Here’s something that I imagine nobody asked for, and I imagine not many people are interested to listen to, but here we have it anyway; ‘Plays Metallica by Four Cellos’ by Apocalyptica. An album of Metallica covers played by, well… four cello players.

I give them kudos for originality, I mean, surely there’s not much else out there like this, and in their world of classical instruments, this might make them stand out quite a bit (it sure must have, because they’d go on to become a legit metal band), but overall, this is just kind of boring to listen to. I don’t care much for cellos, although a full-blown orchestra covering Metallica would have been more exciting. But cellos? No thanks.

Still, it makes an interesting novelty listen I guess. But after one or two plays the novelty wears thin. Why would anyone want to listen to this over the actual Metallica versions? Perhaps classical music fans that want to dabble in something different than the usual Bach or Beethoven? Who knows?

The end result, however, is that it put them on the map, and now they’re in a successful recording and touring band, and I’m not. So maybe I need to take up the cello instead!

Eight albums into their career, and Iced Earth’s output was proving to be very hit-or-miss with me. Sure, they’d released some absolute masterpieces, such as their self-titled debut, its follow-up ‘Night of the Stormrider’ and 1998’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, but they’d also put out some very sub-par stinkers, such as ‘The Dark Saga’ and ‘Horror Show’. And so, with their ninth studio album, 2003’s ‘The Glorious Burden’, the rollercoaster ride continues, as the American power metal quintet once again are on top form.

Most notable here is the addition of new vocalist ‘The Ripper’ Tim Owens. Recently ousted from Judas Priest, this was a huge score for Iced Earth after the departure of long-time singer Matt Barlow. Owens’ powerful voice is not only a great fit for the group without copying his predecessor, but it sounds like it sparked a few creative juices for band leader Jon Schaffer, who was probably as motivated by the new recruit as he was by his passion of the albums theme; military history.

Musically, this is classic Iced Earth and very typical power metal; lots of fast guitars and harmonies, galloping bass lines and rich orchestrations. But the song-writing is solid and very inspired, and Tim Owens’ vocals are absolutely perfect for this band, replacing Barlow with ease and really giving this album an identity of its own.

With highlights including ‘Declaration Day’, ‘The Reckoning (Don’t Tread On Me)’, ‘Greenface’, ‘Attila’ and the epic three-part ‘Gettysburg (1863)’, this is a banger of an album that furthers Iced Earth’s erratic discography, but shows that when the right pieces fall into place, this band rocks seriously hard.

Ah… the song that basically kicked off the whole Metallica/Napster ordeal waaaaaaaay back in the year 2000 (if you don’t know about it, look it up!). After years of alternative rocking and symphony collaborations, this was an early sign of Metallica slowly turning a slightly harder corner with their music again. Sure, it’s still hard rock, but it just felt like it was upgrading for the new millennium.

Anyway, nothing came of it, as Metallica ended up becoming the most hated band in the world for a while, lost their bass player, almost split up… etc. etc. It’s been documented a million times over. No need for it now.

But this song? Yeah, this rocks! Had Metallica followed suite with this, rather than gone in the direction their careers went, things could have been totally different (not that their careers faltered in any way!). Great song! Totally naff single, mind you. It’s only the one song, so it’s totally pointless now. Unless, like me, you need to own everything.

What’s interesting about this live EP is that it was recorded in “The Basement”, a small, indoor music venue which is about as far away as you can get from the stadiums that Metallica are used to. Released in 2010 and only available in independent record shops and on the bands website, it’s not the easiest CD to get hold of, especially in the UK, but I did it, and I spent upwards of £25 to get it (including postage).

But really, why bother?

Answer: because I’m a fan who has to own everything.

And that, is pretty much the only reason anyone would have for having this in physical format. It’s not a terrible release, and the more intimate setting actually makes for a more chilled out vibe. But it’s just so overdone. We’ve heard live versions of these songs so many times by now, that this EP, especially for the money spent, is just so pointless unless you’re a super fan like me. Even more is that the band had put out two similar live EP’s that same year, exclusive to Australia, which, you guessed it, I had to own.

Still, it’s got a handful of the classics… ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Harvester of Sorrow’, ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and ‘Seek and Destroy’… same old, same old. Decent enough sound quality and all that… but it’s just such a pointless EP unless you’re a diehard fan who needs to own everything.

It’s the summer of 2001 and nu metal is at its absolute peak. Thanks to Kerrang TV, which had debuted in the UK a few months prior, there was an absolute abundance of bands soaking up the airwaves with hit after hit. Most of these bands wouldn’t be around for more than another year or two, but every now and then a group would come out with a bit more hype around it than others, which would see them survive a bit longer than most.

Similarly, out of nowhere, came ‘Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja’, by Welsh rockers Lostprophets.

With its punchy yet melodic guitar riffs, powerful vocals and an apparent knack for a catchy hook, this band immediately had their foot in the door and garnered a strong fanbase. Follow-up single ‘The Fake Sound of Progress’ displayed a similar level of songwriting abilities, and it wasn’t long before Lostprophets (and that’s “lostprophets”… one word only), were on the rise above the flailing nu metal genre.

Of course, then their album came out, and it became a bit more obvious that, while the band certainly had a lot of talent and potential, we’d already heard the best two songs that they’d written.

The rest of ‘The Fake Sound of Progress’ is a bit hit-or-miss. There are some good songs on here that make the album worth a listen, in particular ‘’Five is a Four Letter Word’ (lame song title, though), ‘For Sure’, ‘Awkward’, and especially ‘A Thousand Apologies’, but there’s also loads of filler material that date this album squarely in 2001 where it belongs amidst the countless other bands that never made it past 2003.

In short, ‘The Fake Sound…’ is a typical nu metal album of its time. Some would argue its punk, hardcore and emo sensibilities, but ultimately I hear a 2001 nu metal album. There are some good songs that make it worth a listen, but it’s not an album I intend to come back to very often.