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Apocalypse 666 is the fifth full-length album by German female fronted heavy metal act The Mystery. The album was released in 2012. Coincidently it draws some of its lyrical themes from the so called 2012 phenomenon which centres on beliefs that the world would end on December 21st 2012. Well that date came and went almost two weeks ago as of me starting to put this review together, with nothing happening. A good thing for a multitude of reasons of course, but one of them is that we can now enjoy The Mystery’s latest album for more than the few months between its September release date and the date of the so called apocalypse. This is the first album from the band to feature the voice of new vocalist Iris Boanta.
The music on Apocalypse 666 is primarily traditional heavy metal but there are also some songs which steer the sound much closer to power metal. The title track is one of these and as much as I think the whole 2012 phenomenon was a lot of over marketed rubbish (and the world’s still here to prove it), this is hell of a song. In fact all the songs here can be described as being hell of a song. The Mystery doesn’t vary their formula a lot, but they certainly seem to know what they’re good at, delivering catchy anthem after catchy anthem like there’s no tomorrow (pun intended considering the title track’s theme).
Iris Boanta’s vocals are what really makes the album though, although I don’t wish to downplay what the rest of the band bring to the table. She’s got a tone suited to traditional and the harder edged power metal songs alike, and her performance is very much metal orientated, and doesn’t sound forced. Her voice is rather unusual in that she actually sounds somewhat masculine and feminine at the same time. A relative unknown within the genre prior this album I believe (she also sings with an all female AC/DC tribute act called Black Thunder Ladies), so it’s very good to hear such a talent getting out there with a band making music as high quality as what Apocalypse 666 has turned out as. Sure they’re not the one in ten band playing traditional and/or power metal to be really doing something that special or unique, but Apocalypse 666 is a mighty fine example of how to rock and have a good time doing it. So much that it even deserves a rating that goes one better than ‘great’. Even the ballad In Heaven or Hell works with ease within context of the album, and that’s something I often find metal albums just can’t pull off. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.
87/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/the-mystery-apocalypse-666-t2741.html))