Apocalyptica

Apocalyptica was founded in 1993 by Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, Max Lilja and Antero Manninen all from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. They are first known thanks to Metallica covers in 1996 on their album Plays Metallica By Four Cellos , but also by making their first part of their tour in Finland. With Inquisition Symphony in 1998, the musicians made covers of Pantera , Metallica or Sepultura but the album also saw the appearance of the first three compositions written by Eicca Toppinen. Antero Manninen left the band in 1999, but was replaced by Perttu Kivilaakso to record Cult , their third opus to be released in 2000, which is mainly composed of original titles. The band even allows itself a resumption of a classic song. Max Lilja left Apocalyptica in 2002 and after an appearance alongside Sepultura, in 2003 they released an entirely original album entitled Reflections with Dave Lombardo from Slayer behind the drums for five songs. The rest of the drums are played by Sami Kuoppamäki who joins the band as drummer and cellist. Two years later, Apocalyptica released an eponymous album with many guests such as Ville Valo de Him , Lauri Ylönen de The Rasmus and once again Dave Lombardo, then performed the first part of the Reise, Reise Tour de Rammstein in 2005. Their sixth album, Worlds Collide , appeared in 2007 with the participation of Corey Taylor ( Slipknot , Stone Sour ) and Till Lindemann ( Rammstein ) among others, then the band organizes a huge tour across the planet for 2008. Their latest album, 7th Symphony, was released in 2010 with the appearance of Joe Duplantier (Gojira).