Apocalyptica - Hattingen 2007

The new long player ‘Worlds Collide’ has been released on 14th September 2007. The first single out off it, ‘I’m not Jesus’ features a collaboration with Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR) and got massive airplay in radio and music television before it even was released. Once again APOCALYPTICA proves with the new release that rock music is more based on your attitude than on the instrument you play. The classically-trained cellists attempted to fuse together the seemingly disparate worlds of classical music & hard rock. After several released, APOCALYPTICA still stand (or, more accurately, sit!) as a major force in the world of popular music; a quartet who has sold almost two million albums worldwide, played in well over 20 different countries (Mexico, Russia & Japan included), recorded with guest vocalists such as German 'punk godmother' Nina Hagen, picked up high-profile awards for video & export achievements, remixed/reworked tracks for other name artists (Bush - Letting The Cables Sleep), Special guested with Metallica (twice!) and still found time to record a new album. APOCALYPTICA are Eicca Toppinen (cello), Perttu Kivilaakso (cello), Paavo Lötjönen (cello) and Mikko Sirén (drums) accompanied live by former member Antero Manninen (cello). http://www.apocalyptica.com/ / www.myspace.com/apocalyptica



Music
Does Rock music need a voice? Does a live show of a Rock band need one? APOCALYPTICA proved once again that there is no need for a voice! The presented set in Hattingen was a mixture between lots of songs from the recent album ‘Worlds Collide’ - placed in the main set - and several of the well-known hits. After the intro, the set started with the title track of the new album followed by the current single ‘I’m not Jesus’ as third song. As stated by the band, usually this song - besides several others - has vocals on CD (the vocals on CD are delivered by Cory Taylor of SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR), but as it is also common for the band, there are no vocals during a live show of APOCALYPTICA. Followed by ‘Fight Fire with Fire’, the band continued with two more new songs: ‘Grace’ and ‘S.O.S.’ for which the vocals on CD were delivered by wonderful Christina Scabbia of LACUNA COIL. This song is just pure melancholy and yearning.



After two older songs - ‘Somewhere around Nothing’ and ‘Seek & Destroy’ - another new track followed, namely the song ‘Helden’ which is the German tongued version of DAVID BOWIE’s ‘Heroes’, sung on CD by Till Lindemann of RAMMSTEIN. After ‘Burn’ from the recent album we got ‘Betrayal’ followed by the melancholy ballad ‘Bittersweet’, of course on stage without the voices of Ville Valo (HIM) and Lauri Ylönen (THE RASMUS). Two more songs, on of them was the trash number ‘Last Hope’, and then already the METALLICA classic ‘Enter Sandman’ marked the end of the main set. With just four more songs as encore - within METALLICA’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ - the set ended with ‘Seeman’ which originally was sing by famous German Punk queen Nina Hagen.



Through the whole set, the four guys on the cellos proved that they are real perfectionists... using their instruments in every position... even lying on the floor or raised the cellos high above their heads. Mikka maltreated his drums sitting or even standing behind them... trying to go with the speed of the music and of course he succeeded very well. With such great musical skills you did not really miss the singers you had on CD. For the Metallica songs for example the crowd was singing along with the music. The great sound in the venue just completed the perfect concert impression.



Performance
Like already known from the last German tour in 2005, we got again five people on stage, meaning the APOCALYPTICA line up was completed live by fourth cellist Antero. The stage design looked again quite impressive with those four skull chairs, placed in couples on both sides of the stage framing the drum set which was placed on a podium in the middle. A big backdrop was hung up in the background presenting the current CD cover motive. During the intro, just some white spots were breaking through the smoke illuminating the chairs and the drum set and all band members took their places.



You think banging your head in enormous speed is not possible when sitting on a chair? Go to see APOCALYPTICA. They will prove you wrong. But well, they do not only bang their heads when sitting on their chairs but also when playing their instruments standing on the rim of the stage. During the whole show, the energy the band presented on stage was floating through the hall and very soon, the audience got infected clapping along and cheering. But besides all those fast and powerful songs you also got some calmer moments, i.e. with the wonderful ‘Bittersweet’ where you could see several hugging couples. The powerful show was supported by a great light show. This evening indeed had anything you could expect of a rock concert. Happy people around me proved it very well!