Apocalyptica – Worlds Collide Review

If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken all of the scrapes and bruises that the tried and true endure. But as it stands, there was nothing remotely interesting to me about four cellos covering Metallica. And even now that I’ve given myself a back-catalog crash-course, I still find it strongly uninteresting.  It’s impressive, but uninteresting. So it took me awhile to come around, but Reflections reeled me in when it dropped in ’03. I was baited by the price tag of a used copy, plus I knew then that they had recently abandoned covers for originals, and also that they brought a trap-set drummer full-time into the fold (with Dave Lombardo making several guest appearances) as opposed to their just flirting with orchestral percussion in the past. Having always loved the idea of taking the Metal attitude/posturing, and morphing it into something melodramatic beyond how most people would define “metal”, it made the “right now” of right then seem like an all too appropriate moment to become a fan of their goth-rockish tendencies sans vocals. The production and songwriting couldn’t match the intent, but given the promise of the original material that showed up on previous album Cult in 2000, I wrote it off as a growing pain, and the maturity of their self-titled album in 2005 strengthened that theory. The production stepped it up and the songwriting grew into its skin, even offering up a couple of tracks with guest vocals from HIM’s Ville Valo and The Rasmus’ Lauri Ylonen, showcasing Apocalyptica’s flexibility and restraint when writing to a singer’s strengths (this will become a gift AND a curse).  The playing field also leveled with the introduction of a new drummer, Mikko Siren, who ends up being one of the reasons why Worlds Collide works the way that it does.

Try to forget for a moment, if this sort of thing upsets you, that Apo currently have a single off of this album in heavy rotation on modern rock radio. That fact right there could seriously give some of you eye fatigue before your ears even get a chance. I’ll make an educated guess based on some things that I’ve read and say that the line was drawn between Cult and Reflections anyway, for those of you that were in the trenches with them since day one. A line drawn between the Apo of old that somehow, but always, “belongs” to the fanatics, and the radio-ready Apocalyptica of now, that will most surely pull in some Stone Sour and Three Days Grace fans. Coincidence, maybe, but it seems as though bringing an actual drumset into the fold once upon a time gave their songwriting the kind of structure that lent itself to a wider audience. And it doesn’t hurt (really it doesn’t) to reel in some Corey Taylors and Cristina Scabbias along the way to tug on Soundscan. So be it. This seemed to be the inevitable next step for them. Any haters gotta keep “Keepin’ It Real” in perspective here and count the years they’ve been in the game. How are you gonna chastise for growth and expansion when they’ve basically cornered the market on themselves? There’s nowhere else to go but up and out. So, the musicianship? Never questionable. I’m not a symphonic-works connoisseur or anything,  I’m not gonna pretend to be able to size up their cello skills. They’ve always sounded at the top of their game, and drummer Mikko becomes more and more the silent spokesperson, but the astounding steps forward here on Worlds are in the production and songwriting departments.

In the battle of the drum mix versus the cello mix, everybody wins, finally. Jacob Hellner (producer; Rammstein, etc.) fights the good fight on Apo’s behalf.  Something got lost in the translation during Reflections, was then understood slightly on their self-titled, and now converses comfortably. It sounded like the drums had to fight for some space to breathe, and then came up for air in 2005, but are just now fully realized and shining through, alive and breathing, meeting the strings head on, which was a much needed introduction since they are one half of the entity. The lows, mids, and highs are bombastic and crystalline, befittingly.  Pounding and smacking. The snare gets mixed according to the temperament of the composition (check the “ping” in “Grace”, very appropriate), and the bass drum and toms are threating, in the most positive sense of the word; threatening like a tympani. The cellos more than suffice for the absent parties. When the bow strikes then glides over the strings, it brings a sort of other percussive element, which makes Apocalyptica very rhythm oriented by nature. It’s nice to hear it understood and met with clarity. The strings constantly weave in, weave out, and wrap around each other, mocking a vocal and electric guitar’s rhythms and leads, leaving no void. This proper production introduces the aural wealth of these instruments to their sudo-metal compositions at last, lending more depth and flight to the big picture than any eight string basses and battalion of Flying-V’s could. Actually, not entirely true. Credit must heavily be given to the songwriting department when using “depth” and “flight” as adjectives, and cellos probably wouldn’t look as cool as pointy guitars when acting as an extension of leather pants, thrusting toward the night sky. So they can’t win ’em all, but they can win most of ’em.

Songwriting. They really painted the sky with this one. These eleven songs are sunlight, moonlight, and the dim that’s in-between. It’s awake, not enough, but asleep, not so much. It dreams with its eyes open and lives when they’re shut.  Yeah, it got to me. It’s a cinematic otherworld in there and it’s hard to leave. It got under my skin. It’s skeletal, but not hollow. It’s thick with possibilities, scoring the movie inside of your head. For the first time since they abandoned covers, they’ve actually learned to relax by handing over some of the responsibilities, and if it was any kind of gamble, they walk away with a killing. As previously mentioned, they brought in producer Hellner who gives these little soundtracks bloodflow, and they’ve loosened the screws a bit by collaborating with the guest-stars for a portion of the writing. The most interesting of the invited would have to be Hotei Tomoyasu. A middle aged Japanese guitarist/actor gentleman who’s resume does not fuck around: collaborations with David Bowie and Quentin Tarentino (he penned a tune for QT’s Kill Bill soundtrack). Interested? Then listen to “Grace”.  Most tracks on this album are standout tracks, but “Grace” stands taller than all.  It’s a collaborative writing effort between Tomoyasu and drummer Mikko, and it’s fairly easy to tell that a drummer had a hand in drawing some of these lines because of the way those lines angle and still stay inside of the box (Apocalyptica really know how to flatter the common 4/4 time signature over an album’s worth of material). “Grace” ebbs and flows and is one of the most vivid tunes on here thanks in large part to the six string seasoning that Tomoyasu brings, and goes to show that this is an outfit at its strongest with no vocal interruption. If no director/screenwriter/music coordinator takes note of this one specifically, they must be without pulse. Quote me on that and paste it to the album cover since it’s law for most of Worlds. Even the star-studded tracks end up being greater than the sum of the parts of their full-time gigs. Stone Sour/Slipknot frontguy Corey Taylor turns in an above average Sour (no pun intended) performance with trademark hooky chorus and tortured soul-ish verses on rock radio’s “I’m Not Jesus”, and can get away with his stock/trademark approach because Apo, as I mentioned earlier, know very well how to build on a singer’s strong points. It’s far from a throwaway track, it can easily get stuck in your head even if you’re an unwilling participant, but it would be nice to hear rockstars challenged every now and then, to hear them out of their element and a little nervous about it, and I can’t think of a more appropriate instigator than these Finnish four. Same wishful thinking applies to the enjoyable faux-Slayer-by-cello/symphony-slash ‘n thrash/Lombardo-guest-appearance track “Last Hope”, that was also co-written by drummer Mikko, who I secretly wished would have performed on it instead, because frankly, this dude has got it in spades and really doesn’t need to sit one out. I’ll write the rule in for Adam Gontier (singer for Three Days Grace) on “I Don’t Care” too, even though it’s the best thing I’ve ever heard him do, and even though I’ve pretty much avoided 3DG and am only accustomed to their sporadic radio rape. It might just be the next single to drop, though, thanks to the curses of catchy choruses. Apo are unabashedly dead-on when creating a way too comfortable and familiar environment for their friends. Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) always struck me as being at the higher tier of chick-singer mediocrity, and nothing she does here takes that title away from her in “S.O.S. Anything But Love”, giving Evanescence a run for their money. It’s a haunting little four minutes and some odd sec…..blah blah blah. You wanna know the ultimate reason why you should just click “add to cart” for Worlds Collide? “Helden”, with vocals by Rammstein’s Till Lindemann, but written by David Bowie and Brian Eno. Yeah, that’s right, it’s the German language and Finnish cello version of “Heroes”.  Fucking brilliant. Stellar performances full circle. It pretty much just puts the cap on the “Is There Anything That These Finns Can’t Do” bottle of hallucinogenics. In hindsight, it was actually a very intelligent move on their part to have written Worlds as an introduction of sorts to an even wider-spread multi-continental collision then they have attempted before, hence the title chosen. Just think of where they can go from here.  The other five compositions that left the entertainment industry curbside act as dramatic modes of travel, taking the listener to and from all of the various destinations that are highlighted above. The opening six seconds of the entire album even sound like departure.

Highly recommended for those of you that can get kissed off and ride a flood. Nearly flawless. Mostly breathtaking.