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Album Review: Apocalyptica – Plays Metallica Vol 2

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Review by Rick Eaglestone for MPM

28 Years after their debut tribute which bought a new dimension to heavy music leaving a lasting presence, Finnish fiddlers Apocalyptica re string their bows to once again fight fire with fire with a return to where it all began with Plays Metallica Vol 2

This time around there is a treat for fans of both bands this latest exploration also includes collaborations and guest appearances from Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield and also featuring an original bass line laid down by Cliff Burton and starts with an absolute gem – the title track of my all-time favourite Metallica album Ride The Lightning and then the band go into dangerous territory with the title track of quite possibly the bands devise releases St Anger which I went into with a open mind and yes the arrangement is good but still has elements of that drum sound…

Fortunately, the wave of emotion that translates via Unforgiven II eliminates the brief negative feelings which is then followed up with a track that I still listen to on a very regular basis another excellent choice with Blackened.

When Apocalyptica’s debut Plays Metallica by Four Cellos turned 25 was really when the idea of Vol. 2came about and coupled to response their marathon tour, totalling over 200 shows, was hard to ignore.

We played the full first album and it was so much more fun and exciting than we expected,” says Eicca. “We got the idea to do something like the first album, but we couldn’t do it in exactly the same way – we needed to challenge ourselves and bring a totally new perspective to the original energy and emotion of Metallica.”

Moving into the undeniable classics The Call of Ktulu and The Four Horsemen its hard not to be enamoured just by the passion and love that is apparent even though so much time has passed.

The only appearance from the bands most commercially successful is crafted in the formof Holier Than Thou whilst a nice revisit to And Justice on To Live Is To Die.

The final two tracks are a niggling annoyance as excuse the pun, but they are the same One – granted with something like this no one is going to be fully happy with the track listing and I think more so given Metallica’s extensive catalogue to explore I feel that having almost the same track was a bit of misstep of which could’ve been used productively but overall it didn’t completely spoil my overall listening experience.

The band explain why they have chosen to revisit the No Life `Til Leather Crew with Lead cellist Perttu Kivilaakso adding:

We’ve been talking about making another Metallica album for around 20 years, as there were still so many great songs we wanted to play! We waited for the perfect moment to do it.

Thinking of that teenage me who is now getting to play his favorite tracks gives me goosebumps! Out of
maybe 20 tracks, nine made it onto the album, and we needed to figure out which songs from the latest albums would work, too.

Plays Metallica Vol.2 Tracklisting

  1. Ride the Lightning
  2. St Anger
  3. The Unforgiven II
  4. Blackened
  5. The Call of Ktulu (In Memory of Cliff Burton)
  6. The Four Horsemen (Ft. Rob Trujillo)
  7. Holier Than Thou
  8. To Live Is To Die
  9. One
  10. One (Instrumental)

Line-up:

Eicca Toppinen – cellos
Paavo Lötjönen – cellos
Perttu Kivilaakso – cellos

https://www.apocalyptica.com

https://www.facebook.com/Apocalyptica

https://www.instagram.com/apocalypticaofficial

https://www.youtube.com/user/ApocalypticaVideos

7/10

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