Talk To Me – Apocalyptica (feat. Lzzy Hale)

Last year Apocalyptica and Lzzy Hale used their down time to realize a long talked about collaboration. The two bands paths had crossed many times in the past on the live circuit. Halestorm’s Lzzy and Apocalyptica’s Eicca have been firm friends for years. They talked about doing this for a long time before laying down Talk To Me. Not that I believe Lzzy had any down time. If you look at her output since the start of the end times she’s put new music out with a different artist every couple of months. She’s bee straddling genres, reinventing Christmas songs with Dee Snider, going country with Cory Marks, covering Queen, The Who and John Farnham with her own band, as a guest vocalist and as part of a charity single ensemble a-la Band-Aid with proceeds going to mental health charity Mind.

Now if you check out the lyric on this track there’s a “Don’t” missing from that title. Talk To Me is a lyric all about “Don’t Talk To Me”. The songs a ‘my baby done me wrong’ song. Not a lament. It’s angry. It’s not a Dear John letter, it’s a ‘who the fuck do you think you are-ogram’. Lzzy is telling you she doesn’t want to hear your excuses, don’t talk to me about your version of it. I heard what happened.

“Well I heard you went out and had a good time boy and you found a little fun”

If you messed up on a topic like this the handle is coming off when you ear phrases like…

“I had to hear it second hand, why can’t you tell me to my face”

I’m not the philandering kind, but I’ve taken a bollocking before. Shutting up when you know whatever you say could only make things worse is the hardest part of being on the receiving end of a coating. I’ve been forgetful. I’ve put my foot in it. And there have been genuine differences of opinion that have resulted in being told in no uncertain terms the best course of action is to not say anything else. When you’re desperate to try and explain it’s the most difficult thing in the world. Communication is mankind’s greatest achievement. By sharing thoughts and ideas we’ve reached the stars, innovated diseases into nonexistence and created towering works of beauty. If I could just explain that it wasn’t how you think it was and that nothing that transpired here was done from a place of ignorance or intolerance… But in the heat of the moment.

“Shut up sit down, I’ve had enough of you messing around Boy”.

I’m not throwing anyone under the bus here. We’ve all been in rows that could have been avoided with a little consideration of more than one perspective. And once the blue touch paper is lit. Sometimes you just have to stand clear and let it go off. The fact Hale’s lyrics are over strings and huge drums rather than power chords and riffs this time adds something quite powerful.

Apocalyptica made their name doing bows on strings classical make overs of heavy rock tracks. Often instrumentally or in later life with a guest star vocalist. To hear them doing original material is a bit of a revelation too. The Finnish Classical Metallica Tribute show evolved from a Euro bargain S&M to something that could draw the heavy metal drummers Heavy Metal drummer Dave Lombardo in on the kit for a spot as far back as 2003. Since then their guest list has featured H.I.M’s Ville Valo, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Till from Rammstein doing a stint as David Bowie, Gojira, Bullet For My Valentine and the president of Bush Gavin Rossdale. Now they’ve teamed up with the head of Halestorm they’ve made a song that could be a legitimate rock anthem for the 2020’s. If I could just stop banging on about it that is. On this topic Lzzy threatens…

“You’ll get nothing but silence”

That really would be the biggest shame of it all.

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