“En Route To Mayhem,” the new music video from Finland’s multi-Platinum cello-rock band Apocalyptica, transports the viewer to a fantastical post-humanity future.
This imaginary world is barren, dusty, and littered with broken pieces of things once considered essential to humankind: bits of plastic, a teddy bear, crumbling structures, cell phones and computers, bleached bones, and long-forgotten musical instruments. The setting is devoid of mankind, but brimming with the hope of new life; and then one day, thunder, lightning, and one drop at a time, it begins to rain, and Mother Nature steps in.
Said Apocalyptica’s Eicca Toppinen, “’En Route To Mayhem” is a journey of hedonic needs growing into greed and aggression, driving into inner mayhem and ending without satisfaction. This video underlines the fact that however we think we are in control by destroying things and life around us, life itself will take over in the end, always. We are not in control of the bigger picture, and we should be aware of it and raise our respect to life around us.”
Produced by Apocalyptica, mixed by Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lana Del Rey, Metallica and Black Sabbath), and recorded at Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki, Cell-0 sees the band soaring into ethereal space on “Ashes Of The Modern World,” while diving head-first into aggressive thrash ‘cello-riffery’ during “En Route To Mayhem.” Rather than put strategic attention on aspects like writing singles, the band approached Cell-0 as a fully-formed piece of art, connecting the right details and hues with the energy of being a real cello-metal band.
By pushing themselves to find other places and levels in their music, Apocalyptica opened up to some seemingly unorthodox methods and emotions while traveling through that creative process. Said Eicca Toppinen, “These new songs have so many layers and are so complex, and it’s not always easy to point exactly what they are about. But I think that’s also the beauty of instrumental music, that the listener always can feel free to experience the same songs in very, very different ways. It’s also one reason why we don’t want to explain the songs before they’re experienced.”
The “En Route To Mayhem” video is in support of Apocalyptica’s upcoming album, Cell-0, due out January 10, 2020 (Silver Lining Music). Produced by Apocalyptica – cellists Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, and Paavo Lötjönen, and drummer Mikko Sirén – mixed by Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lana Del Rey, Metallica and Black Sabbath), and recorded at Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki, the recording of Cell-0 followed a four-year break between albums that gave the band a fresh perspective and affected the way they approached the new music. Cell-0 is the quartet’s first instrumental album in 17 years and found the musicians challenging themselves to discover new flavors and colours in their respective instruments.
