by Stephen Fourie
– Photojournalist —
November 27, 2015 at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire – London, England —
Three cellists, a drummer and an occasional vocalist came and fed London’s Metal hearts. It’s fair to say the supporters of the Finnish cello Metal rockers were well fed, but they wanted more. They simply could not get enough of Apocalyptica!
Here to promote their latest album, Shadowmaker, with an 18 month world tour, the band hit their stride right from the opening chords of “Reign of fear.” They have now added Franky Perez (ex Scars on Broadway) as exclusive singer on all their vocal tracks and this seems to work well.
From Baroque to Neo-classic Metal and angst ridden teenage Metal outrage, the band managed to cover an incredible spectrum of moods. In Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen and Perttu Kivilaakso they have three virtuoso cellists with a healthy Metal appetite, on a mission to bring their art to a wider audience. Add drummer Mikko Sirén (with a degree in jazz music) and you have a recipe for success. It’s precision drumming with with an edge of metal mayhem to it.
By the time the band got to “Seek and Destroy” the audience was in full participation in a sea of rocking heads with hands in the air. Perttu attempted to cool things down a bit with an instrumental solo of “God save the Queen,” but that only seemed to encourage the fans more.
A three song encore followed and the roof lifted a little with the sing along on “I Don’t Care.”
Apocalyptica came to seek, but they did not destroy, they won the hearts of many – again.
Thank you to Isabel Stibor of Oddysey Music who made this review possible.
Apocalyptica in London Concert Photo Gallery
Set List:
Reign of Fear
Grace
I’m Not Jesus
House of Chains
Not Strong Enough
Master of Puppets (Metallica cover)
Inquisition Symphony (Sepultura cover)
Bittersweet
Riot Lights
Shadowmaker
Sea Song (You Waded Out)
SIN IN JUSTICE (VAMPS cover) (with VAMPS)
Seek & Destroy (Metallica cover)
God Save the Queen (Thomas Augustine Arne cover)
In the Hall of the Mountain King (Edvard Grieg cover)
Encore:
One (Metallica cover)
I Don’t Care
Dead Man’s Eyes
