Samurai

The horsemen of the apocalypse are known for releasing albums with a mixture of styles that at times seem completely incompatible, and also this can be seen as an inconsistency, but for others the band make a great effort by combining these styles and make the whole thing sound outstanding, every single album sounds different as the previous one, that is why this is band is not easy to have as a favorite band.

Samurai is a record that consists of heavy, folk, death and black metal elements, many of them combined in the same song. You can also hear some East-Asian music in the song "Barmherzigkeit", and that combined with the heavy-death metal sound. Surprisingly there are two songs that contain no metal elements at alll: "Lazy Day" and "Northern Lights", with the first being a very relaxing reggae song that creates a great mood, and the second is more experimental ambient song that includes very short lyrics, and serves as closure for the album.

The performance of the band is also worthy to distinguish: Most of the riffs are catchy and unmistakable, regardless of the genre that is played (black, heavy, or death), but you may not overlook the bass lines, which are also very well performed throughout the album, the inital bass solo in "Barmherzigkeit" is brutal! The keyboards play an essential role in the album, they creat a great atmosphere in every song, the song "Der Teufel" is a great example of it: it's the most extreme song on the album (so to speak), an incredible melodic black metal song, that without the keybords would lose an essential part: the atmosphere. The drumming is also splendid, surely Sir G is at his best on this album, "Der Teufel" and "Per Asper Ad Astra" prove it. So bassically there are not flaws on the performance, every instrument are very well played.

The singing varies a lot, you hear raspy vocals, but then it turns to melodic vocals, and on the most extreme songs you can hear some growls as well, while on the less extreme ones you can appreciate very smooth vocals. All this, combined with the lyrics (which talk mainly about freedom, loyalty and hapiness) forms an astonishing performance by the singer and main songwriter "Fuchs".

To conclude I must say that not many bands can produce such a record, and it is very sad that this kind of masterpieces, that are overlooked, still exist. If you wanna listen to a great variety with a great performance, this album is for you.

Highlights: "Wahnsinn", "Rock 'N Roll", "Der Teufel", "Reitermaniacs", "Barmherzigkeit" "Die Sonne Scheint", "Lazy Day", "Roll My Heart".

For a man like me, who had heard "Have a Nice Trip" and "Samurai" almost at the same time, it was a blast. Honestly, I couldn't resist "Samurai" in any way, although "Have a Nice Trip" is an outstanding album, too. But with "Samurai" DAR showed the world their new and innovative look at music and so far this is their best album! And one of the best metal albums I've ever heard for 23 years in this genre! We can simply say it's diverse and innovative and end up with this conclusion but although this is true, this album is even something more!

In fact, this album has everything that every good and pretending to be great album must have. First of all - a great opening track that serves as a bridge between the previous album and this one. A diverse, extreme, melodic and bouncy song to make you jump around comes after. The, one more innovative idea. After one more awesome track you have a pure lesson in "How to make REALLY extreme, yet melodic and epic metal" with "Der Teufel" which I always play to my friends who don't know DAR, just to play "Lazy Day" after! The question never varies - "Erm... is this the same band?!". I was asking myself the same the first time I heard this album but anyway, let's back on the lesson. There's a track in this album that blows off everything - it's epic, extreme, of course - diverse, especially when it comes to tempo, and really headbanging in the verse. Fuchs screams aggressively "Can you feel the power, we'll push it into the MAX", then he puts on his clean, deep and epic-folkish voice for this same phrase, which, combined with the powerful guitar riffing behind is maybe the top moment of this song. In "Barmherzigkeit" the shape is once again changed. A lot. Bombastic, powerful with both oriental and industrial elements here and there, it's often underrated but that's normal after a track like the previous one that just blows your mind away for a few minutes.

And I want to skip "Per Aspera Ad Astra" although it's a nice song, too, but I just can't wait to tell you more 'bout "Lazy Day"! In history of metal I've never seen a serious band that puts seriously a reggae track in an album. Not as a funny bonus track. Believe me, I can listen to this song all day long! I just go to my village, lay outside in the yard, drink my beer and listen to this! Some of the greatest relax lyrics ever!

Well, first time I was listening to this album I thought it's over with "Lazy Day" but I got quite surprised when the album continued with the punk-ish, kinda funny and energetic "Die Sonne Scheint". It's a cool song to jump around, too. "Roll My Heart" is a surprising and seemingly sad song in the beginning but it could make you laugh in the end when you understand what the lyrics are about. "Hey Ho" is another energetic and interesting songs and it's the last one to have metal elements in it.

The final track "Northern Lights" is a slow, beautiful ambient/industrial and even meditation track with an outstanding atmosphere that will fill you with many thoughts about how great this album is indeed and leaves you the pleasure that you didn't lost the last 50 minutes in listening to crappy music. Just the contrary.

This was my second Die Apokalyptischen Reiter album, but is by far my favorite. The musicianship on this album is just great. The guitar riffing is fast and aggressive, the vocals are harsh or clean, depending on the song, but always catchy (despite the fact that they are often in German which I don't know any of).

The first really hard-hitting song, in my opinion, is Eruption. It is one of my absolute favorite DAR songs, mostly because of the catchy lyrics and good riffing (which this album is full of as is). Most of the songs on the album follow suite with this song. I wouldn't call the rest of the songs filler by any means, but they just don't seem to live up to this song. But as I said, this song is awesome, so don't get the wrong impression from this review. The album is great.

One thing about this album that I really loved was some of the not-so-serious and even not-so-metal songs. What I mean are songs like Rock 'n' Roll and Hey-Ho. Rock 'n' Roll is very fast and very fierce. Complete with harsh vocals coupled with intense growls, this is a very standout-ish track. It's unfortunate that it's less than 2 minutes long, but it's a great two minutes. Hey-Ho, on the other hand, is much bouncier than it is fast and aggressive. I love blasting it in my car when I drive. It's just so pleasing to the ear. Plus, the lyrics are great. With a starting verse like "Hey ho, let's go! This is my violent show," you know it's going to be good.

Another of my personal favorite tracks is Roll My Heart. It's a somber, almost gothic sounding song. The lyrics are very clean, deep, and epic. Based on the song title and chorus, you'd expect this to be almost emo-ish in nature. Who knew it was about being a drug dealer?

Probably the most memorable song on the entire album (if only for the sake of it being SO different) is Lazy Day. It's a straight up, slow-pace, reggae song. It's not metal, but I dig it. You can just chill to this sort of music.

Overall, this album is killer. It's fast, heavy, aggressive, and completely kicks your ass in a way you didn't know such an almost-silly album could. If you can find it (seeing as they're not really released in the states meaning you need to pay big bucks for an import), get it! You can probably find it for download, though, so that's not such a big deal.

I had never heard of this band in my whole life until I bought the Monster of Metal DVD, which contained the videoclip for Eruption. The song got me immediately, mainly because of it's happy but still heavy atmosphere, sing along chorus and overall originality, along with a great and funny video. So I later got the album, and guess what? - it's REALLY good.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter's base sound is Folk Metal, but don't be so quick to add them to the ranks of Moonsorrow, Finntroll or Cruachan. Death, Black, Gothic and even Industrial Metal can be found here too! You think that's impossible? Just listen and you will believe it! Maintaining an overall comic atmosphere throughout the record, the band manages to deliver catchy hooks along with powerful riffing at the same time, and while the members aren't overly technically talented (they don't make any excessive instrumental interludes or solos that could make the music kind of awkward), their songwriting is top-notch. Besides all the genders of metal listed, you can also find a good old rock n' roll feeling, some blues and even reggae. The most admirable, however, is that the sound never falls into a confusing cacophony of sound; there is a certain uniqueness Fuchs' voice and the "let's-have-some-real-fun-people" element present in most of the songs that manage to merge them together in the album, making it varied but not inconsistent.

So, if you are looking for some original folk metal, look no further: it's here! And don't be fooled by the Reiter's aparently ultra-comic outfit; even though the initial objective may be to bring a smile to the listeners face, you will soon realize that these guys are not a joke band, and they can be deep and intelligent when they want to.

Stand-Out tracks: Eruption, Der Teufel, Reitermaniacs, Barmherzigkeit, Roll My Heart. The only track that I find not as good as the others is Lazy Day, though it shows how varied and technically smart this band can be.