Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Finnish symphonic metal outfit Apocalyptica have achieved their first round of gold and platinum records in the USA, as per theprp. On December 01st, the band’s 2007 album “Worlds Collide” officially went gold. “I Don’t Care“, the third and last track to be released on that record, has newly gone 2x platinum, with its initial gold and platinum certifications being issued in tandem with that multi-platinum status reveal. Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace is featured in that song. “Not Strong Enough” from Apocalyptica‘s seventh studio album, “7th Symphony,” has also recently received the gold certification. Brent Smith, the frontman of Shinedown, appears on that tune, which was also the record’s third and last hit.
In the US, a platinum album or single is worth 1,000,000 copies, whereas a gold record is worth 500,000 copies. Outside of traditional physical/digital sales, the certifications consider in digital streams/downloads with 10 permanent track downloads counting as 1 unit and 1500 on-demand audio/video streams from a particular album also counted as as a unit. 150 streams of a song also correspond to a track-equivalent unit.
In the lore of heavy metal only a handful of artists can claim to have changed history, and even fewer can say they’ve done so twice. Enter Apocalyptica and one of metal’s greatest, most unlikely success stories. By any account it’s the stuff of legend, and it’s about to come full circle.
Cast your mind back thirty years. The giants of the 70s and 80s still ruled the scene, but a generation of up-and-coming artists were pushing hard on the boundaries of heavy music, and then Apocalyptica came along and smashed them down with cello case.
Formed in 1993 at the world-renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, Apocalyptica began life as a loving, lo-fi nod to Metallica from four classically-trained musicians with no greater ambition than to explore their favourite band’s music with their chosen instrument. As founding band leader Eicca Toppinnen explains, the project would take on a life of its own when they finally released “Plays Metallica By Four Cellos” in 1996. More than a debut, it was a monster in waiting.
