Apocalyptica - Enter Sandman
I blame the Kronos Quartet. After their savage rendition of Purple Haze, suddenly it became perfectly okay for string quartets to cover rock classics. Maybe I'm overly cautious about these sort of things, but it is with good reason. I grew up in a household with a Boston Pops Orchestra album tucked inside the radiogram; the Boston Pops, the Tijuana Brass and precious little else. Those are chilling memories.

Apocalyptica were originally a cello quartet, formed as a Metallica cover band, and are even dodgier than you might think. Full-on rock posturing is the order of the day here. It's endearingly daft stuff, and carries on a long and proud tradition of dancing on the grave of music. You'll wince, even as you admire the rasping drone of the strings. Here's the first track from their debut album, Apocalyptica Plays Metallica by Four Cellos.

Apocalyptica - Enter Sandman
(alternate download)