Customer Reviews

Inquisition Sym

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the first Apocalyptica album I bought and I'm glad it was. I find it to be superiour to Plays metallica by four cellos. The sound quaility is better and so is the content. They metallica covers are great but the originals are what I'm after, they shine brighter in my opinion. I'd reccommend this as a good start for up and coming Apocalyptica fans. It's a great metal instrumental album. These guys are revolutionary. This is a GREAT album.

What happens when you take four classically trained cellists who have a love for heavy metal? You get the group Apocalyptica. This group crosses the metal sounds of Metallica, Faith No More, Sepultura, and Pantera with the classical sounds of strings. I've always believed strings would make a good addition to a heavy metal group, and Apocalyptica did just that running their four cellos through distortion. The amazing thing about "Inquisition Symphony" is that there are no other instruments. The full, heavy and thundering sound is just four cellos. The ability to take true head-banger music and play it on the cello without losing any intensity is truly incredible. Eicca Toppinen, Antero Mannienen, Paavo Lotjonen, and Max Lilja are great musicians.

There is a great sampling of heavy metal on this album that is more than just a tribute to the heavy metal bands. The classic Metallica "Fade to Black" is so well played. The haunting melody carried on the undistorted strings of a single cello before the others join in bringing the weight of the song. This proves that Metallica does belong in a symphony hall. Another good example is "One". The song almost sounds like a classical piece until the crescendo of distorted strings mimic the staccato bursts of lyrics. But this album is just more than covers as Toppinen takes his hand at penning three songs here. There opening track, "Harmageddon" shows that Toppinen can head-band with the best of 'em. Opening with an airy beginning, he turns up the volume with a heavy rhythm and a clean melody playing over it. The two make a startling counterpoint. Later, "M.B." is another heavy song, which slows down in the middle for a slow, haunting movement as it slowly picks up speed back to heavy metal land. Add in the great "Toreador" and you would be hard pressed to realize that any of these songs were not written by a great heavy metal band.

This is always a great album, half classical and half heavy metal. I love to introduce it to people, and everyone who hears it finds they love it enough to buy. The idea is unique and may have started the orchestral arrangements for other groups, like Pink Floyd's "Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd". If you like heavy metal and classical, this album is a must have.

This album rocks. I just can't find a word in the dictionary to describe this album. It is flawless, well rounded, irresistable, awesome, unprecedented album if u ever step into a music store. Buy this album. I'll give it a 2 thumbs up review.

Apocalyptica's first album was great, but I like this one even better. It's a little more electronic and heavier than the first and includes covers of three other groups in addition to Metallica. The best part, though, is the three excellent original compositions. These demonstrate real song-writing ability and allow the music to be tailored even better to the cello quartet. My one very minor gripe about the cover songs is that the voice part can become repetitive since there aren't any lyrics to provide variation. The original compositions eliminate this issue.

Wow! I just can't seem to stop being wowed by this group. Even though I heard this album after I had already listened to Cult, I was blown away. The songs "Nothing Else Matters" and "Fade to Black" were gorgeously arranged-two thumbs up to Eicca Toppinen for his wonderful work. Even if you own Cult already, I'd recommend this album because it shows the progression of Apocalyptica's music, and shows the heavy metal roots in the more darkly soulful music on Cult. I'd also like to commemorate the song "Harmageddon", the first single written by Apocalyptica's composer and arranger, Eicca, as being sterling silver. It was wonderful.

This album is great, whether you love classical or metal. The only reason I gave it 4 stars, is because, once you listen to their newest album, Cult, and then listen to this, it sounds too shallow without the bass. Besides that, it is great.

Apocalyptica has accomplished the amazing feat of on the one hand demonstrating the musicality of heavy metal while on the other expanding the boundaries of the cello repetoire. For example, the arrangement of "Fade to Black," while absolutely faithful to the original Metallica, is heartbreaking lyrical, with the strong pizzicato underpinning the soulful, almost homely, melodic line. "One" is a bravura rendition of an apocalyptic descent into chaos; its genius is its interpretation of the drum line in the b section ("Darkness imprisoning me. . .") and the subsequent "guitar" solo, which is as powerful and disturbing as anything I have heard in any genre.

I enjoy this album because of its uniqueness within the narrow realm of metal music to which I listen to seldomly. One does not have to go far into this work to find real potential of these players. They are competent and inovative with their instruments.

I admire the enthusiasm of the all the cult followers of Apocalyptica who grace this customer review secion. However, the various assertions that this is the classic music of the future and all that is founded only in their visceral confusion about what makes good music.

No way does the talent of the Apocalyptica boys match that of Rastipovitch or Yo-Yo Ma. Check out the masters' Bach variations and you will hear traditional classical that remains current, metal, enticing, suicidal... much more than you can get with Apocalyptica with actual melody, insight, timeliness and all with a single cello!

This second effort by Apocalyptica is awesome. My concern is that since they are mostly known among Metallica fans in the US, non-fans are not aware of them or are not enticed to sample the album. That is a shame. While I am a Metallica fan specifically and a Metal fan generally, I think this music has appeal for a wide range of music-lovers.

The tracks are alternately moving, powerful, soulful, and occasionally transcendental. I highly recommend that everyone should at least try the album.

On a side note, I find that the CD sounds much better over earphones; average quality speakers cant seem to handle the depth of many of the more layered songs. People with hi-quality speakers should be ok.

Every now and then comes a band that totally changes the way people look at music. Enter Apocalyptica. Who would have thought that cellos and heavy metal could work so well together? Another thing that I find interesting is that Apocalyptica manages to take one of the largest, most bulky instrumental pieces, yet make it sound as if they're playing something more managable. Secondly, I don't think the inventor of the cello had heavy metal in mind, but Apocalyptica plays their cellos as if they were meant for that all along. Just look at the artwork on the front--you have a skull seamlessly blended in with the cello, symbolizing how the two were meant to be together. In short, I'm impressed. In this CD, there's a little something for everybody. For those who like calmer music, there's "Nothing Else Matters" and "Fade to Black." The latter is particularly good. For those of us who like more speed and power to our music, there's "Harmageddon", "Inquisition Symphony", and "Toreador", just to name of few of my favorites. To me, the best music is the type that puts pictures in your mind. Whenever I hear one of these songs, I can't help but think of Vikings, the Dark Ages, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft. If you're a fantasy/horror writer, this is EXCELLENT stuff. Even the name "Apocalyptica" sounds like a word H.P. Lovecraft would have created. If you've never heard anything by this group before, let me say this: I envy you, because you get to discover this gem for the first time.