Concert Review: Naked Crunch

Apocalyptica celebrate 20 years of Metallica covers--on cellos. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The gentlemen of Apocalyptica: (l.r.) Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaasko, Paavo Lötjönen and Antero Manninen
in their video for "Battery." Image © 2017 Apocalyptica.

Twenty years ago, I was in the Record Factory in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon. The clerk, Fred showed me something "new and weird" that had just come in. It was by a band called Apocalyptica and was titled Plays Metallica for Four Cellos. Skeptical, I flipped it over. And that was when I recognized Eicca Toppinen, the Finnish cellist who is the band's leader and who I had met when he was playing in New York with the new music ensemble Avanti! the year before. Anyway, I bought it.

No Dummy

More Details on Metallica/Lou Reed Collaboration

Metallica and Lou Reed have announced full details and packaging information for Lulu the artists' first collaborative effort.

The album, slated for an Oct. 31 release (Nov. 1 the rest of the world) is a song cycle based on two German plays by Franz Wiedekind. The plays, Erdgeist and Die Buchse der Pandora tell the story of a sexually aggressive woman who leaves a trail of destroyed lovers and corpses as she tears through European society. The plays are fearless in their exploration of bisexuality (one of Lulu's lovers is the lesbian Countess Geschwitz) and the seamier side of life. Eventually, Lulu becomes a prostitute and is killed by a client--Jack the Ripper.

Opera lovers might be familiar with these stories, as they form the basis for another Lulu, the opera by 20th century Austrian composer Alban Berg. Lulu was unfinished at the time of Berg's death, but the three-act version (including an experimental film and the Jack the Ripper scene) has since entered the standard repertory. It was last seen at the Met in 2010.

On the surface, Metallica and Lou Reed seems an unlikely pairing. The artists met when the San Francisco-based metal band backed Mr. Reed on two songs ("White Light, White Heat" and "Sweet Jane") at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden. The collaboration began quietly but hit the press when Mr. Reed was photographed coming out of the band's Marin County headquarters.

Originally, the plan was to record some older, lesser known Lou Reed songs with Metallica's distinctive chug-and-thunder backing. But then the New York-based singer-songwriter came to the band with a different idea--setting song lyrics that he had written for a Robert Wilson production in Berlin of the Lulu plays. James Hetfield told Blabbermouth.net that he relished the opportunity to take off his lyricist hat and concentrate on the music.

Here's the final track list:

01. Brandenburg Gate (4:19)
02. The View (5:17)
03. Pumping Blood (7:24)
04. Mistress Dread (6:52)
05. Iced Honey (4:36)
06. Cheat On Me (11:26)
07. Frustration (8:33)
08. Little Dog (8:01)
09. Dragon (11:08)
10. Junior Dad (19:28)

The standard version of Lulu will be available as a 2CD set in a white DigiPak. Deluxe editions (one with poster tubes, one with a large hardbound 20-page book of photographs) will also be available for order. As with all Metallica releases, Lulu will be available on vinyl. Of course, Amazon will sell Mp3 versions of the record, and Lulu will also be available on ITunes. Lulu can also be ordered through the collaboration's official website, LouReedMetallica.Com.

All album art is by Anton Corbjin, the acclaimed photographer who has worked with Metallica since the 1994 album Load.

Click to listen to "The View", the first release from Lulu.

Concert Review: The Critic's Day Off

The Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax) at Yankee Stadium

Metallica play "Seek and Destroy" at the end of a seven-hour concert.
Photo by the author, taken from the Grandstand, Section 420, Seat 17.

Whether it's Metallica or Turandot at the Baths of Caracalla, playing music in a stadium built for football, soccer or baseball is a problematic situation at best. For the Big Four, the occasional festival bringing together '80s speed-metal bands Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, filling Yankee Stadium with the sound of white noise proved a serious technical challenge.

The bands provided speaker stacks on the empty infield, rising up toward the grandstand like siege towers on a battlefield. The audience was in the seats and on the outfield, with the stage at dead center. And the stadium security, convinced of the risks of peace-loving metalheads, made it hard for some audience members to get into the stadium to see their beloved bands.

As a result the venue was half-empty when Anthrax took the stage at 4pm. The New York-based band came on in re-branded Yankees uniforms, celebrating the venue and the declaration of "Official Anthrax Day" in the Bronx. They tore into "Fight 'Em if You Can't," the first single from their new record Worship Music. A too-short set featured two covers: "Antisocial" and Joe Jackson's "Got The Time.  Brisk punk energy boiled and mosh pits started as Scott Ian and Frank Bello did their best to mask the cracks in singer Joey Belladonna's voice. However the singer found his groove with "Indians" and the crowd led the way in a strong "I Am The Law."

Megadeth came on next, playing with their trademark precision, despite singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine's recent recovery from neck surgery. Chris Broderick's laser-like guitar solo over "Hanger 18" set the tone early. "A Tout le Monde" got the stadium singing, and "Sweating Bullets" took the set to a new energy level. Band mascot Vic Rattlehead showed up, "calling his shot" Babe Ruth-style. Their set ended with "Holy Wars/The Punishment Due" with strong double riffs from the two guitarists.

Slayer remain one of the darkest bands in the world. Sure, other groups with lamer names play faster and sing pages out of medical textbooks, but no-one matches the California quartet for sincere observation of the evils of men. Their subject matter ranges from the insanity of war ("War Ensemble", "Mandatory Suicide") to the banality of man: "Dead Skin Mask" chronicles the depradations of serial killer Ed Gein with a guitar line that sounds like a sobbing child.

Fittingly, the band played in total darkness except for the stage lights: eerie and effective. With one hour to squeeze in 14 songs, some (slightly) slower tracks ("South of Heaven," "Dead Skin Mask") were sped up to fit them all in. Bassist/singer Tom Araya can't headbang anymore (he has a steel rod in his neck) but his scream was intact on the closer, "Angel of Death" (about Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.) Kerry King and guest guitarist Gary Holt (subbing for Jeff Hanneman, who is recovering from illness) led the charge with pell-mell soloing and tight riffs.

Metallica solved the problem of having to follow Slayer by breaking out their "A" material. The band tore in to "Creeping Death" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls", never letting up in a 18-song set that featured four songs each from classic records Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. The surprise: the nine-minute instrumental "Orion" as a tribute to late bassist Cliff Burton. (My eleventh show in 22 years and I've never seen them play it.) Often-grim singer James Hetfield was positively jovial, grinning as the crowd responded and cracking a (rare) onstage joke.

Spectacular visuals: fire-pots for "Fuel", cannon-shots for "One" and a criss-cross of lasers during "Blackened" cemented the band's status as hosts of the evening. The encore started with most of the "Big Four" coming back onstage to jam on the Motörhead classic "Overkill." Then Metallica finished with two more songs: the high-speed "Battery" and the crowd favorite "Seek and Destroy." As the last song played with the lights on and the crowd throwing inflatable black balloons, the message was clear: Metallica had hit one out of the park.

Pandora's Metal Box

Metallica and Lou Reed Create New Lulu.

The boys in the band: Metallica pose with Lou Reed (center)
L.R.: James Hetfield, Rob Trujillo, Reed, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett.
Photo by Anton Corbijn, © 2011 Metallica and Lou Reed from LouReedMetallica.com

New York songwriter Lou Reed has teamed with Bay area thrashers Metallica to create Lulu, the artists' first collaboration together. Reports indicate that the album, Metallica's tenth studio effort, is complete.


Based on information on the project's official website, Lulu is scheduled for an international release on Oct. 31 and an American release on Nov. 1. Song titles listed include "Junior Dad", "Mistress Dread" and "Pumping Blood". The album, completed at the band's Marin County headquarters, could be Metallica's first concept album or rock opera.

Metallica and Lou Reed first played together at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in 2008. The quartet backed up performances of "Sweet Jane" and "White Light, White Heat" as part of the marathon show at Madison Square Garden.

Based on the Franz Wiedekind plays Erdgeist and Pandora's Box, Lulu retells the story of a femme fatale who commits murder, adultery and other deadly sins as she leaves a trail of destruction . Ultimately, Lulu becomes a prostitute and meets her fate at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

The two plays inspired Alban Berg to set Lulu as his second opera in 1929. Berg died in 1935, leaving the opera unfinished. In 1976, following the death of the composer's widow Helene Berg, the third act was completed by composer Friedrich Cerha from Berg's sketches.

The band is scheduled to appear in New York on Sept. 14 at Yankee Stadium, as the headlining act in the heavy metal festival known as The Big Four. There is no word as to whether Mr. Reed, a Brooklyn native, will join them onstage again.

Watch Lou Reed perform "Sweet Jane" with Metallica.