Viva Brighton Issue #60 February 2018

MUSIC
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Apocalyptica
Heavy metal string quartet
A classical training and a love of thrash metal
prompted arranger and cellist Eicca Toppinen
to throw his two passions together to see what
would happen. The result was a hit crossover
album - Plays Metallica By Four Cellos - and a
career in music that’s lasted two decades. The
popularity of Apocalyptica’s debut release has
proved to be so enduring that the band are still
on tour two years after they set out to celebrate
the record’s anniversary.
“I’ve been listening to heavy metal since I was
a teenager,” Eicca explains. “We started playing
metal on cellos at parties and people were loving
it, but it was just for fun. Then someone from
an independent record label asked us to record
some songs and we laughed at him. That first
record has now sold over a million copies.” When
Apocalyptica visit Brighton Dome this month
they’ll be playing the album from start to finish,
as it was recorded, beginning with Enter Sandman
and finishing with Welcome Home (Sanitarium).
Then, after an interval, audiences will hear another
set of Metallica songs, arranged for drums and cello,
some of which they’ve never recorded before.
“We’ve been playing lots of concert halls, with
seated audiences, and it attracts more classical fans.
They tend to be allergic to heavy metal vocals,
but when they hear us do an instrumental they
can appreciate it and hear the beauty. I think their
respect for metal is on the rise. But we also have
fans trying to headbang in the seats. You can see
people sometimes looking around, thinking ‘what
the hell is this?’”
There’s a certain appeal to picking out familiar
tunes played in a different style, and it’s interesting
to hear how the quartet handles the heavier
sections of songs, yet Apocalyptica’s music
manages to transcend these novelties by being
sensitive and bombastic all at once.
“Classical music is not as complicated as
people think,” says Eicca. “If you look at the
themes and the chords they’re sometimes quite
straightforward, but it’s the variations on those
themes that brings in the complexity. Personally
I like early 20th century classical music.
Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Prokofiev. I prefer
melodic and melancholic music, the dark Russian
stuff. There are often rhythmic melodies that
repeat throughout a piece, like a riff in a metal
song. And they are both going for the dramatic
moments, the big powerful emotions.”
Though they make it look easy, it can’t be a simple
matter capturing the power of a heavy metal band
on four-string acoustic orchestral instruments.
“The technique was difficult at first. It’s not really
how the cello is meant to be played and we have
broken many cellos over the years. I have a nice
expensive cello which I use in the studio, but I don’t
take it on tour! You can’t be worrying about that. It
can’t be a heavy metal show without letting rip.”
As told to Ben Bailey
Brighton Dome, Tues 27th Feb, 8pm, £31.50/24.50
Photo © Ville Juurikkala
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