Apocalyptica

Last Wednesday Kate and I got to go to Boise to see Apocalyptica live in concert. We don't go to a lot of concerts, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Apocalyptica formed in 1993 when four cello players from Finland started playing Metallica songs at Sibelius Academy in Finland. They released an album of Metallica songs on cello, then branched off to cover other metal bands and recording original songs as well, but always remembering their roots with Metallica. They've grown in popularity over the past 15 years, collaborating with many other artists, opening a couple times for Metallica concerts, and even going on tour with Rammstein as backup musicians.

The concert was a lot of fun. Unfortunately one of the cellists, Perttu, was having technical difficulties of some sort and had to keep switching out his cello, but they're versatile enough performers that it didn't affect the sound or quality of the show; it just wasn't Perttu's best day ever. He was there when it was important, though, to do all his solos. The three permanent cello players in the band (Eicca, Perttu and Paavo) are all over the stage as they play, while the fourth guy (who is only a part-time member of the band) just sits the whole time looking cool in his sunglasses, the clean-cut contrast to the other guys and their metal look. Their drummer is amazing, too. Plus, the somewhat older ladies standing next to us were apparently real-life vampires, which was interesting.

Naturally Apocalyptica played several Metallica songs, including One, which is one of the best and works very well with cellos, but they also played several from their new album. Possibly the most fun was that they closed the concert with their cover of "the original black metal song" by Edward Grieg, In the Hall of the Mountain King, which they play at most of their concerts.

Rather than talk about this more, I have scoured YouTube looking for decent video of Apocalyptica (it's harder to find than I expected), and will share my finds here. First, I found an entire concert from their current tour, performed in Lisbon, Portugal. The sound is good, but still doesn't do justice to actually being there and experiencing how loud cellos can be. Then I have a few of my favorite of their music videos and a couple other good live performances.

If you're unfamiliar with Apocalyptica or Metallica or metal music in general, you still might like this. Apocalyptica was my bridge to Metallica and other similar bands. I recommend as you scroll down watching Bittersweet, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Nothing Else Matters, Faraway, Wie Weit/En Vie and The Unforgiven, as well as some of the Apocalyptica in my music playlist. You might be surprised.

Rock in Rio 2008, Lisbon, Portugal:

Refuse/Resist:

Grace:

I'm Not Jesus (this one usually has vocals, it's much better without):

Ion:

Fight Fire with Fire:

Beethoven's Symphony #5 Exerpt (somehow linked to an environmental message, I don't know how):

Betrayal:

Bittersweet (one of my favorites, again without vocals and better that way):

Last Hope:

Seek and Destroy:

Inquisition Symphony:

In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edward Grieg:

And some other live stuff:

Enter Sandman by Metallica:

Master of Puppets by Metallica:

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica:

One by Metallica:

Mein Hertz Brennt (Apocalyptica performing with Rammstein):

Ohne Dich (Apocalyptica performing with Rammstein):

And some Music Videos:

Nothing Else Matters by Metallica:

Seemann by Rammstein ft. Nina Hagen:

Faraway:

Wie Weit:

En Vie (same song as Wie Weit, but in french):

The Unforgiven by Metallica:

And finally, a brief overview of the Apocalyptica in my playlist:

Bittersweet (Instrumental Version): This is one of my all-time favorite original Apocalyptica songs. There's a vocal part, but I don't really care for the voices and lyrics, so this instrumental version is better, I think.

En Vie: They wrote an instrumental song called Quutamo, and then recorded three versions with vocals in different languages. How Far (English) and Wie Weit (German) are sung by Marta Jandova, and En Vie (french) is sung by Emmanuelle Monet. Ordinarilly I would want to vomit at anything french, but in this case Monet is the better singer, and she doesn't sing very nasally at all, so rather than make me cringe this is my favorite version of the song. All three vocal versions have the same video, just with different singers.

Faraway: This is the instrumental version of the song in the video above.

Helden: This is the German version of Heroes by David Bowie. The vocals are by Till Lindemann of Rammstein.

Nothing Else Matters: This is a cover of one of my favorite Metallica songs, one of the first Metallica songs I ever liked.

One: One of the best Metallica songs ever, and really works well to show that Apocalyptica really is made up of skilled cello players, and it's not just a fun gimmick to play Metallica on cellos.

Peace: An original Apocalyptica song from their most recent album.

Pray!: An older original Apocalyptica piece, one of the first to feature drums.

Seemann: Probably my favorite Apocalyptica performance. The song is by Rammstein, and Nina Hagen is the singer. Nina Hagen is incredibly talented, but very weird, weird enough to make Björk look ordinary. Rammstein was impressed enough with this cover that they invited Apocalyptica on tour with them, and then got together to record Helden for their most recent album. I like this version a lot more than the Rammstein version.

Worlds Collide: Very cool original Apocalyptica song from the most recent album, and the album is named for this song.

And finally, since they didn't allow cameras in the concert, but everyone else was taking pictures with their phone, I managed to snap a couple with my phone: