Images Courtsey of Diane Lynn
As the house lights faded and the audience took their seats the band hit the stage and immediately you knew you were in for a different kind of Concert Experience. I mean, when was the last time you heard the music of Metallica played by four cellists? It was obvious to see that the band has gathered a passionate following from their friends and fans. Their take on Metallica’s music at times made it hard to figure out which song they were playing because one became so immersed in their version of it that you were trying to listen to the intricacy of each of the instruments. It was as if there were four lead guitarists on stage, all sharing and alternating the responsibility of the lead. The sold out crowd was on their feat a lot during the show in appreciation of what they were hearing.
Widely credited as being the springboard for their success, Apocalyptica plays Metallica by four cellos is currently being offered in remastered version and was released in 1996. I’m not certain that all Metallica fans would fully appreciate the music of Metallica being rearranged into string quartet instrumentals, but it certainly does give them reason to listen! But, I do believe that they would appreciate that members of Metallica actually collaborated with these amazing artists. They in fact, have performed live with Metallica in celebration of Metallica’s 30th Anniversary. Their rendition of Metallica’s music is fresh, creative and just plain fun to listen to.
Hailing of out Helsinki, this Finnish Cello Band has been around since 1993 originally as a Metallica tribute band. Apocalyptica is composed of extremely talented classically trained cellists. The current and past members have included:
- Paavo Lötjönen– bass cello (1993–present)
- Eicca Toppinen– rhythm cello, keyboards (1993–present)
- Perttu Kivilaakso– lead cello (1995, 1999–present)
- Mikko Sirén– drums, percussions (2003–present)
- Antero Manninen– rhythm and lead cello (1993–1999, live member: 2002-2009, 2017-present)
- Franky Perez– vocals (2014–present) (*1)
Images Courtsey of Diane Lynn
Having produced eight studio albums and one live album, their genre has been referred to as Symphonic metal, Classical music, Gothic metal, Alternative metal, Heavy metal & Neoclassical metal. On their web site they refer to themselves as Finnish Rockers. Call it what you want, it just sounds great and is one of the reasons that they have sold over four million albums to date.
Perhaps, because we cover so many shows, we often try to leave just before the end of a show to beat the traffic. It was a three hour drive to get to the Fox Performing Arts Center that night and it had already been a 15 hr work day but as I was walking out I couldn’t help but to keep turning around and thinking, maybe just one more……..
BackStage360
Ed – Our Thanks to Diane Lynn / Will To Rock for providing the show images.
*1- Source Wikipedia
