One of the most captivating heavy metal bands in the world has to be Finns Apocalyptica. The unique symphonic outfit exploded onto the scene back in 1996 with their Plays Metallica By Four Cellos album. Now the band are returning to Australia to play the album in full at some of Australia’s most iconic classical music venues – Sydney’s Opera House and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall. To find out what fans can expect from the tour HEAVY Mag sat down and had a chat with Apocalyptica’s Paavo Lotjonen.
“Australia has always treated us well,” he says as relaxes away from the current tour on his very own island. “We have wonderful memories of your country so we are expecting good shows. This time it has been a bit tricky to arrange these shows because in Sydney we play at The Opera House and we had already tried to play their earlier but their orchestra had the rights to the place and we needed to cancel the show before it was on sale. But this time their time there is over so it is good to be able to come there.”
“Of course it is big to play there,” Lotjonen says when I ask what is like to be able to play at such an iconic landmark like The Sydney Opera House. “All of classical friends have all played there and they say it is a good place to play and it is a cultural landmark of the world so it is a privilege to be able to play there. We are normally too relaxed going on the stage so a little bit of excitement always helps. We’ve played 1800 shows all up and already on this tour we have played…um… too many shows,” he adds with a laugh.
You can hear our full interview with Apocalyptica on Spotify. All the tour dates can be found on this page.
