S&M

Campest Metallica LP? Closer to Broadway than Symphonic Metal, I love the band but there's zero here which is superior to the source - I'd rate Lulu over this. Interesting as a pre-poptimism moment where this collab was deemed necessary to be "serious"

This is an interesting idea, but it is scarcely more than the sum of its parts. It’s Metallica with an orchestra. It’s also over two hours long. Minus one star for the length. Too long and barely any of the songs amaze me enough to go back to these over the studio versions. The version of For Whom The Bell Tolls is my favorite song here.

jebemu mater. album uživo od metalike koji traje više od dva sata (!!!) stvarno nije nešto za ovakav popis. pogotovo kad su na njemu tri njihova studijska albuma. zašto?

Way to make “Master of Puppets” sound like a Christmas carol. I can see why Newstead quit after this. It’s worse than I remembered it. Some of the weaker tracks are actually enhanced by the symphonic elements but that doesn’t make up for the Disneyfication of their classic tunes. “One” is especially an abomination. If you want symphonically enhanced metal, go listen to Ihsahn’s last record.

Metallica are already two albums deep into their buttrock era when this came out, so they have a well of mid tempo bloated ballad songs to further bloat with orchestral arrangements where the extra 100 instruments don't slow them down too much. The songs that are meant to thrash really suffer from the bloat though, the heavy layers of extra instrumentation don't add anything extra to the raw power and energy of thrash metal. The best songs are the slower ballads from the early era that already have a bit of that metal neo-classical grandiosity to them or the 90s radio hits that benefit from throwing more instruments at just ok hooks and kirk Hammett's wah wah pedal. An orchestra can't chug, and can hardly riff, but sure can crescendo. Is this the most pompous dumb guy album ever? Makes sense that this is only a couple years before the hilariousness documented in Some Kind of Monster...

It took me a little while to warm up to this.. but jeez, this album is FULLY bad ass. There's a few awkward moments where the backing orchestra feels slightly at odds with the music and doesn't quite gel right, but the majority works really well. At it's best it's an absolute beast, with a full on assault of the senses in the most dramatic and grandiose way.

These guys are so good as a live band. They're just incredibly tight as a unit, and like all the best live bands they can extend their songs into longer jams and moments to create something new and magical.

The moments where extended guitar interludes meld with the orchestra were very much my thing. I love it when artists go all out and chuck lots at you. Some songs are spectacular, including 'One' which is just gnarly as fuck once it kicks off. \m/

There are small quibbles and it maaay be a bit much in one sitting... but I really appreciate that this is a live album that offers something completely different to the studio albums. And it's executed really really well.

Has pretty much all nice Metallica songs. Sounds pretty good live.

I wasn’t expecting to like this just because post-eighties Metallica is objectively average or bad depending on the album, and I’m not far off in my pre-assessment. The first issue I have is that the symphonic elements merely detract from the innate heaviness of Metallica because the band was never intended to be symphonic in nature. In consequence, the music doesn’t mesh at all. My second issue is the choice of this album as the representative of symphonic metal on this list. While there are metal acts whose entire identity folds in symphonic foundations perfectly (think Emperor or Fleshgod Apocalypse), Metallica is not one of those acts. If this album is on the list because the authors thought orchestral elements + metal sounded cool, then why this album out of the hundreds of symphonic metal albums? It makes no sense. My third big complaint is that this bloated, questionable album made this list, but the incredible Ride the Lightning didn’t (although this album does have tracks from that album). My final issue is that the whole thing is just too damn long. On the plus side, there are still some great moments from the band’s early discography.

2.5/5.0: Mixed

i really enjoy metallica and i really enjoy a good symphony orchestra. while a few songs feel like a regular metallica live show with the symphony tacked on as an afterthought, most of the songs do a job of blending the two. some of the song choices were odd considering that there were some classics that were omitted. as live albums go, sounds great, and the symponic arrangements add interesting variations to the classics, but at the end of the day, i'd take the studio versions of most of these songs over the live ones. overall, its a bold and unique album but length and the live format make it though to sit through in one stretch.

When I read what this album is about, I thought it might be quite interesting. The first two minutes were so. But more than 2 hours followed and it became more and more exhausting and annoying. 2/5

The Good: Who doesn’t like a little spanking???
The Bad: The spanking is done using Lars’s drumsticks…
The Ugly: Having to listen to Mr Hettfield’s “Yeah-Yeah” all the time…

For fuck’s sake, really?
One thing is having to listen to a live album, another thing is having to endure a symphonic backing band to a metal(lica) soundtrack… Where half the time you aren’t even able to hear all instruments clearly.

I hope the gents enjoyed their cultural blowjob, and that the crowd felt like their IQ went up 2 points… me, I’ve seen Metallica live more then any other band/artist, and I can’t recall it sounding so “forced”.

So, fuck it… 2*
Not because I don’t like the songs, nor the band, nor do I have an issue with classical music, it’s just that I will not be wasting another 2 hours of my lifetime listening to this album ever again…

2*

I've always loved this record! The way all of these songs are elevated by the orchestra is amazing. It is an experience, and it is beautifully done.

The first time I listened to a Metalica album I thought it was okay. The second album I thought it was passable. Then I listened to this one. Now I might be a superfan.

I've given out about live albums being in this book before, but I think I can give this one a pass since it's a unique concept. What I can't give a pass though, is the number of terrible songs on here. Metallica really did take a nose dive in quality after the Black Album. I wish it was mixed a bit better as well, sometimes you can barely hear the orchestra over the band.

Some of the older songs are great, maybe even improved by the orchestra. Master of Puppets gave me chills when the crowd started singing along. The last 4 songs on the second disc are great too. Overall a mixed bag, but interesting enough in places.

A terrible and gimmicky attempt to appear relevant at a time when this band had become a hollowed out shell of what it once was.

Pretty enjoyable, but also very long.

Not a metal fan. The symphony helps, mellows things out a bit. In other words, I liked this better than other Metallica albums I’ve listened to, because it sounds slightly less like Metallica.

This is 100% an album that deserves to be on this list. For me, however, it’s just a bit uneven. There are songs where the symphony absolutely enhances the song, then there are songs where it just sounds like there’s an orchestra kind of playing along. When it works, holy shit, it’s awesome. When it doesn’t, it’s just a little, I don’t know, boring? Underwhelming? Also, I’ve never been to a normal Metallica concert, but does James Hetfeld always bail out of the high notes? His voice was a bit monotone at times. Last complaint: it’s too damned long.

Ok, it sounds like I hated this, but that’s not quite the case. I’m going to give it 3 stars, and I wish I could give it 3.5, because it really is a very cool concept and a very cool album. There were a couple of times I got chills - and although I beey much love the Black album, I wouldn’t really call myself a Metallica fan.

Anyway, damn good album, if flawed, and definitely one to hear before you die.

I'm not much of a fan of Metallica anyway but I was surprised at how bad this sounds. The bland orchestration fight it out with the guitars for the mids and they wind up weakening each other. A huge case of more is less.

An astonishingly good live album, smashing together the metal and the symphony, perhaps a little too good as each note is perfect... I've seen bands become a little loose with playing songs for the 1000th time but everything is studio quality here. Its almost the uncanny valley of live albums.

Anyways, songs are great, "No Leaf Clover", "Hero Of The Day", and "Nothing Else Matters" are the highlight for me