I wanted to like this song. I really did. In fact, I'm still *trying* -- I've moved it onto my MP3 player so I can listen to it on the way to work.
It's just .... you know when you see a painting done by a high-school art student? You see the theme...you can make out the details...but the polish just isn't there? The sloppy brushtrokes take away rather than add to the effect of the work?
Same difference. It was a brilliant idea -- very Apocalyptica (And I prefer their stuff to the real thing for some songs!) It's just the little details that keep getting in the way of the final result. For example, there are moments when the notes are (unintentionally) out of step, and you can hear in the next notes the rush to catch up. The A-B transitions are very jarring, again not intentionally but almost as if they were recoreded separately and then pasted together as an afterthought. The guitar is very hard to hear, which may or may not be a problem with A) their recording equipment The MP3 encoding process C) My headphones, but I can almost hear how it's *supposed* to sound, which just adds to my effort to appreciate the work.
I would really hope that, should they get a spare afternoon, they put some practice in and really re-record this one. It's so worth doing *right* that it's a shame to release it as it is. The second time I listened to it, I was walking down Museum Mile on 5th avenue in NYC, and I had visions of a string quartet, in full performance regalia, on a wide open stage, with five thousand well-to-do ladies and gentlemen watching on from the darkness, slowly nodding their heads to the theme from Kraid's Hideout! High Culture, indeed!