Review Summary: Parking an orchestra behind Metallica’s hits turns out to be a worthwhile experiment, as the blending of genres results in a stirring, unique and engaging experience.
After coming off a pair of their most lackluster releases during the mid 90s, Metallica was in the hunt for a new idea. Cue conductor Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, who had previously collaborated with other popular bands, and the result was going to culminate in a live album,
S&M, featuring the blending of classical music with Metallica’s most popular songs. While adding strings, horns and other instruments to metal music is absolutely nothing new or out of the ordinary, adding a full-blown, elaborate orchestra is certainly something to scratch your head about
: given the highly experimental nature of the idea, was it a success, or was it better off being left on the drawing board?
Although I was skeptical about the idea at first, I fully believe that this marriage of classical and metal was a complete success. Spanning most of Metallica’s storied discography, the orchestra featured on
S&M adds many worthwhile voices, sounds and ideas to Metallica’s established material: the low brass and percussion help anchor the bass and drums, while most every other instrument either reinforces the melody of the guitars or introduces a new counter-melody altogether. The symphony parts have a lot of good ideas and depth to them, and combined with the already great Metallica songs, there’s a lot to digest and listen to here.
As far as highlights go, there are plenty to be found on
S&M. The already great “Master of Puppets”, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “Battery” benefit furthermore from the added orchestrated voice, while songs like “The Thing That Should Not Be”, “Devil’s Dance” and “Enter Sandman” grow even darker with evil strings and brisk horns backing them. New songs “No Leaf Clover” and “-Human” are probably two of the best from Metallica’s Load-Reload-St.Anger era, due in part to the orchestra’s heavier involvement in the song’s structures and sound. The absolute highlight of
S&M comes early, however, as instrumental “The Call of Ktulu” is far and away the best track here, as the song’s breathable, progressive structure benefits immensely from the stirring symphonic background. It’s unlikely that you’ll find a bad song here on
S&M, as the orchestra makes every song interesting in one way or another.
But as great as the whole experiment is, my biggest complaint about
S&M regards the setlist. I know every fan could create their own perfect set of songs, but I personally think that “Creeping Death”, “Unforgiven” and “Harvester of Sorrow” would have benefited greatly from this experiment. And, of course, I think we can all agree that the omission of “Fade to Black” was a gigantic mistake on the band’s part. And given the success of “Call of Ktulu”, I feel that not including the instrumental “Orion”, and to a lesser extent “To Live Is To Die”, was also a mistake by the band, as the very nature and tone of these songs would have flourished with the symphony’s backing.
But through the album’s twenty song setlist, the experience hardly ever gets overwrought or boring, which is a pretty incredible feat. It goes without saying that Metallica fans will have a lot of fun listening to new interpretations of their favourite songs, and there’s even a lot of enjoyment from picking out different parts and sounds from the orchestra. I can give kudos to Metallica for going out on a limb and trying something new, and the result is a fresh and exciting experience that can be relived over and over again for fans and new-comers alike.
