Die Apokalyptischen Reiter – Moral & Wahnsinn

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Nuclear Blast
Produced by Die Apokalyptischen Reiter & Vincent Sorg

Where does one begin when discussing Die Apokalyptischen Reiter? The distinctively german five-piece have started to become better known outside their homeland thanks to regular festival appearances and the reaction to them is often the same – bewilderment, confusion, and high entertainment. Their live shows feature serenading, handcuffing and torturing female audience members, walls of death, big percussion instruments, assorted props, and rubber dinghy crowd surfing. That’s without mentioning the mostly naked whip-flailing, gimp-mask-wearing keyboard player and his swing set.

However the band’s somewhat unusual music is often overlooked, perhaps because it is so difficult to categorize and pigeon-hole. It isn’t so much that the band are so avant garde as to not be listenable – far from it – but their completely unique style of melodic metal has often proven too much for some audiences. They don’t fit comfortably in to any genre and that’s often too much for those who would prefer to stick to an easily definable style. Those eager to dismiss the German band don’t know what their missing though, and Moral & Wahsinn (Morality and Madness) continues a series of high quality releases.

Describing the sound of Reiter is a difficult task. Historically the band are rooted in death and thrash metal, which often shows in the band’s riffs and guitar style. However, perhaps more noticeable is lead singer Fuchs’ heavily accented singing style, at times nearly crooning deeply, whilst other times shouting or even snarling. There’s also a very dominant keyboard presence, either in the shape of piano melodies or symphonic atmospherics. The band are very keen to use elements of almost any style they can think of, and that continues on this album (a citar interlude on Gib Dich Hin (Give Yourself Up), bluesy guitar on the verses of Hammer Oder Amboß (Hammer or Anvil), etc). This all results in a thoroughly weird but very melodic metal sound that is very unique to the band.

If there is a fault with the album itself is that it doesn’t offer anything new for long term listeners. Fans of the band will no doubt be desensitized by their eccentricities and the bewildered feeling of hearing them for the first time will have long gone. Without a drastic change of sound though it would be surprising if the band could get that feeling back, so perhaps that is not a bad thing. The music and songs themselves are still to the high standard set by the band’s last few releases, and thus should provide little disappointment.

The most mysterious song on this record has to be the ominous fifth track of the album – Dr Pest (Doctor Plague). Named after the band’s perverse keyboard player, for those who can’t speak German it is simply left to our imaginations as to what Fuchs might be delightfully crooning about. All we do know is that between the gentle piano melodies, graceful violins and booming guitars are the sounds of an all female chorus singing (screaming?) the keyboardist’s name. It should bring shivers down your spine – and hopefully will be a centre piece of the band’s upcoming shows.

That might be the real test of the album. Whilst it stands well on its own, the full Reiter experience is when these songs are brought to the live stage. Both of the band’s last two offerings sounded so much more vital once the songs were played on stage, and one hopes that the same will occur for this album as well. As it stands, Moral & Wahnsinn might not offer anything new and unusual for existing fans of the band, but is still another satisfying release from this strange, strange band.

“ continues a series of high quality releases ”

Tracklist: Die Boten / Gib Dich Hin / Hammer Oder Amboß / Dir Gehört Nichts / Dr. Pest / Moral & Wahnsinn / Erwache / Heimkehr / Wir Reiten / Hört Auf / Ein Liebes Lied

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Thrash Metal, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter