Album Review: Apocalyptica - Cell-0

Classical cellos meet heavy metal – cello-metal. Apocalyptica shot of out Finland and completely reformed how we perceive and digest heavy metal, with their ground- and genre-breaking methods. The classically trained quartet return in 2020 with their ninth studio album, a concept album, Cell-0.

Coursing with classical motifs wired by some feisty drum work, Apocalyptica have seemingly tapped into an area of their own creativity that was previously, it seems, unknown to them, let alone to us. Strangely, the repeated use of patterns and ideas encourages a fresh perspective and illuminates a world of Apocalyptica’s making. For the album, the band also stepped into a production role, allowing themselves to run wild creatively. 

Without lyrics, Apocalyptica still create a sublime kind of magic, painting a world that marries sensual classicism and hardcore heavy metal which talks of apocalyptic, futuristic worlds, and establishes new flavours and colours in their sound.

Apocalyptica have never been the kind of band to reduce themselves to certain methods of performance or songwriting. Instead, they continue to push boundaries, test limits and force upon us a wonderful, sometimes unpredictable, combination of two worlds that perhaps you once thought never should collide.