EICCA TOPPINEN Confirms APOCALYPTICA Has Started Work On New Album: 'We're Getting Back At It', He Says

In a new interview with Hollie Nicole of Teaser Talk, Eicca Toppinen of Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA spoke about the band's plans to release new music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We recorded, we did two features during the winter now in Europe, two songs. And also we've been working on two songs in the world of games. We started to work towards the next album, which will be somewhere in the future, but along the way we're gonna release interesting individual songs and projects.

"It's been a long time since we made our last release — almost two years — and it's probably the longest break we have had almost ever, not releasing new music," he noted. "But now we're getting back at it, so stay tuned."

Asked how APOCALYPTICA goes about choosing which guest collaborators to work with on the band's singles and albums, Eicca said: "We want to find something, kind of a space where we both can cross our own boundaries. We can do something that we don't typically do. Or find a way of doing things that it's not just business as usual. So, I think that's the beauty of it. So we go into territories where we don't know exactly what's gonna happen and make ourselves comfortable in a way there.

"Every collaboration, in any field, should be that it's all about the trust and creating the safe space where everybody has a feeling that you can make an impact without having to make an impact," he explained. "That's why it's important that the egos are left always outside. Because if it's a battle of egos, who does what, it's not gonna turn out great."

APOCALYPTICA has spent the last couple of years touring in support of 2024's "Apocalyptica Plays Metallica, Vol. 2", the sequel to the Finnish band's legendary debut record.

"Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2" continued the journey that began in 1996 when cellists from Helsinki's world-renowned Sibelius Academy played symphonic tribute to METALLICA. The "One" single saw METALLICA frontman James Hetfield joining proceedings for a soul-stirring, spoken word of those inimitable, now-immortal lyrics.

The album's lead single was "The Four Horsemen", a song that originally appeared on METALLICA's 1983 debut "Kill 'Em All". It features a guest appearance by METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo.

At last year's Download festival at Leicestershire, United Kingdom's Donington Park, APOCALYPTICA lead cellist Perttu Kivilaakso was asked by Daniel Steer of Mike James Rock Show if there are any musicians left on his "wish list" for possible collaborators on the band's future recordings. He responded: "We have worked with an incredible amount of amazing artists. And James Hetfield [who guested on APOCALYPTICA's cover of METALLICA's 'One' from 'Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2'], of course, has probably been the top of the list, kind of the dream that it would be unbelievable if he someday does something for us. But, of course, there are still so many fascinating artists. For example, I think that the charisma and incredible person of Nick Cave, for example, could be something really cool to make a dark, gloomy thing with the cello and his expression. Or whomever, like Pink or somebody with a really, really great attitude.

"The lovely thing about APOCALYPTICA is that we are very versatile with our music, that it could go from very beautiful classical elements to brutal thrash metal," he explained. "And even still I would love to work more with the greatest growers — Alissa White-Gluz [ex-ARCH ENEMY] or whomever — great artists there are. So the good thing is that the ideas never kind of end. You only end up having the problem with too many ideas and somebody in a business saying that, 'Not all is possible, guys. Come on.'"

Kivilaakso went on to say that he and his APOCALYPTICA bandmates are grateful to still have a global audience with their unique fusion of classical cello music with hard metal elements. "So far, that has been really working," he said. "And I just somehow started to appreciate more and more the fact that we still can do this for a living and entertain people around the world. And it makes us feel, I guess, blessed in that sense. And that gives you the sparkle to still continue and try to figure out more cool things."

Photo credit: Riki Murto