Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 – Album Review

After almost 30 years since their first Metallica album “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos”, Apocalyptica continues on their journey of bringing the mixture of Metal with Classical music in a captivating manner.

The 4 cellists, Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, Paavo Lötjönen, and drummer Mikko Sirén revisit the concept that got them into the spotlights, showcasing their mastery over the blending of genres and their instruments and highlighting even further why the band has been always welcomed everywhere they go.

Opening with Ride the Lighting the album already starts by setting a high bar for the rest of the tracks, and then surprisingly hits us with their version of Saint Anger, one of the most controversial songs from Metallica, and even on that, Apocalyptica proves their worth, improving the drums over the original and creating their sounding version, which is way more pleasant to hear than the original.

The biggest standout for me is “The Unforgiven II”, which is one of the most beautiful songs from Metallica and it suits perfectly a Cello version, bringing all the emotion from the original song and adding subtle details to make it even more complete.

The band also brought Metallica’s bassist Robert Trujillo participation in “The Four Horsemen” and a version of “One” with the spoken word from James Hetfield himself, creating further depth to their songs and even some haunting feeling.

The album closes with a purely instrumental version of One, to close it with great success, and keep us wanting a 3rd version.

Tracklist ApocalypticaPlays Metallica Vol. 2

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

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