Reflections

Reflection is Apocalyptica's last full length instrumental record to date and also its most diversified in this regard. It"s also the group's first album without any cover tracks and exemplifies the band's great leap forward in terms of self-confidence, identity and evolution in general.

The band varies from heavier tracks with additional drumming by no other than Slayer's Dave Lombardo on tracks like the engaging ''Somewhere Around Nothing'', offers gloomier songs that could have been included on intense predecessor Cult such as the ominous ''Cohkka'', contrasts such tracks with adventurous ballads like the beautiful ''Faraway'' and also offers experiments such as ''Toreador II'' with additional trumpet sounds that give the song a lively Latin American folk vibe.

The record's special edition, entitled Reflections Revised, is comparable to the one of predecessor Cult. It includes, among other elements, a haunting cover version of Rammstein's gloomy ballad ''Seemann'' with German punk legend Nina Hagen on vocals who gives a truly expressive performance. This is one of the few cases where I prefer the cover version over the original track which was already great. You can almost feel the stormy waves hit you in the face on a dark night while listening to this atmospheric masterpiece. Things get even better with an alternative version of the dreamy ballad ''Faraway'' that gets additional vocals by Lambretta singer Linda Sundblad who gives an already intense song an even more soulful and almost sexy appeal.

Reflections is one of Apocalyptica's finest hours and shows how diversified the mixture of classical music with cellos and occasional pianos and trumpets on one side and heavy metal song writing structures with drums and additional percussive elements can sound. The record exemplifies Apocalyptica's emancipation and grows with every single spin. It can rightfully be considered a symphonic metal classic in hindsight. If there were only one record to represent the band and what made it famous in the first place, this album would be the ideal choice because of its stunning diversity.

Apocalyptica is a Finnish band which used to play Metallica covers using cellos, but in this album they just use original material. These professional cellists also called for Dave Lombardo to play drums on this album; and the fucker really has his shit going, since his playing plus the production allows the drums to sound great while not drowning the cellos completely. And yeah, I'd call this cello "metal", they don't need guitars to be heavy, but just making cellos riffs--Yeah, thats right, cello riffs.

It's kinda sad, that a band that uses no guitars at all sounds heavier than some bands that use absurdly distorted distortion over their absurdly downtuned downtuning. Apocalyptica makes use of riffs the way they're supposed to be; by having them be the backbone of the songs, while they inject inhumanly fast solos over everything. The album starts with a bang with "Prologue (Apprehension)", which is really catchy (Reflections is catchy by itself, though), it doesn't really have shreddy cello solos, but it's very fast paced, and since it's catchy it already has half the job done. However, there are no weak tracks at all, just some songs which even though they aren't BAD per se, aren't very godly either. But it's really hard to compete against, say, that awesome lick at 1:16 in "No Education", it sounds beautiful, and thanks to Mr. Lombardo, it manages to sound heavy!

I'd say that the most emotional and beautiful track is "Farway", it starts with a piano, and a very mellow cello melody. I like how, even though they're using cellos, which are mostly used in classical music, this sounds like a metal (or at least rock) album, probably it's the way they're used, by having some sustained chords behind the melodies. "Farway" gets intenser every second; the cellos get louder and the music much more emotional. I love those cello's vibrato, it sounds much deeper than a guitar's, at 3:00 it gets even better, with the beautiful backing which sounds natural since they don't use keyboards, but real instruments! I can feel my neck hair tingling in the last minute of "Farway", it's some of the most beautiful music I have heard.

But enough of beautiful and soft stuff, theres fucking "Somewhere Around Nothing"! It's the second best track in here, and it kicks ass in every way imaginable, the cellos seriously sound like they were singing, and I can almost hear them saying "somewhere around nothing" during the song's 'chorus'. Who needs a voice when you have a fucking cello anyways?! I really like it, it's almost a classic metal song in itself, with the riffs and the 'voiced' cello! Obviously this is complete when Lombardo comes with his drum fills, and then there's a weird distorted part at 2:09, full of fucking INSANE drum fills, then it builds up tension with chords (DAMN THEY'RE REAL, NO SYNTHS! YAY!) and then the last chorus once again...I can almost sing along to it, heh.

Then there are songs like "Cohkka", which is very slow, almost doomish. "Conclusion" is another 'ballad', though it doesn't have shit on "Farway" (what does, anyways?). "Pandemonium" is very fun, it sounds like a march or something, with some melodies that sound slightly arabic. Then--You guessed it! A solo out of fucking nowhere! Why don't all the songs have these? You have some march-like riff, and then when least expected, A FUCKING SHRED SOLO! The solo on "Pandenomium" is insane, proves what you can do with 1000 notes in a short period of time!

Ok, on to the best track now--Fucking "Toreador II", that is! It has Lombardo doing some cool double-bass drum beats, and a very brooding melody over the cello riffs, damn how do they come up with those? Apocalyptica is able to incorporate evil melodies on their songs without sounding forced, and there's a little shreddy solo before the song explodes in a 4/4 beat and a very heavy riff, with more of those 'vocal cellos' over it. I swear that if they had done lyrics, they wouldn't even need a singer! "Toreador" is a fucked up way of saying "Torero", which means "bullfighter" (at least in Spanish), and so, they have a very Spanish sounding trumpet playing a melody, until there's this fucking insane cello solo, which is probably the fastest cello solo I have ever heard, out of all of them (I don't know how many they are, but it's fucking fast). "Toreador II" then fades away with that magnificent solo, and the last track, "Epilogue (Relief)" comes. It's probably the only track which can compete against "Farway", it's very mellow, full of emotion, I really wish they had came up with lyrics for this one, even if nobody is singing, they shouldn't take away my privilege of doing it at home!

"Reflections" is a very beautiful, kickass, heavy, yet soft, but still awesome, album. Yes, I used all those adjectives, and they're accurate, since you can have anything you want in here--Heavyness, shred, ballads, emotion, it's all packaged here. The only problem is that it's just a tad overlong, and that if they wanted to make such godly songs as "Somewhere Around Nothing" or "Toreador II" or fucking "Faraway"...Then they should have made more hehe. Get this at full price, it's worth it, a catchy, shreddy, beautiful, and HEAVY album!

This shit rules.

In case you haven't read my other reviews, let me re-emphasize what's so cool about Apocalyptica. Apocalyptica is a group of cellists who have a drummer and a bass guitar and play Heavy Metal. They started out as a unique Metallica tribute band, but they have evolved into a genuine Heavy Metal band that writes their own songs and just generally kicks a lot of ass. The cellos are hooked up to amps and can slam out riffs with the best of them, and the skill of all the musicians involved is enormous. This band is a novelty; true, but unlinke many novelties, it has a lot of replay value. In short, Apocalyptica is a band with a unique and original idea that took that idea and turned it into something really amazing.

The band continues to produce quality music in their first completely original, cover-less album, Reflections. The quality of the cello playing is at an all-time high in this latest endeavor, and they have branched out in terms of their sound, so that while Cult may have tended to get a little repetitive, Reflections is a varied collection of amazing music. Plus the cover artwork is really cool.

Highlights are all over the album. The band starts off by kicking ass immediately in the Prologue (Apprehension) with a huge riffage opener than comes down into a solo cello playing above the other cellos, who hold a really awesome and steady beat that will have you headbanging in no time at all. Then we get into No Education, which has a very simple yet amazingly catchy melody that is played over a constant steam of riffs by the rhythm cellos. I should mention that the drumming is great; it's always noticeable, but the drummer never overpowers the cellos and knows when to back off and let the intese soloing through; either the mixing was very well-done, or Dave Lombardo really knows his shit (which, given his history, is what I would go with). Regardless, the next song is Faraway, which opens with a piano solo that leads into an absolutely haunting cello solo that completely gives me goosebumps every time I hear the damn thing. It's that good, and that beautiful; we're talking about really sappy and intense playing from the soul. Pass the cheesewhiz if you must, but I mean it; this is what makes a band like Apocalyptica such a great idea. Anyway, next up is Somewhere Around Nothing, which brings us back into more thrashy headbanging. Drive features a very unique middle section with some rather odd noises coming from the cellos, but it is very tastefully done and doesn't degenerate into some sort of wankery festival. All the songs on here have different riffs and beats, and the album never really gets boring, but there's no point in me listing every individual song. I should mention Toreador II, which is a really fast song that has a REALLY FUCKING FAST cello solo section and a cool little trumpet part that makes it sound authentically Spanish.

Is it worth the money? Absolutely! The band has really progressed since the days of Plays Metallica, and they have now developed into a fully mature, coherent sound that is the equal or better of 90% of the bands out there. As I said, stop pining over the missing guitars and go buy this right now. You won't be disappointed at all.