Photo Credit: Riki Murto
Amongst the smell of warm cider, dry grass and feverish anticipation, Eicca Toppinen – towering cellist, founding architect of Finnish symphonic juggernauts Apocalyptica – nods and makes his way towards the Bring The Noise UK camp for a chat.
We are backstage at Download and Eicca is delighted to be on the hallowed Donington Turf once again – even if he is running on fumes after a gruelling run of live shows.
“We played last night in Vienna — Nova Rock,” he says, voice booming and excited. “It’s been long and we started travelling at 6am.”
That’s the game and the brutality of the road. That industry touring grind for bands who’ve been doing this for three decades understand. Apocalyptica are back on the hallowed Donington Park turf and they’re here because they still need this. And tonight, with Download in their sights and Metallica running through their veins, they’re about to unleash the thunder.
But first – there’s the small matter of the setlist.
“We’re still not quite sure if we’re supposed to play 45 minutes or 60,” Eicca laughs, half-exasperated, half-excited. “Are we supposed to play 45 or 60 minutes? So we little bit still figuring out. So it’s in two hours and we will figure it out. But yeah, of course, you change the setlist a little bit because on a festival, I think you need to keep the people’s attention in a different way than you know, like you, you have to keep them all the time, that’s to the show. But now we are on this place, Metallica, volume two tours, so it’s easy to make an entertaining set a lot of great songs.”
That’s something Apocalyptica learned early. They were metalheads with conservatory training. Kids who played Bach by day and worshipped Hetfield by night. And in 1996, they dropped an album that nobody saw coming – four cellos and a set of Metallica covers that tore the roof off expectation.
“We never planned anything,” Eicca says, leaning back, memory flickering across his face. That first album wasn’t supposed to change their lives. But it did.
“We released it in Finland in May ‘96,” he recalls. “And by November we were opening for them. It started when Metallica came to see what the fuck is this about? And, and that’s when we met them for the first time. And since then, you know, we became really good friends over time.”
He smiles when he says it. It still means the world and now, almost 30 years later, they find themselves back inside Metallica’s orbit with the Metallica Vol. 2 Tour underway.
“It’s wild,” he says, shaking his head. “To still be doing this. And to be doing it on our terms.”
Of course, collaboration has always been part of Apocalyptica’s DNA — from Corey Taylor to Ville Valo, their sound stretches beyond borders, genres, or labels. So who’s next?
“So many great artists out there…” Eicca says, thinking aloud. “James Hetfield was always the dream. And well… he’s on the last album. But I’d love to work with someone unexpected. Like Aurora. Or Röyksopp. Not metal. Something electronic, something fragile. I love the idea of contrast – of taking what we do and pushing it somewhere new.”
That’s Apocalyptica all over. Built on contrasts. Classical bones wrapped in distortion and blood. The sacred made savage.
“We always want to do things differently,” Eicca shrugs. “We didn’t expect anything out of it. But people said, oh, this is revolutionary. What the fuck is that? You know, for us, it’s the most natural thing. We just played music we love with the instruments we can play.”
