Metallica - S&M review
| Band: | Metallica |
| Album: | S&M |
| Style: | Heavy metal |
| Release date: | November 23, 1999 |
| Guest review by: | The Silent Man |
Disc I
01. The Ecstasy Of Gold [Ennio Morricone cover]
02. The Call Of Ktulu
03. Master Of Puppets
04. Of Wolf And Man
05. The Thing That Should Not Be
06. Fuel
07. The Memory Remains
08. No Leaf Clover
09. Hero Of The Day
10. Devil's Dance
11. Bleeding Me
Disc II
01. Nothing Else Matters
02. Until It Sleeps
03. For Whom The Bell Tolls
04. - Human
05. Wherever I May Roam
06. Outlaw Torn
07. Sad But True
08. One
09. Enter Sandman
10. Battery
Symphony & Metallica is a strange musical experiment: Metallica meets the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
After writing the orchestration for Nothing Else Matters, conductor Michael Kamen invited The Four Horsemen to play live with an orchestra. And seven years later here's the result: some people loves it, some other hates it. I'm neutral.
First of all, I don's like the orchestra score because it doesn's fit in. Classical instruments frequently play parts totally different from what the band play: instead of accompanying and strengthening the original melodies, it seems just like the classical musicians play a different song. It is really a pity, because I can imagine the perfect score in my head!
I respect Michael Kamen, because he has worked with many rock artists such as Pink Floyd and Bryan Adams, but this time he has really disappointed me.
Production is good: every instrument has a bright, clean sound. But, in my opinion, the orchestra volume level is too loud and some guitar parts are buried. James? voice is not energic and some old songs feel the effects of it.
There is a pair of new songs, No Leaf Clover and ?Human: nice tunes, but nothing special.
The biggest error is in the tracklist! How could they plan to play Fuel, Battery, The Memory Remains, Wherever I May Roam leaving out The Unforgiven?! Heavy tunes can be revisited with an orchestra: it might be funny! But how could you leave out Fade To Black when you know you're going to play with dozen of violinists?! Aaaarrrrggh !!!
In my opinion, this could have been a great experiment with the following tracklist:
The Ecstasy Of Gold, Fade To Black, My Friend Of Misery (instrumental demo version), The Unforgiven, The Outlaw Torn, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Orion, Nothing Else Matters, Thorn Within, Devil's Dance, Enter Sandman, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Master Of Puppets (slow instrumental part), The Unforgiven II, Fixxxer, One, To Live Is To Die, Low Man's Lyric, Hero Of The Day, Blackened, Seek & Destroy.
I like that Seek & Destroy down there! It's a pity that no orchestra will ever play Kill ?Em All (maybe one day Apocalyptica will!).
Finally, if you're interested in buying S & M, I do not suggest you to buy the double live album. You?d better buy the DVD video, it's fantastic: 4 personalized cameras on 4 songs, 5.1 Dolby Surround, a 40 minutes documentary, bonus footage (see Jason destroying a violin!) and separate audio tracks for band and orchestra (this means that you can even select ?band only? or ?orchestra only?!): a great live concert.
Written by The Silent Man | 09.11.2003
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
7.8
7.8
|
Rating: 7.8 |
Ten years after hitting their highest standards, Metallica felt that it was the time to make a change in their overall sound. "...And Justice for All" was certainly a major contribution to progressive music, but to their own opinion, not their best product. After having felt that they over-produced the Justice album, shorter songs, simpler riffs and less experimentation followed. The "radio-friendly" period, The 90's, were certainly the most successful and controversial times for the band. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 8
Visited by: 83 users
| Spyroid Rosetta Stoned Posts: 1023  |
I think this is the best Metallica release. Some songs don't fit, and some newer songs are pretty boring, but some songs: shit! What a wall of sound! Awesome! I'm talking about The Call Of Ktulu, Of Wold and Man, Fuel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Wherever I may Roam and Battery... well, some other songs are good aswell but some don't fit with the orchestra very well, like you said in the review - the orchestra should be strenghtening instead of playing something else (master of puppets especially). The tracklist is a bit bad aswell, but mine would look different to yours... everyone would pick a different one!  Awesome audiance as well!I have to say that except from the two intro songs, Fuel is the best song here. Not that it's the best song otherwise, but with the orchestra... it's so powerful! Great version of the song, really.
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| Insineratehymn Account deleted |
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| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835  |
I think James' voice in this album is particularly good. And I think some songs were well suported by the orchestra like "the call of ktulu", "no leaf clover" and "the things that should not be". Then there are just poor songs that Metallica did that wouldnt work even with an orchestra (in my opinion) like "devil's dance" and "minus human" being two examples of that. Their best songs "master of puppets", "battery", "wherever i may roam" , "one", "sad but true" and "from whom the bells tools" should be left in their place. Trying to incorporate the orchestra with them wasnt a good idea, and even if it was it didnt work for me. Nevertheless, the band ability is high and James sang well. It's an enjoyable album for me. I would rate it just about the same as u did.
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| iMPERiAL_iCE Weeping Heart Posts: 1127  |
Yes I agree that this a lbum gave Metallicas' songs a new viewpoint I love every song on this album, and I also agree that getting the DVD is way better than the double-disc audio CDs
---- The older I get.........The faster I was  Smurfilator -- back when Smurf Metal existed :'(
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| +{Jonas}+ I R Serious Cat Posts: 4955  |
6.0? pfft. This is IMo one of tehbest live albums ever, spite the not so amazing tracklist. Damn they should've palyed Disposable Heroes, Am I Evil, Holier Than Thou... but it's still a great album.
---- "Nobody wants to be the weird kid, you just end up being the weird kid. You don't know how you ended up getting there" - Rob Zombie http://jonas-bs.deviantart.com My dA, mainly photography, go check it out!
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
I love when bands do this kind of work, this one is a classic. The Disc II has the best songs. Best Metallica album of all time.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| Land Of Doom Posts: 101  |
The Best Albam Of Metallica Perfect Guitar By James And The Best Songs Are Sud But True , One And Nithing Else Matters
---- We Only Fear What Comes And Smell Death Every Day Search For The Answers That Lie Beyond
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9156  |
Written by Uirapuru on 25.03.2008 at 09:51 oh please you can't be serious have you not heard ride the lightning or master of puppets!!!! those are pure gold!!!! this is alright but definitly not their best
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