[CD Review] Apocalypse Orchestra - The End is Nigh
How often do you experience that you listen to a song by a band you haven't heard of before and you immediately know you'll like the whole album it's from? Let's be real, it doesn't happen too often. Apocalypse Orchestra was one of those bands for me when YouTube suggested their video to The Garden of Earthly Delights. This song is also the first song on their album The End is Nigh, which in my opinion is absolutely perfect because this song shows one really easily what this band is about. To describe it for people who haven't listened to any of their songs or can't really imagine anything by the description "Medieval Doom Metal": They sound a bit as if the dwarfs from The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey formed a metal band.
Even though most sites refer to them as a doom/folk/medieval metal band (which in my opinion is very accurate) they do have a slight symphonic sound in some of their songs in my opinion. Mostly because of the choir performing. Obviously we could see that as something out of their "medieval" elements since it has a strong "church choir feel" to it in my opinion.
Staying with these "medieval" elements, the topics of the songs all seem to refer back to things that happened during medieval times in Europe or were at least in some way connected to that time. My knowledge of history got a bit blurry by now but The Great Mortality names a year, the year MCCCXLIX, or for those who can't read Roman numerals: 1349. Around that time the black death reached its high and the song itself refers to the plague doctors ("Accompanying the dying", "Dressed in black we are", "Rods and beaks our only shield"), a drawing of which can be found on the album cover.
Some reference to biblical stories can be found in the songs ("The Garden of Earthly Delights"), as well as reference to medieval religious believes (the line "Holocaust Divine" or the use of the word "trial" for example in The Great Mortality, but also the whole of Flagellants' Song). But the topic of death and suffering is a lot more present in all of the songs which in my opinion makes the choice for the album title quite perfect.
Thanks to the Doom elements of their music Apocalypse Orchestra make me wanna lean back and really experience the music as much as possible. It just lends itself to either enjoy it in a way to relax a bit or to think because of the general topics of the songs. It's melancholic but in a very beautiful way that makes you smile a little. Maybe because of the music itself if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, or it is a slightly sad smile because of the pain the lyrics talk about.
The album as a whole is absolutely gorgeous in sound and lyrics in my opinion. You have the slowness of doom mixed with the epicness of deep male harmonies to the sounds of folk instruments, the "Apocalypse" and the "Orchestra".I personally can't wait to hear more in the future and see what other stories they will tell with their music.
For more information on the band go to:
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Label online store
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Disclaimer: I'm not a professional musician or music journalist. This is just a for fun review. I also haven't written reviews in a long time so I'm a bit rusty. And English isn't my native language so sorry for any mistakes I might have made. Thank you! Comments about how I should do future reviews (so I can work in my writing skills) are appreciated^^
Even though most sites refer to them as a doom/folk/medieval metal band (which in my opinion is very accurate) they do have a slight symphonic sound in some of their songs in my opinion. Mostly because of the choir performing. Obviously we could see that as something out of their "medieval" elements since it has a strong "church choir feel" to it in my opinion.
Staying with these "medieval" elements, the topics of the songs all seem to refer back to things that happened during medieval times in Europe or were at least in some way connected to that time. My knowledge of history got a bit blurry by now but The Great Mortality names a year, the year MCCCXLIX, or for those who can't read Roman numerals: 1349. Around that time the black death reached its high and the song itself refers to the plague doctors ("Accompanying the dying", "Dressed in black we are", "Rods and beaks our only shield"), a drawing of which can be found on the album cover.
Some reference to biblical stories can be found in the songs ("The Garden of Earthly Delights"), as well as reference to medieval religious believes (the line "Holocaust Divine" or the use of the word "trial" for example in The Great Mortality, but also the whole of Flagellants' Song). But the topic of death and suffering is a lot more present in all of the songs which in my opinion makes the choice for the album title quite perfect.
Thanks to the Doom elements of their music Apocalypse Orchestra make me wanna lean back and really experience the music as much as possible. It just lends itself to either enjoy it in a way to relax a bit or to think because of the general topics of the songs. It's melancholic but in a very beautiful way that makes you smile a little. Maybe because of the music itself if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, or it is a slightly sad smile because of the pain the lyrics talk about.
The album as a whole is absolutely gorgeous in sound and lyrics in my opinion. You have the slowness of doom mixed with the epicness of deep male harmonies to the sounds of folk instruments, the "Apocalypse" and the "Orchestra".I personally can't wait to hear more in the future and see what other stories they will tell with their music.
For more information on the band go to:
YouTube
Label online store
____
Disclaimer: I'm not a professional musician or music journalist. This is just a for fun review. I also haven't written reviews in a long time so I'm a bit rusty. And English isn't my native language so sorry for any mistakes I might have made. Thank you! Comments about how I should do future reviews (so I can work in my writing skills) are appreciated^^
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