even if the sound changes so often, you always know that these are Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. You can’t mistake the charismatic voice of Fuchs with someone else and the lyrics are also typical for Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.
Often they’re about life and philosophical questions (“Warum?”, “Sehnsucht”, “Komm”) and sometimes about Metal stuff (“We Will Never Die”).

So this album shows that Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are a allround band. Fuchs has a catchy clean singing voice, but he also can do deep guttural growls and hoarse screams.
Volk-Man, who also does the bass, has incredible vocals, too. His screams are very crazy and his bass playing is powerful.
The guitars playing Doom Metal sounds also like fast Thrash Metal riffs. The drumming varies between slow stamping and fast blasting. And Dr. Pest plays nice piano melodys, Industrial and Ambient sounds with his keyboard.

All together this is a release for everybody who is bored of the “normal” Metal bands playing their genre stuff and have less change between their songs.


Highlights: Each song with exception of “Das Paradies” and the bonus track “Master Of The Wind” (it’s a Manowar cover)

The downright paradoxical approach taken by these German metallers is immediately perceptible simply through a comparison of band name and album title. It is forgivingly dubious that a band known, in English, as The Riders Of The Apocalypse would name their album “Have A Nice Trip”, without some sort of supremely comedic intentions. Yet, after listening to this irrefutably unique work, any clear-headed listener should be able to see past the slightly slapstick façade and appreciate this album’s brilliance.

Opening with the frantically heavy “Vier Reiter Stehen Bereit”, the band emphasise their Black Metal awareness, with bassist and vocalist Volk-Man screaming along to frenzied blast beats, before slowing down the pace and veering in a more Progressive Metal direction as guitarist Fuchs takes over clean vocal duties. The following track, “Warum?”, again utilising joint vocal talents, moves from Thrash to Black Metal to the majestic, keyboard-laden sensibilities of Power Metal but never fails to lose the remarkable flow present throughout the entire album.

Album highlight “Terra Nola” introduces the incredibly alluring yet simple lead guitar work of Fuchs, accompanied by a straightforward keyboard melody, courtesy of Dr. Pest, whilst later tracks like “Baila Conmìgo” and “Fatima” highlight the band’s rejection of genre classification, adding fresh elements such as classical acoustic guitars and brass. Furthermore, “We Will Never Die”, a song written to portray the band’s feeling of immortality and their pride towards their fans, seems to function almost as a light-hearted anthem for the entire album.

To be taken purely seriously and at face value is obviously not Die Apokalyptischen Reiter’s main goal. Concluding the album with a Manowar cover merely enforces that! Yet, the quality of their musical output is of such a high standard that neither can they be taken purely as a joke. However, the sheer ingenuity of this opus simply conveys total enjoyment and an extremely entertaining listen for those becoming tired of derivative, tiresome music trapped within a sole genre.

Originally written for http://www.blastwave.co.uk