Apocalyptica – Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos
Sometimes I think the entire alternative-country community (whoever we are) is really just a buncha folks trying to weasel out of day jobs. Well, work as a rock critic is neither as honorable nor as odious as most, and Mondays mail is often much like Christmas: Lots of packages, frequent disappointment. Which is how I stumbled on Apocalyptica, a cello quartet playing Metallica.
I do not make these things up. Still, it gives one pause: Pat Boone makes a big-band record playing heavy metal classics, a cello quartet does Metallica. Is rock really dead, or just playing at it? This is not altogether a new conceit, mind you. The Kronos Quartet has used Purple Haze for an encore piece almost since their inception, for example. Still, this is probably the only way you could get me to examine the song structures of Metallica, and the neighbors cant be real happy about the volume and never mind the absence of amplifiers.
Now, I cant really comment on the relationship between Apocalypticas adaptations and Metallicas original versions. As cello music, however, it has a not unexpectedly martial flavor. The cello also brings a sweet, round tone to the songs, and is cheerfully aggressive, although the song structures seem sometimes limiting. So, um, if you were going to buy one Metallica record…