Apoptygma Berzerk
Welcome to Earth

THE REVIEW

Let's kick things off with a sensational claim (one more or less makes little difference): ABBA invented futurepop. Do you remember "The Visitors," not the album but the song? New wave reminiscences, emphasized refrain, danceable rhythm, unease, alien presences. At least a start, perhaps unofficial but still highly inspirational. The fact is that, about twenty years later, Mr. Apoptygma Berzerk, aka Stephan Groth, released an album centered on the same theme, which, with all the stylistic differences and evolutions of the case, descends in almost direct line from that splendid avant-garde sparked by the creative genius of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. A clear and simple title and an immediately recognizable symbol on the cover for a long journey that explores, among many stylistic refinements, one of the key themes of literature and science fiction imagination: contact with alien creatures. "Welcome To Earth" is a concept album through and through, a very ambitious and fascinating work that sounds like a musical in various acts, very structured, perfectly scripted, truly made great by a massive dose of naturalness and compositional inspiration that saves it from the greatest risk and flaw of projects of this kind, namely mannerism.

Recapping, Stephan Groth debuted in 1993 with a synth pop/EBM album with strong gothic hues, still slightly raw but in which great potential could already be seen, four years later comes the second effort, "7," and alongside the darkish nuances, more techno/trance sounds begin to take hold with greater conviction, of which episodes like "Non-Stop Violence" and above all the gem "Electricity" are a clear example. Although the premises were therefore not entirely new, the change of pace between "7" and "Welcome To Earth" in 2000 remains absolutely radical and we can talk about a second phase in the Scandinavian musician's career, his most inspired and creative period, which will also include the fourth album "Harmonizer." This sumptuous FuturePopOpera constantly gives the impression of being able to "derail" at any moment, especially in the first approaches there is the feeling that a misstep, an out-of-place episode, a useless interlude, filler, an overblown step are just around the corner, ready to alter the delicate balance of the concept, but in the end, everything works perfectly. To fully appreciate "Welcome To Earth," a certain taste for grandeur is necessary; if you don't love grandiose arrangements and melodies, perhaps it's best to abstain, but aside from these nuances, the album is nothing less than formidable. Engaging, substantial, rich with emotional tension, it finds its best expressions in episodes like "Eclipse", a relentless and epic midtempo that represents futurepop in its most statuesque and Wagnerian form, with its powerful VNV Nation-style synth-arpeggiated melody from "Empires" and the intense and pronounced singing of a great Stephan Groth, an artist now mature and capable of using his charisma to its fullest potential, and "Kathy's Song" which instead opts for a more subtle approach, presenting itself as a suggestive trance idyll with psychedelic inflections; hypnotic rhythms, seductive and reverberated vocal lines, a slightly unsettling sense of tranquillity; a song far from radio-friendly yet we're talking about APB's most successful hit, able to rank high in charts in Germany and Scandinavian countries, without a major behind or any particular media push, and here I could make many remarks but I'd rather not bore you.

Amid the masterpieces of "Welcome To Earth," a cover of "Fade To Black" by Metallica stands out, and, putting aside the visceral antipathy I feel for the Californian quartet, I can't deny that it's a very fitting choice, especially thematically; its "despair" fits well in a schizophrenic emotional context that ranges from fascination to innate fear of the unknown; needless to say, without guitar wankery and especially without Hetfield's unpleasant voice, the song can't help but benefit, and Stephan does an excellent job both as a singer and as a remixer, creating a good accompanying piece, the fastest and most straightforward of the work along with the opener "Starsign" with its granite and engaging groove, perfect for a live-encore. Another great pillar of the album, unfortunately overshadowed by other more "flashy" episodes, is certainly "Paranoia", which instead relies on a more fluid and expansive duration, characterized by a fairly sparse groove and a "soap and water" singing not retouched by studio effects that marry well with a particularly catchy and fitting melody, an excellent remastered and polished synth-pop. "Help Me!" is the most experimental part of the album and also the darkest and most unsettling, intended to be the musical transposition of an "abduction experience": a continuous succession of off-screen voices, disorienting rhythms, minor orchestrations that periodically emerge, emphasizing a hallucinated and alien atmosphere in the most authentic sense of the term, but in "Welcome To Earth" there's also room for two beautiful ballads, an absolute novelty for Apoptygma as well as rather rare in futurepop and not always particularly memorable, but even in this case, Stephan Groth's inspiration is truly in a state of grace; "Moment Of Tranquility" is an interlude, placed in the central context of the work, and its poignant melancholy emerges with extraordinary and unexpected delicacy; the rhythms slow and expand, dominated by a sense of inevitable fatalism, the pain of a farewell faced with composure and dignity, "LNDP3" is the grand finale, the unexpected coup de théâtre. Stephan Groth, the one-man band, the protagonist and undisputed leader, hands the microphone to backing singer Kari Pettersen, who responds with a wonderful performance that further ennobles this orchestral ballad, sad in soul but of a wrenching beauty rich in pathos, poetic and deeply moving, a "Death Is Not The End" according to Stephan Groth's vision, the best epilogue for a work following a very coherent and rigorous logical thread, in which each act is the direct consequence of the previous one. Intense, visionary, and compelling, this is "Welcome To Earth," a fundamental album for its genre and a strictly unique exemplar; free to believe it or not, to share it or not, but calling this album a masterpiece is absolutely not an exaggeration.