A beat apart

4am on Dec 14. I am watching Apocalyptica videos on Stage6. There is this concert video with all these metalheads headbanging to Apocalyptica covering Metallica's Enter Sandman. For all of you who don't know, apocalyptica is a band of Cello players who are famous for their versions of famous heavy metal songs on Cello, especially Metallica songs. The songs are great if you hear them.

Anyway, when I was watching the video, I thought, "Look at these guys. Who would have thought that playing the cello would be cool?" And seriously, if you look at those guys, you will at first wonder why they have Cellos instead of those sleek V-shaped guitars in their hands? They got long hair. They are shirtless. They love Metallica. Typical metal band description? But then, they play cellos. I really wonder what went into their mind when they decided to learn how to play that and then cover metal songs. As if looking like a metal dude but playing a cello wasn't enough, they decide to cover Metallica songs on cello. How ingenious is that? I really respect these guys for challenging the whole "Metal = heavy guitars and vocals" idea.

The cello. An instrument I never thought could be termed as cool. It was always a nerdy instrument. Now, for a metal band, it's cool. How weird is that? I know bands like PArikrama use a violin lead in their songs, but then that's not really metal. Metallica did it's S&M concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Deep Purple had a show with an orchestra. So many bands played with orchestras. But the orchestra was just there as an accompaniment. I really respect Apocalyptica for what they are doing. I don't know of any other bands that do similar stuff. Would be glad to try them out if I find any. Let's see.

The Santoor is the only classical instrument that I love. It's so sweet. I want to see a band that plays with the Santoor. Rahul Sharma has done a good job with the Santoor and Techno beats. But I want to see other types of music using it. Hope someone experiments with that type of music as well.

If anyone knows any bands that use such instruments, please let me know. I would like to try them out. :-)