Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
All You Need Is Love

November 2001
Released: 2001, HammerHeart Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: El Cid

This German band is pretty much a death/black outfit that uses a lot of synths and even sings instead of growling during some passages. Take track 4 for instance, “Gone” Starts out with some melodic keyboard work and then turns into ultra fast black metal and finally wraps things up with…Organ? This is strange, and yet it works. Of course when you grab a CD by that has a fine illustration of the 4 horsemen of apocalypse riding their steeds and the album title is ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, you might be getting yourself ready for some extreme oxymorons music wise. The production on this release is great, every instrument has its place and all the sound quality is top notch. My one minor complaint about this CD is that sometimes keyboards are plain useless, that’s right, useless. It’s not because I can’t stand keyboards, but they are just out of place in some songs of this album.



If one thing, this album takes some getting used to, but once you get past the first listen you’ll realize it’s a very solid piece of metal. I for one am waiting to hear a follow up album soon, maybe the band will have by then grasped the appropriate use of synthesizers and the music will evolve into something that deserves a lot of attention.