In the lore of heavy metal, only a handful of artists can claim to have changed history, and even fewer can say they’ve done so twice. Enter Apocalyptica, and one of metal’s greatest, most unlikely success stories. By any account, it’s the stuff of legend, and it’s about to come full circle as Apocalyptica announces their “Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 Tour” across the United States, featuring support from guitar virtuoso Nita Strauss. Full routing and ticketing information is available below.
Formed in 1993 at the world-renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, Apocalyptica began as a loving, lo-fi nod to Metallica from four classically trained musicians. Their debut album, Plays Metallica By Four Cellos, released in 1996, was a game-changer. As founding band leader Eicca Toppinen explains, “We just loved Metallica and we wanted to play it with the instruments we were able to play, which just happened to be cellos. We played a metal club in Helsinki, and then we were asked to do an album. Five months after it was released, we were opening for Metallica. It’s still unbelievable to me.”
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