In an industry that tends to put bands into labelled boxes and then nailing down the lid, Apocalyptica have always kept their wings well spread. They have created a new sound as a group, which has made them international leaders in a league of their own! Now, ten years into their path through metal sounds, they release Amplified: A Decade Of Reinventing The Cello, to celebrate exactly that: the reinvention of an instrument that dates back to the 16th century and their original passion for what rock n' roll truly is; breaking the rules.
In 1996, four Helsinki based cellists from the famous Sibelius Academy, Max Lilja, Antero Manninen, Paavo Lotjonen and Eicca Toppinen saw their innovative ideas produced by Pekka Ritaluoto for their debut album Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos originally issued through Zen Garden Records. The success was huge and Apocalytpica undertook its first live dates, whilst at the same time two of that album's songs were featured in the 1998 US movie Your Friends And Neighbours. Apocalyptica should be respected for their courage and distinctiveness since they are an oddity in the world of heavy metal and rock-and-roll music, but then again, any band that is made up primarily of cellos is an oddity in any genre except classical!
Moving on to Amplified: A Decade Of Reinventing The Cello we see that it is comprised of two CDs. The first is fully packed with classical instrumentals songs, with tracks such as, Slayer's Angel Of Death setting off the spark for the album, accompanied with more great covers like Metallica's Enter Sandman, One, Master Of Puppets and Nothing Else Matters, Savatage's Hall Of The Mountain King and Sepultura's Refuse/Resist. These already beloved tracks by the bands' fans blend with original tracks like,Somewhere Around Nothing, Deathzone and Harmageddon as well as with the video for Heat and the bonus track Wie Weit.
The second CD of this album brings quite a different side to the Apocalyptica collection. Here we fall more deeply into the cellos' reinvented sound, coloured by the contribution of so many different vocalists from all spectrums of music and all around the globe such as Max Cavalera (Soulfly, ex-Sepultura), Mattias Sayer, Ville Valo (HIM), Lauri Ylonen (The Rasmus), Sandra Nasic (Guano Apes), Manu, Linda Sunblad, Nina Hagen and Matt Tuck (Bullet For My Valentine). The group also has collaborated with German Electro-Metal outfit OOMPH! on their single Die Schlinge inspired by Ennio Morricone's film soundtrack Once Upon A Time In The West.
There are times when you feel that their vocal songs actually sound better than the instrumental ones maintaining a deep and dark sound that has power in it. At this point we should mention that the overall production of the album is rather poor. All in all Amplified: A Decade Of Reinventing The Cello is yet another distinctive album from Apocalyptica and certainly a must-have for all those faithful Metallica fans out there.