‘Der Rote Reiter’ (engl. ‘The Red Rider’) leads his musical heirs into the battle. With this red rider, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter celebrate a rapid return home: it’s been a while since the band sounded this riotous and powerful. Within an apocalyptic soundscape, they reach a delicate balancing act between hope and destruction, with the infernal weight and intensity of the songs mixed with pleasure and joy. These are the basics of their tenth studio album, and the record is passionate and intense in every possible respect. Here the quintet proclaims the approaching end of the world in an immediate and dissolute way, so much so that you even start desiring the encroaching doom. There are clear words full of power and beauty, sometimes quiet, sometimes screamed loudly… until the music and singing unify and the intensity of the songs drift further and further into peaks and troughs. They allow themselves and their fans only a few moments of rest before continuing the wild ride. Musically, the band is much more focused than on their more playful predecessors. There’s more bite, more clear edge and it unleashes intense walls of sound, which impose themselves on the listener.
It is hard to imagine that the band celebrated their twentieth anniversary two years ago, and that they like to live on the road touring everywhere they can think of (hint, don’t think you’ve made it to NZ yet guys). This is not the work of a band ready to rest on their laurels just yet, but is intense, majestic and over the top, showing that they are still very hungry and feel that they still have a lot to achieve. True, they use a similar Wagnerian Germanic approach to music as Rammstein, but there is something here that lifts this way above the ordinary and far above the competition. If you thought that Rammstein had this genre tied up then you need to get this and think again. Bombastic and brilliant, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have set a challenge with this album that few will be able to follow.
