Apocalyptica

The flamboyant nature of music is constantly evolving and throwing up exciting new crossovers to bring vibrance to its expanding tapestry. Folk-punk, alt-country, tech-house and grindie all originate from the realm of exploratory-splicing. And, although Apocalyptica delightfully skip side by side with other genre-crossers, they are unquestionably one of the most innovative. Taking in the oft-thought disparate branches of classical and heavy metal, they fuse an emotive variety of their own. I caught up with lead cellist, Eicca Toppinen, to discover how it all came about.

Citing a mishmash of musicians as inspiration – “Bjork, Massive Attack, Slayer, even some pop acts” – Toppinen believes it’s possible to “find the same kind of feelings from very different styles of music”. He also sees “music is an abstract thing. It is just a bunch of emotions” which, ultimately, can sometimes make it “impossible to identify what the song is about”. This could be why, therefore, Apocalyptica’s September 2007 release – the aptly named, Worlds Collide – is so unclassifiable. Toppinen promises “every song has a different mood or background”.

The rise of Apocalyptica has been a slow but measured process. Beginning as a group of young metalheads studying classical instruments in Finland, the four-cellists-and-a-drummer were initially brought to the fore by their experimental covers album, Plays Metallica By Four Cellos, over a decade ago.

Toppinen admits that the project was only meant as a frolicsome folly at the time as they didn’t really perceive themselves as a band - “we were just a bunch of friends who wanted to have fun together”. The covers trend continued throughout their popular work until, in 2001, they released Cult, an album which saw original material added to their playlist. “From there”, Toppinen mentions, “we started the journey to find the identity for the band”.

Part of this identity was revealed by adding a drum dynamic to the group’s setup. Toppinen accepts that it was a move that fundamentally “started a new age of Apocalyptica. The drummer put a lot of new impact into the band”.

Surprisingly, after working together for such a long time, Worlds Collide is the band’s first full length original album. Having previously worked with extra-heavy heavyweights such as Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck, Soulfly’s Max Cavalera and Ville Valo from HIM, Toppinen was keen to continue the trend by adding more well-known names to the rollcall. “It was actually very interesting to get new people with fresh ideas in”, he says, mentioning names such as Corey Taylor (Slipnot), Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Till Lindemann (Rammstein) in the same breath. It’s no wonder, therefore, he claims the live performance is a “really powerful, pure rock and roll show” where mosh pits and bodysurfing are the norm.