APOCALYPTICA have released "Upperhand", a song that started life as the instrumental main theme of "Control Resonant" and then outgrew the job.
Remedy Entertainment's sequel to "Control" launches digitally today, September 24, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Petri Alanko scored the game; APOCALYPTICA wrote the music for its opening sequence. That piece is where "Upperhand" comes from, and the Finns have since pulled it into a full song with vocals from Katrine Stenbekk of the Norwegian alternative folk band KALANDRA.
"The first version of 'Upperhand' was written as intro music for the game's opening sequence," says founder Eicca Toppinen. "It reflects the uneasy emotions of the main character in transition to the unknown. I wanted to expand it into a full song with lyrics, and we were so lucky to get Katrine from KALANDRA with her unique voice to carry this where it was supposed to go."
The result sits where APOCALYPTICA have always been most comfortable — somewhere between a film score and a metal song, with nothing apologising for either half. Toppinen frames the brief as a puzzle rather than a commission: "This song combines multiple special qualities of APOCALYPTICA, and getting those qualities to serve the world of 'Control' was a challenging but exciting and rewarding journey."
The game is worth a sentence on its own terms. "Control Resonant" is set in a reality-bending New York and follows Dylan Faden as he takes on the Aberrant using paranatural powers — a world of institutional dread and moving architecture that a band of four cellists is arguably better equipped to soundtrack than a guitar band would be. Remedy develops and publishes, with Annapurna Pictures co-financing and co-producing.
APOCALYPTICA have been doing unlikely things with cellos since 1993, when classically trained players at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy started arranging METALLICA songs for four of them. "Plays Metallica By Four Cellos" came out in 1996 and moved fast enough that they were opening for METALLICA within months. Nine albums and more than six million records later they have their own songwriting identity, a long list of collaborators — Ville Valo, Corey Taylor, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, Dave Lombardo — and a relationship with METALLICA that turned from influence into friendship. "Plays Metallica, Vol. 2", their most recent album, closed that loop with guest turns from Robert Trujillo and James Hetfield.