Helvete.de.tf back
Rating: 8 / 10

One more German underground Black Metal band trying to catch our attention. But hey - what´s that? There´s an astonishing lack of embarrassment within this release. No corpsepainted youngsters posing in snow, wearing black clothes bought by their moms. No. These guys actually seem to know exactly what they want and how to get it. This home-recorded, nevertheless powerful sounding, demo takes the willing listener on a journey to the apocalypse. The lyrical concept deals with an imaginary world and its impending end, always drawing parallels to our own. Nothing new you might say - so said I myself - but there are many interesting thoughts in the lyrics that are entirely written by Cosmin Marica, Apokrypha´s drummer. And now finally for the music. The 8-song-bastard creates a fitting atmosphere to the lyrics. Our ears are tormented by melodic Black Metal at mostly high speed. Although striving for an own style named "Apocalyptic Black Metal" I believe to be able to hear influences like newer Immortal or even Death in this technically very good album. The drums are precise and push the songs, the guitars reveal the ability of both guitarists and the harsh vocals round up the good impression this band makes. The opener "To The Seven", the filthy bandhymn "Apokrypha" and the last song "Black Demons" are my favorites and will surely "apokryph" some of you as well. Nevertheless I don´t want to hide, that there are also some riffs included to the other songs that are rather uninteresting because too standard. There are very many Black Metal bands out there that do riffs similar to these, so I recommend to the band for the future to concentrate on what makes them so special in the songs mentioned above. By the way: obviously I´m not the only one that enjoyed listening to this demo. The German label Black Attakk signed the band right away and the official debut album called "To the Seven" will be recorded in January 2004. Check out some mp3s on the band´s website www.apokrypha.de.

herr_nagel