Self titled album from finnish cello roc

This is the sixth, and self-titled, album from the Finnish band Apocalyptica. Made up of 11 songs and a hidden track it contains some of my favourite songs from the band. “Life Burns!” (which is a perfect album opener), “Quutamo”, and “Distraction” are three of the best in my opinion but they are all grouped together at the start which sets the listener up for a bit of a disappointment (in my opinion, anyway). Not to say that the other songs aren’t good, but they certainly lack the flair of these opening tracks. After a couple of play-throughs I have come to like the latter tracks more though and the hidden track is really something worth waiting for.

That all said, I hate H.I.M. and Ville Valo’s singing on "Bittersweet" really ruins the song for me. I think it could be much better but I am not a fan of his and so am a tad biased. I also dislike The Rasmus, but Lauri Ylönen’s voice fits “Life Burns!” very well and I can’t help but love the song.

A decent album (though I am annoyed at HMV for putting the security tag over the CD’s sticker so that it would rip, thus there is a shiny patch where I’ve had to leave part of the tag on, but ignore my ranting…). I hope their other albums are as good as this one.

8/10