Finland’s neo-classical yet musically oriented gothic rockers Apocalyptica have defined their personal orchestral approach to the metal scenery throughout their thrilling twenty-two years of existence. Until present times, the quartet remained unparalleled whence inciting others to delve into their unstirred waters, as indirect forefathers of Portuguese darkened violinists Os Corvos and most recently, Moonspell cello neo-conservatives and indoctrinated, Opus Diabolicum. The later I strongly recommend taking a closer listen in a nonvenomous manner.
Apocalyptica’s impressionism is consistently unveiled and explored throughout the obsidian singularity present on their entire discography that justly far-off everyone farthest expectations. Quite of a feasible and notable transaction that transpires thru every new composition while overlaying a myriad of diverse musical orchestrations that majestic entwine altogether in a perfect symptom-symmetrical sense of pure unadulterated genius.
‘Shadowmaker’ holds in contrast, the absence of colour through a milky sculpture alike mournful, yet religiously alluring presence of familiar silhouettes. Motherhood in represented by holding in arms the passing of her firstborn daughter. Their second and newest single relic ‘Cold Blood’ is presently streaming as the follow-up to their previously released title song for their upcoming eighth studio record. The newly released single resounds far more favorable toward a rock-ish vein other than the complexity matched in elderly releases, invigorating their detachment from irksome compositions even thus openly embracing the drawback simplicity of their rediscovered essence. Apocalyptica always drew a fine line between the orchestral, symphonic phonetic phases combined with their poetical, forsooth rock metal underlines that on earlier stages contributed to establishing their trademark in the scenery.
Cellist Eicca Toppinen recently told to Australia’s The Rock Pit that they wanted to challenge their musicianship after undergoing a one-year-long state of absence.
[blockquote cite=”Eicca Toppinen”]It’s always hard to talk about albums without being a nerdy musician. I think it’s a totally new kind of record for Apocalyptica, especially because we have one singer on the whole album, and I think it’s making the whole album more solid. It’s more of a band record compared to the album that we have had guest vocalists, so I think it’s more solid. We had a break when we stopped touring for ‘7th Symphony’, we had one year off, we didn’t write a single song for a record, nothing except for ‘Wagner Reloaded’, but for the regular stuff, nothing. And after the break, we came together, and if we wanted to do something, we have to do exactly what we want to do and this record is the result of that, that journey. We wanted to challenge ourselves even more and we wanted to be tight as a band before the pre-production and the thing that Franky was part of the pre-production, we spent weeks with him in the rehearsal room arranging the songs and getting things more defined before we went into the studio. I think this album is full of attitude, it’s a real attitude record.[/blockquote]
- ‘I-III-V- Seed Of Chaos’
- ‘Cold Blood’
- ‘Shadowmaker’
- ‘Slowburn’
- ‘Reign Of Fear’ [Bonus Track]
- ‘Hole in My Soul’
- ‘House Of Chains’ [Bonus Track]
- ‘Riot Lights’
- ‘Come Back Down’ [Bonus Track]
- ‘Sea Song (You Waded Out)’
- ‘Till Death Do Us Part’
- ‘Dead Man’s Eyes’
‘Shadowmaker’ is scheduled for release in April through Eleven Seven Music Group’s Better Noise, and was produced by American Grammy Award-winner Nick Raskulinecz, which in addition to his work with Foo Fighters, he has worked with such artists as Ghost, We As Human, Marilyn Manson, Deftones, Coheed And Cambria, Stone Sour, Trivium, Danzig, Mastodon, Shadows Fall, Goatsnake, Death Angel, Danko Jones and many others.
To reckon is that the deadlock in between Apocalyptica and former co-founding cello musician, Max Lilja ceased when he abandoned the act in 2001 to join the Finnish thrashing metallers, Hevein and folk-pop act Tekijä Tuntematon, nevertheless also actively participating as touring musician for Tarja Turunen. Despite his professional relationship with both acts and being a cellist in Finnish National Opera Orchestra, in 2007, Max Lilja began composing his solo album while blending post-rock, ambient, modern classical and experimentalism into a new formula, album which was released on 2013, entitled ‘Play Electronica By One Cello’.
In Max Lilja’s upcoming solo album ‘Morphosis’, to be released by Fluttery Records, the master of the electric cello utilizes a wide spectrum of analog and digital effects to build strong identities for the sounds originating from the cello. In the nine instrumental songs, you will be able to hear influences from trip hop to electronica, from rock to classical, all morphed to the amazing cinematic images through Max Lilja’s cello.
