S&M

The symphony aspects makes it feel quite cinematic, but the live performance/audience makes it feel out of sorts. Interesting enough to be worth a listen, but 2 hours is far too long!

I’m pretty sure this was the first live album I ever owned. I’ve listened to the studio versions of all these songs countless times so I always enjoy the different take you get of them on here. Up there with my favourite live albums ever.

Top Track - One

6:30AM on a Sunday morning is entirely too early for this nonsense, but I bet it would have been pretty epic to see live.

that's a little too much metallica maybe

I mean, it's interesting and maybe belongs on the list because of that but the originals are better. 3.28

The fact that this pairing 'works' doesn't foment in me a new appreciation for a band I don't know particularly well, or a genre of which I'm honestly suspicious. If anything, the orchestral potentialities of Metallica fortify my aversion to a music I already find to be wearyingly epic and conceptually overwrought. Lyrically, it smacks of a bad interpretation of a verse play by Goethe: 'Drain you off your sanity / Face the thing that should not be.' The instrumentation is 'big,' and I guess therefore symphonic, but Wagner gone electric (or is it the other way around?) is not my jam. For fans of the band, this is most likely a treat, and I don't know their music well enough to really judge the collaboration. As an idea - as a project - it certainly succeeds. It doesn't, however, satisfy or convert. With that, I'll go w/ middling.

I’m still not sure how I feel about live albums being in this list. Maybe ‘best of’ albums should also be included

Overall not the worst listen but equally didn’t feel like it set the world alight.

It's been a while since I heard a Metallica album after getting Master of Puppets as album 33 on my journey. I expected to get either ...And Justice for All or The Black Album next. Instead, we got a real treat today.

The idea of this live album S&M was a long time coming. Their original bassist Cliff Burton was classically trained, as such he and the rest of the group incorporated more melodic compositions into their style for those early thrash metal albums, and that fusion carried into their experimentation into more conventional heavy metal and hard rock throughout the 90s. Composer Michael Kamen, who arranged and conducted the strings in the background of "Nothing Else Matters", approached the band at the 1992 Grammy Awards with the suggestion to have them perform with an orchestra. Seven years later, that idea was fully realized when the band performed live with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Now, the idea of a rock or metal artist performing with a symphony orchestra had been kicking around for decades by the time Metallica decided to do it. Hell, one of the band's influences Deep Purple performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969. Also, this was the tail-end of the 1990s, where over in Europe the symphonic metal subgenre was kicking into high gear with acts like Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Rhapsody of Fire having put out their debuts. The idea of Metallica performing with a symphony orchestra is not a revolutionary concept. Rather, it is a celebration of the past two decades of their music, given more gravitas with the orchestration.

Every song on here is elevated with the San Francisco Symphony, adding new lines and motifs where you wouldn't have anticipated them from their original studio recordings. To highlight some of my favorite renditions, we start with a live rendition of the band's opening theme of Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad & the Ugly film before transitioning into the sweeping majesty of "The Call of Ktulu" where the swell of the strings and horns made for a grandeur statement akin to "In the Hall of the Mountain King". "Of Wolf and Man" becomes more intense and heightens the primal nature of the lyrical theming of being one with the wolf pack. The light string accompaniment on "Bleeding Me" that builds into the guitar solo complemented the internal struggle James portrayed, an arrangement that I distinctly remember my Mom calling angelic despite not usually listening to metal music. Concert staple "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is more bombastic as the strings and horns mirror James and Kirk's guitar riffs for an increased depth in the sound. "The Outlaw Torn" is the kind of song made for an orchestral accompaniment, as it's a ten-minute atmospheric song that neatly crescendoes at the end. Finally, as the encore, the intro to "Battery" is beautifully recreated with string and wind instruments before everyone kicks into high gear. I'm still finding new details to this day that I can appreciate, like how they end "Enter Sandman" in the same manner as "No Remorse".

Also adding to the experience, two original tracks were written and performed with Michael Kamen's orchestral arrangement already in mind. While "No Leaf Clover" is the popular one that still gets played live on occasion, I am more partial towards "- Human" which continues down the rabbit hole of brooding, D-tuned stompers with the likes of "Sad But True" and "Devil's Dance" to great effect.

Throughout the runtime, the band themselves maintain the sense of drive and commitment that they've brought to their live performances, with particular praise towards James's commanding vocal presence that stays as close to the intent of each track as possible, and Jason Newsted's ability to amp up the crowd such as his callout on "Of Wolf and Man". The crowd felt alive throughout the performance, committed to sing-along moments on tracks like "The Memory Remains" and "Master of Puppets".

I know the runtime can seem intimidating, but this is a Metallica concert. Two hours of performing live is not unheard of for most rock and metal acts, especially for these guys with such an extensive catalog. Also from watching the accompanying live video, I can tell they cut out a lot of live performance banter between songs from James which helped the replay value.

I loved revisiting S&M for this list. It was a full-on celebration of Metallica before they entered dark times in the early 2000s. I know they would try to recreate the magic with S&M2 over twenty years later, but the first time they did it was truly astounding.

What a 2 hour plus load of pretentious bullshit.

I've always been a fan of Metallica. Even though they can come across as a little juvenile to me now in my 40s.

Still, this album is absolutely amazing. Was groundbreaking for his time and still feels fresh and interesting. This is one I will listen to again.

Love this album, just kind of exciting to hear existing music I already like presented in a new way. Orchestra sounds great, the songs are powerful, and one of the few live albums that deserves a place with the studio albums. Neat to listen to for something different.

God this is long!!

Interesting concept to add a string orchestra to this band and songs. I liked it. It added a layer to the music I had not experienced before.

Favourite song: Master of puppets is a great song, but does it need to be 9 minutes!! I also enjoyed no leaf clover.
Least favourite: The rest of the album became much of a muchness.
Album artwork: Love the cover

October 2: not today, Metallica

October 5, 2024

Pro: It's Metallica with the S.F.O.
Con: they were still promoting Load/Reload :/
Pro: Pretty much all those cuts sound gud with orchestra
Con: realizing the song "Hero of the Day" was not even halfway through the whole concert
Pro: reading that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "One" are yet to come in the 2nd disc :)
Con: "One" is not as good as the studio version
Pro: "Bell" is pretty fantastic

I think my enjoyment of this album needs context. For one, I've never been a real heavy metal fan, with Metallica's albums generally wearing me out before they're actually over. The orchestra, while ofttimes ridiculous & over-the-top, also made me forget I'm listening to a 2-hour heavy metal album.
The other thing is that the rest of the Metallica on this list were all generated quite a while ago (last one was October 2022), so it's a bit nostalgic at this point, hearing these revamped versions of "Nothing Else Matters" and "Battery". Like no time has passed at all ;)

HL: "Master of Puppets", "Fuel", "Wherever I May Roam", "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

A little gimmicky take on a greatest hits album. I would much rather listen to the originals but I expect this would be amazing to experience live.

Første gange jeg hører hele pladen. Man kan godt mærke at symfoniorkestrets stykker er skrevet på bagkant af sangene. Det virker ikke til virkeligt at højne niveauet af sangene.
Lidt en lang plade, men med sådan et setup og så mange gode sange, så spiller man vel også bare det men kan få lov til.

Bastante decente pero... ¿dos horas y diez?

Epic

Wow man, I’ve never had this album be brought up not to be mocked. Like isn’t this universally hated? How did it end up on this list. I did not listen to it. Checked out Madter of Puppets and it sounds like shit. I like Metallica but this was a big miss for them.

The idea of rock/pop bands playing with an orchestra was certainly not new when Metallica did it but I feel like they sort of reignited interest for the concept. Especially for a band whose songs tend to have a lot of orchestration already, or at least the potential for it, like Metallica, it makes a lot of sense. A solid idea for sure and this is probably one of the better records to showcase it. Sometimes these albums can sound like just different mixes of the band rather than the complete addition of an orchestra, this one does a wonderful job of blending both elements. One thing that stands out about this album which is different than a lot of the other albums like this is that they actually wrote parts for the symphony rather than just having them double notes, chords and melodies that the band was already playing - it was a genuine addition of music in this case.

The problem with this album, other than Lars randomly beating drums to whatever song is playing in his head at the time, is that unless you're a big Metallica fan this is going to be too long. I get that it's a recording of the whole live show(s) but the casual listener will probably stop about halfway through or just listen to a handful of songs they know well already. The track list is basically a 'best of' album so I think most songs will be recognized by most people but the audience for this album was probably never meant to be widespread. All in all, it's a good record but loses points from me just because I'm not a huge Metallica fan and it was a bit of a chore to sit through the whole thing. 3/5

Oh man here we go. Ktulu feels like two songs passing each other and not actually blending. The ornamentation on Master Of Puppets just does not work. and the crowd. Lord above. Is there not going to be a sick shredding solo on a violin or are they only going to be a texture piece. Hero Of The Day is overwrought. Oh man doing this as just one big push is tough. James actually sounds really good/ true to intent. Wherever I May Roam is the first song to really feel like the orchestra is actually adding something. Sad But True is such butt rock and the orchestra doesn't help. One is just not helped by this treatment. Is there a concept in here? yes. But its not something you can just half ass bolt on the orchestration like this.