UMUR "S&M" is a live album release by US rock/metal act Metallica. The album was released in November 1999 through Elektra/Vertigo. It´s quite a massive release containing two CDs, both of which feature over an hour of music. "S&M" is not your "regular" live album release with the band playing in front of a cheering audience. On this release Metallica have teamed up with composer/conducter Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra to perform a hybrid metal/symphony orchestra version of some of the group´s most popular compositions. In addition to featuring select songs from all studio albums spanning "Ride the Lightning (1984)" through "ReLoad (1997)", "S&M" also features two new compositions in "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human" and "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone. The latter composition has been used as intro to Metallica´s shows for many years and appear here in an orchestral version that also works as an intro. The album was recorded on April 21–22, 1999 at Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, California.

The merging of rock/metal group and symphonic orchestra has been done before, but I guess Metallica couldn´t pass on the opportunity when they were presented with the idea. And it´s easy to understand why. Hearing your own compositions accompanied by a symphonic orchestra isn´t something that happens every day. Not even for a band like Metallica.

The result is a mixed bag though. Metallica deliver a decent performance, but as usual James Hetfield couldn´t hit a clean note if it came up and bit him in the ass. His performance here is sloppy and unfocused. The merging of rock/metal band and symphony orchestra doesn´t work very well either. Most of the time it sounds like the band playing their thing and the orchestra having a completely different agenda, playing some film score thing that doesn´t go very well with what the band plays. it´s especially bad in the older more thrashy tracks while the orchestra fit sligthly better on the more recent material. Overall the orchestra is a major distraction though and an even bigger power killer. The sound quality saves the album slightly but it´s not enough to make me smile.

Over two hours of music that I can barely stand to listen to is a bit much and the length of the album does end up having an impact on my rating along with the unfitting mix of metal and symphonic film score music and the awful vocal performance by James Hetfield. I almost always try to find something positive to write about a release, but other than the pretty good production values, I can´t for the life of me find anything positive to say about "S&M". This is just another example of the fact that Metallica at this point had run completely dry of original ideas and had to resort to projects like this to still get attention. I think I´m being generous when I hand out a 2 star rating.

Sheavy (original review from ProgArchives.com)

This should have been the best album by metallica during the 90's. It falls very short on my expectations though, and leaves me feeling a little bit gyped, and empty-haned sort of feeling. What I was wanting from this release was a big grandoise album, with lots of Metallica goodness, and a wonderfully orchestra to enhace the music in ways only a orchestra can do. It fails these expectations very, very well. The Metallica part is good as to be expectated from a live show, but it is the orchestra part that really does not shine through enough. The first song is one of the few songs where it really shines, but the rest of the time it seems awkward and at odds with Metallica a lot of times.

I really, really had high hopes for this album, but it falls short of the cake. Just like everything else Metallica touched during the 90's it did not go as I would have liked.

Three stars because the playing is great, the orchestra just does not really belong here.

AtomicCrimsonRush This is the ultimate exercise in excess, to marry Metallica with a Symphony orchestra. It has been done before of course with Deep Purple and other metal acts. It is almost becoming a cliche of late with many bands taking up the idea including Kiss, Within Temptation, Dream Theater and Therion. Non metal acts have done it such as Camel, Yes and ELP. The weird thing about is these orchestral and rock marriages always work for me. I love to hear that massive orchestral sound with the crunching distortion of guitars. To hear a violin sweep across when you expect a guitar solo is bliss to my ears.

It is refreshing to hear music you love played in a different way. And Metallica do it so well. Master of Puppets is more dramtic than ever. The Thing That Should Not Be is incredible. The Memory Remains sounds iconic with audience participation. Nothing Else Matters is absolutely stunning. For Whom the Bell Tolls sounds very Gothic with the sweeping violins, and the song One is a masterpiece with the orchestral accompaniment.

None of the songs are less heavy, they are augmented to majestic heights. Watching this concert live is an even better experience of course but this is still very listenable, and perhaps a pinnacle of the group's existence. Soon after it all turned sour as we know, but it is so great to see Metallica at the height of their powers as we do in S & M.

Conor Fynes 'S & M' - Metallica (4/10)

The idea of having Metallica's generally raw and energetic music combined with an entire symphonic orchestra is an amazing concept, to say the least. In theory, the added dimension would shed a whole new light on the music the band composed and created.

For the most part, it failed to meet much of my high expectation, which is a real shame, because something really amazing could have been done here.

For starters; while Michael Kamen is undeniably a musical prodigy as far as arranging and conducting goes, alot of the symphonic arrangements here really don't do much to make the songs better, they just overlap a bit thoughtlessly, except for the occasional moment of brilliance, such as the gorgeous opening to 'Battery.'

While I've never been a fan of James Hetfield in any capacity, he really seems to bug me here. His vocal inflections and constant addiction to throwing in a 'hell yeah!' into every break gets on my nerves. Some may constrew that as being 'showmanship,' but it doesn't pass me as being any more than irritating, and it really seems to make the performance lose some of the class it could have had.

While I can understand that the live performance was recorded during the bands 'Load/Reload' period, I wish there could have been less songs from those albums here. Symphonic touch- ups do not make for a good replacement in contrast to good songwriting.

There are some good parts on the album though. The epic 'One,' 'Battery,' and 'Master Of Puppets' are all done well. The highlight of the album would probably be the instrumental 'Call Of Ktulu,' which actually works suprisingly well with orchestration.

Despite the high-points, it's not great, and while I am very tempted to give it three stars, there's far too much dissapointment here to warrant it. If you're looking for something along these lines (rock/metal infused with symponic orchestra) then turn to Pain of Salvation's 'Be' record or Nightwish's 'Dark Passion Play.'

This could have been so much better... Like many great concepts, this one is executed poorly.

Valarius Who would have imagined back in 1983, when Metallica released their debut album, that we'd be seeing them play with an orchestra in 1999?

When it was first revealed that Metallica's next endeavor would involve playing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, I can only imagine the disgust and doubt that crept across all the bands fans. After the critically disappointing 'Load' and 'Reload', and the covers album 'Garage Inc.' (which hardly introduced any new fans), most people must have thought Metallica had lost their minds to consider playing with an Orchestral ensemble.

Thankfully, Metallica proved them all wrong.

This album is great! And shows not only how progressive Metallica's music can be, but also how adaptable it can be to other genres. When you first think of 'Metallica and an Orchestra' it's easy to visualize Metallica playing their songs with a few strings in the background, but this is anything but 'just a few strings'. The Symphony take Metallica's songs and make their own arrangements and compositions from them, blissfully blending the two together to create an all-out attack on the senses.

Featuring pretty much all of their big hits, the band come across as stronger than ever. The musicianship is all spot-on, and some would argue that James Hetfields vocals are at their absolute best. And two new songs, '-Human' and 'No Leaf Clover' shows that (at a time when they were considered a 'Rock' band) Metallica can still stand toe-to-toe with any band in the Metal genre.

I only have two complaints with 'S&M', and neither of them are all that drastic. My first being the setlist. Whilst it is pretty much spot-on, there are a couple of songs I could really live without. 'The Thing that Should Not Be' for example, never really worked for me, and neither does this version. And on one or two tracks I feel like the orchestra doesn't really add anything. But Metallica make up for this with incredible versions of 'Master of Puppets', 'Bleeding Me', 'Battery' and 'One'.

My only other 'complaint' is that this is a live album. As much as I love live albums, I will always be a studio album guy, and I think with a studio mix this would have been so much crisper and cleaner, and overall a lot more epic. But never mind, it's great none-the-less and as essential as any of Metallica's earlier albums. A great starting point if you're a fan of more progressive music looking to get into Metallica.