By Lisa Burke
May 3rd 2016, Fonda Theatre, Hollywood CA: It’s been a wild ride in the world of metal in Los Angeles lately, and the month of May has already started out with some great shows, four of which I am attending are all taking place in the same week, all at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. This is totally fine with me because I live in fairly close proximity and it has nowadays become my favorite Hollywood venue. For the first of four nights at the Fonda on Tuesday May 3rd 2016, I was there to see Finland’s Apocalyptica with openers 10 Years and Failure Anthem.
I arrived for alternative grunge rock band 10 Years who have been around for 17 years now and come from the land of Tennessee. The live performance was far better than I had originally anticipated, and the singer has a very pleasant voice that can really calm anyone down from a panic mode with ease, and it is extremely reminiscent of Maynard from Tool who they are clearly influenced by. There are a few songs that are styled similar to the ‘Undertow’ album by Tool but actually the majority sounds similar to A Perfect Circle to me which originated in the exact same year as this band, but it is done in a slightly different way. They are lucky that I enjoy it enough and find the singer talented enough to separate them enough from Tool and A Perfect Circle to give them their own credit, because some of it is exactly what you would imagine the next A Perfect Circle song to sound like. The song ‘Beautiful’ fits this category perfectly and is one of the crowd’s favorites. The backup singing that happened at times was very unnecessary for this band in particular, because the main singer is so specific and has all the range needed, so the harmonizing didn’t work in this case, in my opinion. The commentary of yelling bullshit etcetera between songs and the joking between the singer and guitarist was interesting in an acceptable way, to say the least. The strong features they carried were the progressions which were skillfully crafted, and the different vocal ranges from serene to scream were used appropriately in each song, and kept my interest in an otherwise typical late ’90s band.
It was around this time that I realized how many people at metal shows not only record YouTube videos with their smart phones, but now they also bring and use their iPads. I think the only device a person could hold up in front of my face to block my view that could possibly be any more obnoxious would be a 50″ flat screen TV. Remember when we went to metal shows and didn’t have cell phones? Me neither, but I bet it was a pretty enjoyable time without unnecessary distractions, even though how else could the band take a selfie with the audience in the background after their show to post to Facebook? This is the world we live in, so we might as well make the best of it, I suppose.
Apocalyptica is an extremely unique band that at this time consists of three amazing cello players and a super energetic and appropriately fantastic drummer with an occasional singer primarily there for the new songs. This was the Shadowmaker tour featuring a few selections from their original album of the same name released in 2015, and upon hearing them live mixed with some of their older Metallica covers with no vocalist that are paced and composed in a genius fashion, I honestly felt the new songs broke too far away from their roots for me, and their touring singer is Franky Perez, whose vocals at times really don’t fit in so much with the creativity of the cello playing. It was decent, however, and there was no denying the skills and out-of-the-box thinking of the three cellists and drummer who stole the show.
The three cellists are all very gothed out and the two with long luscious locks do some absolutely amazing hair whipping in unison while playing thrash cello. It’s really unique, and even though it’s mostly covers, the arrangements are superbly done. People want to mosh but have no idea how with such classiness and orchestration mixed into the metal. The drummer was the only one in white and he was really a great fit for these cellists to become as brutal as possible. I love folk metal with unique instruments and usually anything that comes out of Finland, and this was definitely one of those concepts I could only imagine coming from this wonderfully cultured part of the world. Favorite songs were ‘Seek and Destroy’, ‘One’, and ‘Unforgiven’ which of course are all very unique and fun renditions of Metallica songs that will blow your mind. Apparently they started with four cellists and played only Metallica songs, then branched to other covers of Sepultura and Faith No More for example, and have played with guest singers such as Christina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil and Till Lindemann of Rammstein, until narrowing it to just three cellists and a drummer as the core of the group. Towards the end of the performance they did the band introduction where the short-haired cellist came out doing a cartwheel on stage which was fun and clearly unexpected. For some reason, for a song or two, the touring singer decided to sit on a folding chair to sing. That was an oddity that really just left the audience confused, since he was only on stage sporadically, so I’m sure he had plenty of time for sitting otherwise. Interestingly and ironically, I’ve actually seen Metallica do an acoustic set of primarily cover songs and it was one of the worst potential disasters I’ve witnessed, yet this amazing cello band plays Metallica with no vocals better than Metallica themselves at times, depending on how you look at it.
Overall, I really love the concept and follow through of this metal cello dichotomy and really the only thing I would like to see more of is different guest singers such as the ones I mentioned to come back and tour, but of course this is a timing issue since other bands are on simultaneous tours and might not be able to make an apperance. It is definitely worth seeing these dark and mysterious men from Finland who will surely charm your heart and warm your spirit with the most heavy metal cello playing you’ve ever heard.
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