INTERVIEW: Apocalyptica still find inspiration in Metallica tunes
Image courtesy of the band / Provided by press rep with permission.
Apocalyptica, the Finnish band that blends classical cello music with heavy metal riffs, has always been a fan of Metallica. Nearly 30 years ago the cellists released their debut album called Plays Metallica by Four Cellos. That release was a landmark moment for Apocalypitca, which today consists of Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, Paavo Lötjönen and Mikko Sirén.
In the intervening years, Apocalyptica has continued to gain prominence around the world, releasing many albums and touring numerous countries. Now, they have come full circle, finding inspiration once again in the Metallica songbook and releasing a new album called Plays Metallica Vol. 2. This time the guys take on such classic tunes as “Ride the Lightning,” “St. Anger,” “The Unforgiven II,” “The Four Horsemen” and “One.” Some of the recordings even feature Metallica members assisting the band. For example, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo join them in the recording of “One,” and Trujillo can be heard on an acoustic version of “One” and “The Four Horsemen.” Slayer’s Dave Lombardo turns up on “Blackened.”
“You have to figure out how to do things that excite you, and when things excite you, then it’s nice to be busy,” Toppinen said in a recent Zoom interview. “We’ve been talking about making another Metallica for over 20 years, so it’s been always there somewhere. But I don’t know why this felt like the right time. I think a lot of promoters were also asking for more placement of the shows at some point after we did the 20th anniversary tour. We played an all-Metallica set on that tour, and it was so much more fun than we expected.”
Toppinen, the leader of the band, said that Apocalyptica always says yes to a project that they feel excited about its prospects; they don’t like to make long-term plans. Thus, it was only recently that they decided to return to Metallica and cut a second volume of their ode to the metal giants.
“We have to live and experience, and then certain things start to stand out,” he said. “I think this time it started to feel like a good challenge. I think probably in the past the whole idea of making another Metallica album felt like going backward somehow, like, OK, we do it because something else is not working. But I think the confidence was there, and we know who we are and how we sound. It actually felt like a new challenge. We had to reinvent the wheel after the first album because the first album is a classic, revolutionary album, which we didn’t know at that time. But now looking back, it was a very revolutionary album, so how to do something that is equally exciting to us and then probably to some people as well. What’s the approach to Metallica’s music? So, that kind of felt like an exciting challenge.”
Throughout the recording process, standing by Toppinen’s side were his bandmates, including Sirén, who is leaving the group after this album project. The split is amicable, according to press notes.
For Toppinen, the connection to Metallica’s music is an obvious one. He and his bandmates may be classical cello players, but they are huge fans of metal music as well, especially the tunes of Metallica.
“We wanted to play the music that we love with the instruments we can play, so it was simple as that for us why this whole band started,” he said. “It was more like an accident. We didn’t plan to make any albums then. We just loved this music. We wanted to play it somehow, and that’s what we did. Metallica is an amazing band with amazing music. One of the things on this album was we wanted to feel that we are bringing something new to the picture. We are giving a new perspective, or we are highlighting some elements of the music that come out in a different way because the compositions that Metallica do, most of them are fantastic. And there are so many layers and dynamics and details. … We are able to give it a different kind of instrumental composition to the musical element, and that’s why I think it’s exciting.”
Generally speaking, Toppinen doesn’t believe in music genres. He called the perceived differences between classical music and metal music total bullshit. Take, for example, classical music, which has been going strong for centuries. What exactly is classical musical, the cellist asked.
“There are so many different styles inside classical music,” Toppinen said. “What music is about is the transferring of emotions, and there’s no rule [about] what kind of music style has the same emotions or can give you as the listener the same emotions. … Personally I can find music that resonates with you from any genre. It’s a matter of the mood, about the soul of the music and so on.”
Choosing which songs to record this time around was a difficult challenge for Apocalyptica. The first volume included tracks like “Enter Sandman,” “Master of Puppets,” “Harvester of Sorrow” and “Creeping Death.” In other words, on the first album, the band members went for the big hits. On the second volume, they chose well-known songs, but they also expanded into lesser-known territory. Fans can expect to hear many of these tunes played live on Apocalyptica’s 2025 tour in the United States; Nita Strauss will be the opener.
“We had recorded tons of the most-known Metallica songs in the past, and we didn’t want to redo those,” Toppinen said. “There were a lot of songs that we really wanted to play. On top of that, we started to work on the songs, and I was like, I want to make a version of this song. Sometimes it turned out OK. … But our version is a bit lame because it’s too much the same, and it’s not exciting. It was trial and error. That was the process. We had some kind of draft arrangements of about 20 songs or something, and nine ended up on the album. That was the challenge for the new Metallica stuff. We wanted to have something from the newer albums, but then it happened that the Metallica songwriting has changed a little bit. The song structure is a little bit more simple. Like, in very early Metallica, there can be songs that you have seven fantastic riffs in one songs, and then on the new ones, there are less of those elements. … We had to digest it and own every song.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 is now available. Apocalyptica and Nita Strauss tour in early 2025. Click here for more information and tickets.
