Apocalyptica formed
in 1993 with four cellists at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. They adopted
a neoclassical metal style without the use of guitars. Initially, they played Metallica covers, but soon covered Faith No More, Sepultura, and Pantera,
and began composing original songs. Later songs introduced vocals. After a
couple of line-up changes, Apocalyptica presently is comprised of classically
trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu
Kivilaakso, and drummer Mikko Sirén. Apocalyptica has sold over
four million albums, and is the first Finnish band to top the Billboard rock chart.
Headlining at Irving
Plaza tonight, Apocalyptica embraced both its instrumental era and its
vocal era, with Franky Perez coming
on stage intermittently to lead the singing. On many songs, the cellos
themselves seemed to sing. When the band roared into an eight-minute
instrumental cover of Metallica's "Master of Puppets," however, it
was the audience that sang along to words that were not there. In all, Apocalyptica
performed four Metallica covers, including an as-yet-unrecorded cover of
"Seek & Destroy," two Sepultura songs, and a metalized interpretation
of Norwegian composer Edvard Greig's
19th century piece "Hall of the Mountain King." The set also included
10 original compositions. All were performed dynamically as complex progressive
metal songs, often with classical bridges, with cellos that sounded identical
to crunching thrash metal guitars and basses. Is this the future of cello
concertos? Probably not, but Apocalyptica's testosterone-heavy headbanging performance
may be remembered as the only cello concerto unique enough to generate rabid mosh
pits.
Visit Apocalyptica at www.apocalyptica.com.
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