Band:	Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
Album:	Riders On The Storm
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	August 2006

01. Friede Sei Mit Dir
02. Riders On The Storm
03. Seemann
04. Der Adler
05. Revolution
06. Wenn Ich Träume
07. Soldaten Dieser Erde
08. In The Land Of The White Horses
09. Liebe
10. Schenk Mir Heut Nacht
11. Himmelskind
12. Feuer [bonus]
13. Mmmh
14. Peace May Be With You [bonus]

Fine albums feature well-written songs while masterpieces have an atmosphere that binds all of the songs together. 2006's Riders on the Storm belongs to the latter category. Knowing little about the band upon buying this record, I found myself gazing at one of the year most achieved albums.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter is a German band whose musical style has been diversely labeled from alternative punk to extreme folk metal. While those labels might scare you away right there and then, you can forget all of this because this album brought the band to another level of musicianship and I am not sure how to classify this.

Folk elements are present throughout the entire album, but from doing some research, the band went down a notch in the folk craze and brought more powerful elements from other Metal styles. Just check out the video-clip of 'Friede sei mit dir' on YouTube.com and you will get a pretty good idea of what I am talking about.

Undeniably the force of the combo is the explosive nature of the singer ("Fuchs" as he likes to be called), whose voice ranges from French chanson style to shrieks in a heartbeat. His tone is absolutely perfect, allowing him to play along with his vocal style in a smart way. Add to that, terrific songwriting abilities, and the band can also rely on surprisingly complex guitar work.

Riders on the Storm opens with a tornado of a song and the pace does not let down until track number 8, creating a specially-crafted atmosphere full of energy. Those first seven tracks are all standouts and the listener favorite track will keep shifting within those tracks over time. If the album stopped there, it would already have been remarkable.

But brilliantly, the instrumental track 8 divides the album as if it the energy release experienced over the course of the first 7 songs had cleaned up the air. The rest of the album leaves more room for more complex song structures, but also leaves more room for a different kind of songs such as 'Liebe'. Half-ballad, half-Thrash, this track is another key to enjoying Riders on the Storm.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have without a doubt their best effort to date with what I consider as one of 2006 prominent albums. Riders on the Storm is a complete record with a fantastic feel and it leaves the listener with an attitude rarely experienced nowadays. A definite pick as far as I am concerned.