Apoptygma Berzerk – 7

Well crap. This has the version of LNDP1 with the O Fortuna sample removed. Was a gamble because the latest version available (digital version on Bandcamp) has the sample back in place like in the original 1996 CD I have. Oh well. The rest of the album still sounds great in this cassette version and it has a ton of bonus tracks the original CD doesn’t so it’s still worth it.

Sound quality is really lacking would Recommend the black vinyl

A release that smacks every crook who thinks it's acceptable to charge $40 for an album right in the mouth. Not only does this include the album, but it also has all the best remixes and extra tracks. It's high weight, it has art on the inner sleeve, and there is not too much information compressed to each side. The only problem I have with it is the poor print quality of the outer sleeve that causes some blur, and the white border, but not having these problems doesn't excuse anyone from using a $40 price tag. This retails at a whole lot less than $40 I can tell you that.

After an almost perfect debut album, I guess I expected APOPTYGMA BERZERK's follow up to shed some of it's glittering brilliance. So the fact that this album leaves the first behind as a merely great collection of songs and leaps into the infinite as a total classic came as a pleasant relief - their promise is repaid in spades! In a way it's a pity the opener is such a white-hot hit - combining BACH-like organ with a thumping rainbow of dance music full of hook is great up to the point where the stolen chorus of ORFF's "O Fortuna/Carmina Burana", then it just sears into the realms of genius. It plays for 5'27" and seems all too brief, leaving you a touch frustrated, hankering after that breath-taking chorus to be repeated. The fact that their original music is every bit as wonderful as the ORFF moment must tell you that this is a must-hear record. After this the quality just strengthens - the second track establishes their somewhat DEPECHE - MODE - with - bollocks - and - new - ideas sound. It's a bright ballad, appealing to both body & mind in equal measure. "Non-Stop Violence", a single, picks up the pace a little, spitting out hook after hook, burning it's way under your skin like flaming napalm (a remixed version appears as a hidden track at the end of the album). The 4th piece, named of course after Fred & Rose's pad, combines tenderness with cold electronics, dealing with the 'suicide' of one of Britain's contemporary monsters. The fifth track is a worthy filler, doodling in the margins with electronic sounds. Track six, "Deep Red" is another single, aiming for the EBM dance floor with a fast-paced warm-toned medium-hooky sound. "Nearer" is a slow floating ballad which soon becomes familiar, showing another side of their sound, a mood track which could almost sit on a PROJEKT compilation without sounding out of place. "Half Asleep" picks the pace right back up, plunging us into a place where early HUMAN LEAGUE s FRONT 242. The official closing track - a Folksy reprise of the great opener, is a very different version which sounds more like FAITH AND DISEASE that anyone else I can think of - a beautiful female voice set against strumming guitar, a million miles from Part 1, yet every bit as enjoyable. As mentioned above, the fiends have tucked some more material away at the end of the album to entertain & confuse you - a short light mix of "Non-Stop Violence" followed by a curious piece which combines Reggae with hard electronics and almost Hardcore booting kick drum. This leads into another piece which is probably too lightweight for the album proper - still a good song, aptly handled in typical AP style. The guy behind most of the music is GROTHESK, who's accompanied by vocalists TONE LANGVIK,CHARLOTTE SYVERSEN, JONUS GROTH, RICHARD HALL and the wonderful KARI PETTERSEN; keyboard player GEIR BRATLAND (who plays the organ to great effect on the opening track) and guitarists VERGARD BLOMBERG & someone called KURT COBAIN. Sheer f***ing brilliance.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.

Agreeing with Fabriknos here, this is THE copy of 7 to own. Sadly Stephan couldn't get the rights to keep the Carl Orff and Kurt Cobain samples, and was forced to remove them on subsequent rereleases, which completely ruins the songs in my opinion. Another reason to get this one is because of the track "Untitled One", probably one of the rarest Apop tracks as it was never included on future re-releases due to containing various samples he probably couldn't get the rights to either, most notably from Satellite by Depeche Mode. If you want the definite edition of the album, this is it.

The only version of the album worth owning. Incredibly hard to track down these days due to the overwhelming quantity of reissued CDs the labels have flooded the market with. Love Never Dies and Mourn are pointless without the original samples, both of which form the backbones of those tracks. The edited tracks sound totally silly and lose all their edge. If you're looking for this CD, make sure to pay attention to the barcode and not accidentally get one of the edited versions. As for the music, what else is there to say except this is one of the all time EBM/synthpop classics. Plenty of dancefloor killers to choose from and it will always have lots of nostalgia and replay value. Shame what kind of band they turned into, but 7 is a piece of EBM history and personally I'll choose to them in this way.

Apoptygma Berzerk's "7" is an album I feel should've been released on vinyl to begin with. Overall the vinyl master sounds crisper, richer and much better than the CD version. This is a perfect example on how analogue sound is and has always been superior to digital. Even though I'm still sad the Carl Orff sample is missing from LNDP1, this is still a great classic in the electronic genre, and it deserves this release more than most other albums out there. Also worth mentioning, this edition is limited to only 500 copies, 50 of them signed by Stephan himself.

My only complaint about this release is that there are audible silent gaps between some tracks that should run together without silence. The gap between side a and b works surprisingly well though, even if the tracks were together on the CD.

Another re-release of Apop's classic album 7. There's not any real change from the previous digital remaster, the most obvious changes being that the Carmina Burana sample has been omitted again and there's still no "Untitled One". Other than that all the songs are here. Love Never Dies Part 1 starts off the record as a sort of gothic dance anthem while Mourn takes on a rather arty approach with its strange beat, but yet catchy melody. Non-Stop Violence is still a powerful anti-war, anti-tv song and in my opinion is probably the biggest reason you should by this album. Then it kicks off with two rather arty tracks. 25 Cromwell St. is a song about the murders on the title's address most likely and is sort of a slow EBM theme. Rebel is a kind of strange weird reversed rhythm thing with a pulsing bass and samples of Moby talking about Jesus Christ. Deep Red is a violent sadistic floorfiller with hard beats and yet again a catchy melody. Nearer takes another break from the hard beats and is a surprisingly beautiful ballad where we are treated to Jonas' magnificent backing vocals, which were lacking from the more EBM-oriented Banilla Dream version from the Non-Stop Violence single. This is by far the best version of the song. Half Asleep kicks off yet again with hard hitting beats and lyrics about temptation and sin. Love Never Dies Part 2 comes as the album's biggest surprise as it is a beautiful guitar ballad basically.

The bonus tracks are probably why you should get this re-issue. The Blackmail cover of Deep Red is a kickass rocked-up version of the song and it fits very well. Untitled Too is there as well, but no Untitled One, the APB guitar remix of Mourn is a good dance-track, but the real gem on this album is the last track. The Lo-Fi version of Mourn is simply the most beautiful piece of music I've heard from Apop in a long time. It is stripped down to just a guitar, some synths and Stephan's beautiful voice. Probably my favourite track off this re-release.

Apoptygma Berzerk were never my taste. Too melodic and soft. In the end they play synth pop, even if people keep calling them EBM or even industrial. It's funny that the dance floor mass went so crazy about "Love Never Dies" and its Carmina Burana samples, when KMFDM already did that 6 years before on their "Liebeslied".