CDReviews

Apocalyptica – Cell-0

Label: Silver Lining Music

Release: 10.01.2020

After years of touring and releasing albums that were not instrumental only, the band has now decided to return to their roots and to an album with only instrumental tracks that gives the listener the chance of creating their own images and emotions whilst listening – you face a new challenge with every track to start playing. Not only the album as a whole is instrumental but thus also the three singles that have already been released together with artsy and artistic videos that each give space for personal thoughts and ways of interpretation.

It all starts with the first single called “Ashes Of The Modern World”, a track that according to the band also might work just well as a concert opener thanks to its diversity in sound and emotions it might create – it feels as if you´re going from angry throughout to melancholy and thoughtful, it seems to be like a journey that you have to master so that you can proceed to the next tracks that at least partially are more clear in their intention (at least for me). “En Route To Mayhem” goes into the same challenging direction, and is a song that returns to the concept of making the listener simply challenge their mind due to tempo and general sound changes that might make you feel at unease at first until you get a grip of the concept.

The title track “Cell-0” comes along with what I would call a central theme musically and is clearly easier to listen to than the actual album opener – and it has the potential to really stick to the mind if you´re listening to it not just once, but maybe twice. You´ll remember the melody at least up until the point where the heavy riffs temporarily turn into a melodic piece of music. This break in sound is something you´ll find throughout the tracks but not just as heavily in “Beyond The Stars”, which you can either love or hate even though in some tracks it fits better into the overall sound than it does in others.

The, for me, most powerful and beautiful because melancholic and heart touching track is “Rise”. The dark and thoughtful start, the deep tones, the fragility that the band managed to put into the cello sound that transforms into sounding like you´re more and more gaining power and strength again just makes this a masterpiece that you simply have to enjoy. It´s that Apocalyptica sound you know, but taken to another level. Nearly the same feeling you can find in “Catharsis”, yet more of the melancholic side, though the end rises to the same high points.

But probably the most outstanding track of the album is “Fire & Ice”, opening up with the sounds of the pan pipe as main sound, then more and more mixing with electronic sounds and the cellos and a lot of other exotic sounds before it then goes over into heavy cello riffs only and goes back to melancholy. It´s one of those tracks where you can immediately say: “put this out as a soundtrack to a movie” and it would work amazingly well.

“Scream For The Silent” and “Call For My Name” are both unfortunately songs that are well made and thought through, yet don´t exactly show the potential to stick to the mind and make you push the “repeat”-button on your player. To me, there is something missing in both of the tracks, as they seem to even sound monotonous at times.

Overall I´d recommend to give the album several spins and only then decide on the personal liking or disliking, as there is so much to discover with every listen. It´s not album for the fun quick listen in between two tasks, you actively have to sit down and focus on what sounds you´re being presented.

Tracklist:

01. Ashes Of The Modern World
02. Cell-0
03. Rise
04. En Route To Mayhem
05. Call My Name
06. Fire & Ice
07. Scream For The Silent
08. Catharsis
09. Beyond The Stars

  • 7.5/10
    Bewertung / rating - 7.5/10
7.5/10

Carina Ullmann

carina@stalker-magazine.rocks - reports, reviews, photos - - - Favorite genres? - - - From classical music to metal - it all depends on the band and my mood ;) - - - Favorite bands? - - - ...it would be a too long list to write them all down... - - - Other interests? - - - Photography, travelling, culture, reading, writing