Apocalyptica performs at Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. Onome Uyovbievbo/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — When Apocalyptica formed in 1993 in Helsinki, Finland, it was as a Metallica cover band. Its first album was Apocalyptica Plays Metallica by Four Cellos. Its second also had some Metallica covers as well as songs by other metal bands.

But its next seven albums focused primarily on original cello-based heavy metal.

That history lesson is important because in 2024, the band released Apocalyptica Plays Metallica, Vol. 2, and its concert at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater on Thursday was a full-blown Metallica cover show.

Apocalyptica performs at Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025.

While its original songs are fantastic, and the band has been successful for 26 years, those Metallica covers are special. The show reflected that, shining as both a joyful celebration of the Bay Area thrash band and how far the three cellists have come in their craft in two and a half decades.

After Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso and Paavo Lötjönen took the stage with a drummer to a recording of “The Ecstasy of Gold,” famously Metallica’s walk-up music, the band launched right into “Ride the Lightning” and “Enter Sandman.” Metallica doesn’t come out of the gate that hot, as those are a pair of songs hard to follow, but Apocalyptica managed to keep ramping up the energy from there.

Toppinen encouraged the crowd to sing along to the next song, “Creeping Death.” The covers are purely instrumental, with Kivilaakso’s cello usually playing the vocal melody, but once given permission, the crowd sang along to every word. Attendees kept it up through “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

The show didn’t slow down in the slightest until “The Call of Ktulu,” which Toppinen explained was built around the late Cliff Burton’s original bass track and dedicated in his honor. The band flexed its classical string skills with a genuinely moving, almost wistful version of the song.

Unfortunately, it followed it up with “St. Anger,” the title track from Metallica’s least-liked album. Afterward, the band insisted the album should be reevaluated and that it’s really great, though while doing so, the members conceded it’s “challenging” and that “the sound is not very welcoming.” The cover was certainly better than the original, though there’s only so much that could be done.

From there came the strongest run of the show. “The Four Horsemen,” “Blackened” and “Master of Puppets” was pure heavy metal in the best way. Some of the riffs shred harder on cello than guitar, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. It’s a surprisingly great instrument for speed metal wielded by three experts at the combination.

Even more impressive was “Nothing Else Matters” done as a pure (non-metal) symphonic arrangement. A testament to both Metallica’s songwriting and Apocalyptica’s talent, there was real emotional power to the performance. Battle-vest-wearing metalheads were wiping tears from their eyes by the end.

Apocalyptica then reminded attendees what it was there for by closing out with “Seek and Destroy,” and as an encore, combining the symphonic with the metal for an incredible version of “One.” The latter was delivered with a recording of James Hetfield performing a spoken-word version of the lyrics.

Nita Strauss performs at Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on Feb. 27 2025.

Opening the night was guitarist Nita Strauss and her band. Probably best-known as a member of Alice Cooper’s and Demi Lovato’s bands, her solo work was on display here, showcasing her virtuosic talent on the guitar. The whole set was good old-fashioned, ear-splitting heavy metal bliss, and reinforced that Nita Strauss is one of the best in the business.

The first half of her set was purely instrumental, with highlights including “Mariana Trench,” from her first solo album, and “Summer Storm” from her latest, The Call of the Void. Later she brought out singer Kasey Karlsen of Deadlands, who’s moonlighting as Strauss’ touring vocalist. While the focus rightfully remained on Strauss’ guitar, Karlsen added a welcome layer to the music by filling in for the vocalists on the album versions. “The Wolf You Feed” was a highlight but “Victorious” truly knocked it out of the park.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.