Man you gotta love a band called Diabolizer, especially when they feature art as sick as that which graces the cover of Apokalypse. This is a band who understand the sheer monstrosity of death metal, and though they aren't necessarily breaking new ground they certainly have a good time rehashing old ideas and crafting them into a rip roaring monster of a record. Apokalypse is a death metal lover's record, with contrasting vocal lines practically jumping on top of each other and blazing riffs raining down from the sky. There is an almost Motorhead-esque swagger to what the band is doing here, and their perpetual forward motion and trademark stomp is devastating. It reminds me why I got so deeply invested into this music in the first place. Even though I doubt I will be coming back to Apokalypse, the time I have spent with it has been fun and rewarding. It has given me a much needed look back into my own musical past.
I think what gets me about Diabolizer is their ability to balance modern, streamlined death metal riffs with the more traditional crunching ones. This reflects the duality of the band's doubled vocal stylings, with a higher and lower register playing off of each other to generate increased musical interest. When done properly it adds to the hectic sense of terror that the band so gleefully feeds off of. The rapid fire drum attack and tortured vocals storm forth out of your speaker, allowing the riffs to showcase their finest qualities and gradually guiding you to realize Diabolizer's supremacy. See, Diabolizer are good, but they also know that they are good, so when they let themselves rip with touches of death and roll, and that aforementioned swagger it becomes easy to fall in love with what they do. However when the band tries to back up and play themselves off as more intelligent than they really are, things start to fall flat on their faces. This is the kind of band who are great in a specific context, but once you take them out of the jungle you have to wonder why you picked them up in the first place.
Coming back to this album you find yourself enamored with how much fun Diabolizer clearly are having on it. The crushing grunts and overwhelming roars simply adds to the flavors that Diabolizer love to play with all over Apokalypse. Certain riffs are so powerful that you can just see the circle pit opening up. With every extra listen I take I seem to be falling more in love with the album, but I still maintain that when they try to go the more intelligent route the amount of fun that can be had here is rapidly diminished. You need to focus on the brain melting magic to enjoy this record, and not the moments where they try to touch on newer trends. Diabolizer have the potential to be a band for the ages, and watching them streamline their sound will be a pleasure.
Score: 7/10
