Album Review: Apostolica - Animae Haeretica

Sometimes my mind goes off on the oddest of tangents. When I saw a new Apostolica album come across my desk, I thought back to their first album. That record was quite good, and in some ways did elements of Powerwolf's sound even better than the original. But what I was thinking about is the nature of 'mysterious' bands, and why they choose to shroud themselves in anonymity. Maybe it's all just an issue of contracts with record labels requiring them not to compete with their own other bands, but I wonder if there's also some hedging of their bets involved. Do these musicians not put their name on these bands in case they don't succeed? It's an interesting question, I think.

It's also not really relevant to what is going on here.

With album number two, a major problem comes to the forefront within the first two minutes. Billed as a concept album based on the beliefs of the Apostolics, the combination of vocal delivery and ultra-layered choirs renders many of the lyrics completely indecipherable. As I've said many times before, if you have something you're trying to actually say with your songs, you've utterly failed if the lyrics can't be understood. Even if it's all an in-joke that the group's beliefs never made any sense, it makes for a frustrating album for us as listeners.

Things get going with "Rasputin", where the mix of groove and swell the back half of the debut record mastered shows up once again. It's very much in the Powerwolf playbook, but anyone who can do it as well as they can deserves plenty of credit. Compared to when I felt like Bloodbound was copying that sound, Apostolica has done it far better.

That's potential. Reality is that they don't hit that mark nearly as often as they should. Like their first album, the front half of this one is lacking in the kind of massive hooks necessary to make this a power metal feast. The melodies are 'big', but in the sense they amp up the volume on flat and boring lines. That doesn't make them any more interesting, or any stickier. Those are the 'filler' tracks on an album, and to string so many of them at the start of the record pretty much kills my interest before there's a chance for better material to win me over.

Just take "Gloria" as an example. It starts off with some crunchy and heavy guitars, and an aggressive vocal that fits the bill. Then the chorus comes along, and every line is a choir shouting "Gloria". It's too short and simple a word to get much melodic movement going, and I grow bored by the time the chorus is over. That's not a good thing to say about the hook of your song.

The whole of the album can be summed up as being similar to the debut, but weaker in every regard. They try to be bigger and heavier, but it leads to an album with less hooks and worse vocals. Compared to what Powerwolf does, Apostolica has yet to master the ability to put a fist-pumping hook into every song. Drama is great, but it needs something behind the curtain. This time around, I can see through the staging to how cheaply constructed the scenery is.

Go listen to their first album instead of this one. You'll be much better off doing so.