Customer Reviews

Amplified: A Decade of Reinventing the Cello

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Apocalyptica is three guys (used to be four) who play metal on cello. Best known for covering famous songs by renowned artists (they first startled the music scene in 1996 with "Plays Metallica by Four Cellos"), they also write some magnificent pieces of their own, frequently featuring the collaboration of other bands such as HIM. Talented musicians, they're all classically trained, but they put that skill to use in a unique way.

Their music is beautiful. On a piece like Metallica's "One," the strings dance through the intro in almost baroque fashion, only to plunge into a startling imitation of a guitar's grind, and then cut loose into the meat of the piece with a snarl you've probably never heard from a cello before. Maximizing the cello's rich tonal range from a deep bass growl to a soprano that soars into the upper atmosphere, the instruments lend power ballads a heart-rendingly beautiful sound, while they crash through the hard stuff with a vicious exuberance that'd make any metal band proud.

If you enjoy metal, if you admire the lyricism of a well-played string instrument, if you like discovering novel sounds, or if you're simply tired of hearing rehashes of the same old stuff over and over again, you owe it to yourself to check out Apocalyptica. This collection is an excellent place to start, with some of the highlights from all their albums up to this point. Dark, ferocious, beautiful, and ageless, every person I've played this album for has turned to me with a look of joyful surprise and asked where they could find a copy.

Though I buy Apocalyptica for only about half of their songs, the one's I DO like are among my favorites of all time, and I very much appreciate the band's overall originality.

On this 'Best of' album there should be something for every Apoc. fan.

If you enjoy Apocalyptica's original sound, there's:

-Enter Sandman

-Master of Puppets

If you go for their more symphonic sound (as I do), there's:

-Harmageddon

-Nothing Else Matters

-Somewhere Around Nothing

-Farewell

-One

-Heat

-Cohka

-Kaamos

-Deathzone

And if you keep them around for the really hard stuff, there's:

-Harmageddon

-Refuse/Resist

-Betrayal

-Hall of the Mountain King

-Angel of Death

On top of the well-rounded and awesome main attraction there is the second disk with eight tracks (none are repeats from disk 1) that include vocals by various artists (sadly I'm not familiar with any of them, but since they're collaborating with Apoc I'm sure they're top-notch). These stray quite a bit from the band's roots but are nonetheless a blast.

Hope Vol.2 is by far my favorite.

...I finally purchased this album, and have enjoyed it both as ambient soundtrack at home and "driving music" on the road.

It has been 10 years since these boys decided to do a cover album of metallica tracks. Now they are making some of the most hardcore metal on cellos that I have ever heard. All of their orignal work just blows their cover work out of the water. Ever since Harmageddon, this band has outdone themselves with their work. Favorite tracks are Heat, Wie Weit, Life Burns, And Bittersweet. All of the versions here have vocals, but the instramental versions are the ones I fell in love with. This is just an excellent album, worth owning for all fans of this band. Get it Now!!!

This is not your typical soothing music but it is soothing all the same - in its own way. The cello is a haunting instrument and Metallica can be haunting music but this group makes haunting wonderful. The whole CD is mysterious, intense, reflective and oozing with talent. I have to say that I was only recently introduced to Apocalyptica so I don't have the background to compare this CD of theirs to another. On its own though, it is a wonderful composition of class, style with a bit of metal thrown in. Not like anything you normally hear. Truly refreshing and amazing! These guys are very talented (and hot too).

Apocalyptica is really a band that you must hear to believe. They are very talented musicians, and they reach all the depths and heights fully in their chosen form of expression. They can be as hard as any of the Heavy Metal bands, or as wistful and timeless as any classical piece I have heard. This album is perfect for my husband and I to enjoy together, because he likes music that is quite hard and aggressive, while I tend towards more emotional depth and classical/traditional forms. Apocalyptica is a fusion of classical and Heavy/Death metal, so it appeals to both of us very nicely.

These guys are amazing. I wrote a review for "Cult", another album and that review definitely applies here too! Our family LOVES their music, all of it!

I watched vids on youtube and discovered the song Path feat - Sandra Nasic (lead singer of Guano Apes), and Bittersweet feat - Ville Valo (lead singer of H.I.M.). I was obssesed with Path and than Bittersweet got stuck in my head. After I got the Cd I've become obssesed with Hope feat - Matthias Sayer (lead singer of Farmer Boys). But all The songs are really great even Seemann though Till Lindemann (lead singer of Rammstein) isn't singing. But really check it out Apocalyptica are super great cellists if I had lots of mulla I'd pay to have them at my wedding with lots of other people of course!!!

Great music, definitely not the same old same old. We are using their version of "Nothing Else Matters" for the processional.

I'm not a fan of Metallica so I had never heard of Apocalyptica before Brent Smith of Shinedown recorded a song with them. I've got four APO cds now. I still don't care for Metallica, but I like APO's take on them. On this cd Enter Sandman is my favorite.