Die Apokalyptischen Reiter - Moral & Wahnsinn (2011)

Tracklist:
01. Die Boten
02. Gib dich hin
03. Hammer oder Amboß
04. Dir gehört nichts
05. Dr. Pest
06. Moral & Wahnsinn
07. Erwache
08. Heimkehr
09. Wir reiten
10. Hört auf
11. Ein liebes Lied

Country: Germany
Genre: Folk/death/rock/punk metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Released: February 25:th, 2011
Website: http://www.reitermania.de

Line-up:
Fuchs - vocals
Ady - guitars
Volk-Man - bass
Dr. Pest - keyboards
Sir G. - drums

Germany's Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are a strange bunch. Having eight (counting this one) albums under their belt, they've gone through a lot of musical changes, the only thing remaining constant is their quirkiness, their peculiar penchant for mixing different styles of metal into their sound and making it work. Their early albums featured pretty much everything from folk to death to black to rock 'n' roll to punk. Generally they would keep stick to a genre within a certain song, but when listened to in its entirety, an early Reiter output would offer a veritable smorgasbord of styles.

Then something happened. 2008's Licht was pretty much a departure from the mix 'n' match antics of previous albums, featuring instead a more 'streamlined' and, if you will, 'accessible' sound. That's not a bad thing, mind you, it's just that, if you come into the show at this time, having heard All You Need Is Love or Have A Nice Trip and expecting more of that, well, that's not what you're getting.

But Licht is not the focus point of this review; Moral & Wahnsinn is. The title translates into Morality & Insanity, the latter being the keyword here. Honestly, when I listen to this band, this is something that strikes me: How they manage to control insanity, to package it down into songs, to make music of it. Vocalist Fuchs has a pleasant and smooth voice and croons with heartfelt panache. The lyrics are sung completely in German and touch upon subjects of a day-to-day philosophical nature, offering little 'morality' lessons. Come to think of it, the Moral in the album's title may allude to the lyrics, while the Wahnsinn is about the musical content, or at least that may be what they are going for. Although not overtly crazy or zany or anything, the punky/folkish take on tradidtional bang-your-fucking-head heavy metal riffs that Die Apokalyptischen Reiter do is very refreshing and, more importantly, enjoyable.

Favorite songs would be opener "Die Boten" (translates loosely as "The Messengers"), the seemingly simplistic, but effective, "Hammer oder Amboß" ("Hammer or Anvil"), "Dr. Pest" (a song that oozes of vaudeville and spooky chamber music, allegedly being an hommage to the band's keyboardist) and "Erwache", which sports a very catchy chorus and, to me, sums up pretty nicely what Die Apokalyptischen Reiter anno 2011 are all about.

In conclusion: The band have honed their songwriting skills and seemingly found their niche (i.e. their "new" sound) and seem to be content with it, resulting in an album that is enjoyable on many levels, not the least of which being that you get to think AND throw your fists in the air. Good stuff.