Apocalyptica, We Lost the Sea
Metro Theatre
Australia, AUS
September 24,2016
Rumor has it that Ritchie Blackmore tried to get into mastering the cello, the attention-getter among instruments – try to ignore a woman lugging one around, at some point of his career.
He came to the conclusion that one has to dedicate one’s whole life to it, after which he went back to playing guitar and turning it up a bit louder.
In classical music the bowed string instrument is often considered to be one of the less interesting instruments, eclipsed by the piano and the violin, because it tends to be used for drawn-out notes to give a melancholic tone.
Apocalyptica are a classically trained cello metal band and have mastered the art of exploring the range of the cello, showcasing how diverse and powerful it can be – playing it as low as the double bass and a high as the violin, along with making it sound like the human voice.
Apocalyptica started 20 years ago with an album solely consisting of Metallica covers played on cellos. Twenty years on, eight studio albums with compositions of their own along with collaboration with the likes to Ville Valo of HIM, Corey Taylor of Slipknot fame and Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil later, they descended upon Sydney as part of their “Shadowmaker” tour.
The set list consisted of a mix of originals and crowd pleasing cover songs, including heavy hitters by Metallica and Sepultura, interspersed by a segment with their current touring singer, Frankie Perez, which was the most conventional part of their performance.
Bringing together fans from heavy and more traditional musical spheres, the multi-faceted range Apocalyptica draws from makes them a very powerful and fun live act to see, keeping the audience on its toes as they seamlessly slide from Wagnerian tributes via somber moments to their various collaborations/covers, which elicit reactions and participation from the audience that you normally would only expect from hard rock acts with more traditional instrumentation. A great evening for anyone into heavy and classical music.
The evening was opened by We Lost the Sea, a great post-metal instrumental band from Sydney.
For some, music is nothing but a mundane distraction of background noise.
For others music can serve as a tool of survival and bring hope to otherwise hopeless situations.
Life is complex. The emotions it evokes even more so. Music can provide solace.
We Lost the Sea gives consolation by wonderfully executing lengthy, hefty instrumental songs with towering guitar arrangements that create an active, immersive and cathartic listening experience.
A band to look out for.
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Photos by KAVV
