Event:	Apocalyptica
Written by:
Published:	01.04.2005

To celebrate the release of their new album, Apocalyptica have started a worldwide tour together with their brand new support act Angelzoom. Tonight they are in Holland, an opportunity I would not want to miss. Alas, Perttu is not present at tonight's gig due to a sudden illness, but his spot is easily filled by his old colleague Max Lilja. The drums are played by Mikko Sirén, who has also played the drums on all but one song of the new album, titled 'Apocalyptica'.

Tonight's venue, holding a total of 2200 people, is completely sold out and I find it both interesting and surprising that an alternative band such as Apocalyptica has managed to build up a solid fanbase like this. As the room is slowly filling up with people, I'm having another good look at the stage. Luckily for me, I'm only about 2 metres away from it, so I'll be able to see all the action pretty well. On stage are three large chairs which have skulls carved into them, accompanied by a giant drum kit of which the base drum is also decorated with the skull we know so well from the cover of Apocalyptica's third release, Cult. After a while, when the sound and light checks are done, the lights start to fade and three men enter the stage..

Time for Angelzoom to open tonight's concert. I had no idea what to expect of this band, but the electric cello, violin and keyboard gave the men away. They started to play a very relaxing, soothing tune I can best describe as some form of melancholic, ambient electronic music. Beautiful. The music is slow-paced and not many people in the crowd seem to have fallen for it yet, but they had seen nothing yet. The striking pale woman with deep blue eyes and bright red hair that featured on the flyers was still nowhere to be seen, but that wouldn't last long.

After a while she finally came on stage, and the crowd was now beginning to get a little more enthousiastic. The song they played would soon identify itself as Turn The Sky (feat. Apocalyptica's Eicca on strings!) and I was really touched by the vocal capacity of Claudia, Angelzoom's singer. As a former member of a pop group called X-Perience, I had never expected such an angelic and developed voice. This girl can sing! From that moment on, I knew that Angelzoom was the thing for me and I was getting very curious as to what more they could do.

The next few songs they played were all in the same style as the opening track and the music really is meant to take you away in an ecstacy of dreams and wonders, which it does quite effectively here and there too. The other songs they played included Back In The Moment, their second single, Fairyland, their first single, and a very beautifully performed cover of Linkin Park's Crawling, which has been slowed down substantially to make it right for Angelzoom's style. On this song, Claudia missed a few of the really high notes, but then, she dared to venture on a vocal territory that even Sharon den Adel and Tarja Turunen rarely enter, so she is forgiven in my book. Claudia is still very young and with enough practice and coaching, Angelzoom could be the next big hit in the ambient gothic scene.

But Angelzoom isn't what I came here to see in the first place. It was time for some true metal madness now as Apocalyptica's road crew was finally done preparing the stage for the three cellos from hell. As the men entered the stage, the crowd seemed to explode in an eruption of enthousiasm and I almost felt sorry for Angelzoom, who didn't get the props they deserved. Apocalyptica surprisingly opened up their gig with a revamped version of their Metallica cover Master of Puppets. The crowd was going wild, singing along as loud as they could whilst being taunted by Paavo, who seems to be perfectly okay with playing both his instrument and the crowd at the same time. After a little while, the first song was done and a massive applausse arose. Man, these guys can rock!

Harmageddon was up next. This Apocalyptica classic was very much appreciated by the crowd and I must say that I still find it to my liking as well, even though I enjoy most of their more recent work even better. This catchy song works really well in a live situation and the excitement can be read upon the faces of the three players and their drummer. Next up were some songs off the new album, including Quutamo and Betrayal/Forgiveness, followed up by the beautiful accoustic balled Faraway. Mikko had no problems at all keeping up with the insanely fast rythm of Dave Lombardo on Betrayal and his drum solo halfway through the song really proves his skill as a drummer.

Time for some heavier work now. The trio continued the gig with songs such as Prologue, Life Burns!, Heat, Destraction and Somewhere Around Nothing. After that, it was time to relax once again with an instrumental version of the single Bittersweet. As Lauri Ylonen and Ville Valo couldn't be here tonight, they had to do without them and I must say that they did so quite effectively. As a matter of fact, I liked Bittersweet a lot better without them.

Another wave of heavy songs was coming our way after the melancholic tunes of Bittersweet, most of which I can't remember the name of as I sadly am unfamiliar with some of Apocalyptica's earlier work, including many of their Metallica covers. The crowd certainly seemed to know what was going on though, as they banged their heads consequently and sang along to the tunes of their favorite Metallica revamps. This process basically continued right until the end, where Apocalyptica left the stage and returned to play two more songs. Then, at midnight, way too quickly in my opinion, it was over..

These men really lived up to my wildest expectations and not even the absence of Perttu could change my feeling of complete euphoria. This show really is one of the best acts I've ever seen and I now know how they've managed to become so popular in such a short amount of time. Album releases simply don't do justice them when compared to their live potential and I dare say that these three man are unsurpassed by anyone in the world. If ever they decide to come back to Holland, I will be there!

Rens 'Lost One' Simons