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Apoptygma Berzerk
You and Me Against the World

Metropolis Records / Gun Records

Posted: Friday, November 10, 2006
By: Daemon
Resort Manager

Ohhhh, baby. Every once in a while, just every once in a while, an artist crosses two genres flawlessly. Myriads of other musicians have tried it, and mayhap but a few score have done so admirably. Add Apoptygma Berzerk to that small pantheon.

Let us be forthright; Apoptygma Berzerk may just be the dark electronic scene’s best chance right now to crossover into mainstream success. Many bands have done it, so this would be no great feat in and of itself. Where Apop stand to succeed like few others is in the possibility of their maintaining equal staying power and support in both scenes, underground and Top 40 alike. Their 2006 release, You and Me Against the World is full of hybrid hits, tracks that walk the fine line between radio friendly chart-toppers that could hold their own among the boy bands and hip-hop artists dominating modern day pop radio, and find relative equal rotation in the underground scene and electro clubs. Head-bobbing synth lines pulse behind to-and-fro guitar riffs on "You Keep Me From Breaking Apart," while heavily layered lyrics with a surprisingly infectious chorus supersedes clichéd content on "Cambodia;" this is bona fide pseudo-sellout material. Apop haven't appeared to sell out, nor is there any indication that they will (stick with the small label, bros!), but this album could be grouped into the With Teeth ilk; that is, a record that is technically industrial/electronic as the band has traditionally been categorized, but now possibly begs for equal representation in the pop bins.

And this is not necessarily a bad thing. We're not likening You and Me Against the World to questionable hits whose artists may have been flashes in the pan. No, we are speaking to raw musical talent, and the continual evolution in sound of truly gifted and determined artists who are not afraid to grow, and that's what really gets them to the top of the charts. Such is the case with Stephen Groth and his Apop. Their music has evolved and this record could vault them into the mainstream media, for better or for worse. That is how polished, professional, and slick it is.

But where Groth and company fall down on You and Me Against the World is not in the quality, so much as it is in the quantity of tracks on the record. Oft times, more is better, but only in cases where the album gives us something new to chew on track after track. On ...Against the World, Groth tends to deliver very much of the same sound track-in and track-out, and while most are excellent, it does tend to get somewhat tedious. Totaling a whopping 14 tracks, this is a record that should have ended at just 10 or 11, and closed out while still ahead. No matter... technology easily circumvents this minor complaint.

Dig into Apoptygma Berzerk's You and Me Against the World. This is a record that listeners will have a hard time getting out of their head, and in this case, that is a very good thing.