Band:	Apokrypha
Album:	To The Seven
Style:	Black metal, Melodic death metal
Release date:	June 21, 2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. To The Seven
02. Humiliation
03. Earth Beneath
04. Crowd
05. Oblivion
06. Moral Sloth
07. Noctifer
08. Ignorance
09. Climax
10. Black Demons

Debut album of these Germans playing Melodic Black Metal, their music is a mix of Black Metal with some Thrash elements, Slayer-like sounds if you like to name the main influence. While the music is not bad, the band still needs some work in terms of songwriting originality, because the first 4 songs of the album sounds very good, but when you listen the next songs, you'll see they're copying themselves, well at least is better than copy somebody else.

Take for example "Humiliation" a great song, perfect marriage between Black and Thrash, the catchy riffs combined with the brutal blast beats create a nice atmosphere, while "Ignorance" is your typical boring hyper fast Black Metal tune, "Moral Sloth" has some nice Thrash interludes, where guitars calm down and create a moody moment in the song, "Climax" is the best song in the album in my opinion, the guitars are just great here.
Some songs have some calmer passages which gives the music texture, but not enough to save it from mediocrity.

The cover art is also poor, sadly some bands don't take the time to find a proper artists to do their artwork, although the beauty of the cover art is quite subjective (beauty is on the eye of the beholder), this reviewer didn't liked it a bit.

My advice for Apokrypha? Well, work more on those Thrash elements, because they spice up the music and they give catchiness to the whole sound. The guitar player sometimes pulls some nice riffs, I would like to listen more of this hidden talent.
I'm holding my breath for Apokrypha's next album, hope they can make it next time. Until then, best of lucks.