Apocalyptica: THE greatest thing ever seen.lol

SO Friday on my show I had the honor, and the sheer spectacle of APOCALYPTICA live in the studio during my show as my sort of Letterman/Conan like house band. If you don’t know their story these guys are classically trained (as in they learned to play classical music, studied at a prestigious conservatory in Finland) yet somehow could never get the metal out of their veins. They play cello,….yes, CELLO> They started out doing only Metallica covers, did I mention it’s all on cello?. They then expanded to Sepultura, faith no more, etc, and then began to do their own originals. Most of those who know them know them for their Metallica covers which have included everything from “Enter sandman”, to “Nothing else matters”, “One” and so on. SO they played in my studio for most of the day Friday and I could not believe the sounds that these guys were getting out of a bunch of cellos. Then I went to see them that night at Nokia, and if you replaced the cellos with guitars, you would be watching a textbook metal band. Watch this as they rip through “seek and Destroy”. The night i saw them they managed to recreate the guitar solo almost verbatim, ON CELLO!!!. There are many versions of the song floating around, I picked this one from Mexico City because the audio seemed the best. They bang their heads like any other metal band, this is seriously one of the strangest, weirdest, yet most amazing things I have ever seen.

 

 That is all, End Transmission!

 

My Lunchbox

Metal, Metal, Metal…….

I probably should have written this blog this morning, but to be honest I was far too hung over!

I went to see Maiden at MSG on Sunday night.  The gig was outstanding, the same set as they played in March in Jersey, but the stage show was much bigger.  A lot of pyro and a bigger mummy Eddie who appeared during Iron Maiden.

When Bruce was in K-Rock on Friday were talking of how this tour in terms of ticket sales has put Maiden on a par with The Stones and U2.  The band’s performance is also comparable, not only with those aforementioned superstars, but also with today’s metal outfits half Maiden’s age.  I love the likes of Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium, but they could still learn a thing or two from checking out Maiden.  Something Trivium actually mentioned when I ran into them post show.

There was an unoffical after party in a bar where Trivium and Maiden were hanging out.  At one point at about 2am Trivium decided it would be good if the bar played their new album.  Loudly.  This is a place which often has quiet Jazz bands performing in the corner, while diners quietly enjoy the French cuisine available.  So this was hardly like Axl playing Chinese Democracy in a Vegas strip club, but then I hate predictability.

So let me tell you, what I heard was great!  There is some shredding stuff on this CD.  And there’s a lot more screaming.  Matt Heafy sings too, and there are moments where the full throttle nature lets up, but if you thought The Crusade missed some of the ferocity of Ascendancy, it’s back on this new album.  Only the song writing and musicianship is above and beyond anything the band have done so far.  And while Trivium still proudly wear their influence on their sleeves (or their albums), what I heard will silence critics who considered The Crusade to be a Metallica facsimile.

I also heard a great cover of Iron Maiden’s ‘Iron Maiden.’  They nailed that classic.  It’s not a part of their new album, but will  be available on a Maiden tribute CD that you’ll be able to get free with Kerrang magazine in about three weeks time.  So look out for it!

Madonna

So I didn’t think I’d be writing about Madonna on my K-rock blog, but check this out!

She did a gig at the weekend in Maidstone. That’s in Kent, in the UK, you don’t ever need to go. In fact to get there Madonna was flown in by hellicopter, even though her London house is only around 30 miles away. Believe me, if you had to play in Maidstone, you’d do the same, just to know you could exit quickly after the show to get the hell out of Kent.

Anyway, check out this footage of her rocking some Pantera on the guitar! It’s about 6 mins in if you wanna skip the rest……..

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=96873

Of course none of the UK press have picked up on this. They just made a big thing out of the fact there was live TV coverage and apparently Madonna told the director there were to be no close ups if she started to sweat! But then most people in the UK have no idea who Pantera are, let alone would recognise a random riff in the middle of a Madonna show. Just another reason on my ever expanding list as to why America is much better!