METALLICA — S&M2 (review)

METALLICA — S&M2 album cover Live album · 2020 · Symphonic Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"S&M 2" is a double live album release (which in the days of vinyl would probably have been a three- or a four album release). The album was released through Blackened Recordings in August 2020. The title of the album refers to the 1999 "S&M" live album, which is a similar collaborative effort with Metallica playing along side the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. While the original "S&M" (1999) concert performance was conducted by Michael Kamen, the concert performance on "S&M 2" was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and Edwin Outwater. The "S&M 2" concert was also filmed and given a theatrical release in October 2019. A Blu-Ray version was released simoultaniously with the live album.

"S&M 2" features 22 tracks and a total playing time of just little under 2 and a half hours. Needless to say it´s a massive body of music, but since Metallica have written so many instantly recognisable heavy/thrash metal tracks, the playing time doesn't necessarily feel that long. Disc 1 is dominated by post-"The Black Album" (1991) material, although it also includes "The Call of Ktulu" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (and of course a classical orchestra version of "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone, which is always the opening track at Metallica´s shows.

Disc 2 predominantly features "The Black Album" (1991) and pre-"The Black Album" (1991) material, although it also includes "The Unforgiven III" and "All Within My Hands", and a couple of classical music pieces (by Sergei Prokofiev and Alexander Mosolov).

Adding a symphonic orchestra to rock music is nothing new and several other rock and heavy metal artists have done it before (including Deep Purple and Metallica themselves as mentioned above), and with varying degrees of success. Honestly I was very critical of "S&M" (1999) when it was released, and I felt it was like standing in between a heavy metal band´s rehearsal room and a concert hall where a classical orchestra played. I don´t think that recording worked that well and the two parts of the music just never gelled. Thankfully "S&M 2" works much better and to my ears the heavy metal part of the music and the classical orchestra parts now function as a unit, and create a new and interesting take on Metallica´s music.

Metallica are as well playing as ever and the album features a superb sounding production job. Everything is audible in the mix and there´s some great audience interaction from Hetfield (relatively sparse, but it works) and you can often hear the audience sing along, which in this case is really nice and definitely enhancing the listening experience. So all in all I´m much more entertained and satisfied with this second "heavy metal meets classical orchestra" attempt from Metallica. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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