The marriage between Metallica and orchestral music is almost too good to be true. It’s no secret that the heavyweight heavy metal band’s arrangements have always had a flair for the dramatic, and the classical music influences in their songs were a big component of former bassist Cliff Burton’s songwriting approach that dominated their mid-80’s releases like 1986’s Master of Puppets and 1984’s Ride The Lightning. So when Metallica decided to combine forces with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1999 and release a double live album filled with orchestral accompaniment to their extensive discography, it was a meeting of natural bedfellows.
To no one’s surprise it was an excellent album that worked perfectly, breathing new life into some of the less heralded areas of their discography. What I appreciate most about S&M is how it lifts up the deeper cuts of their discography– all the hits sound good of course, but songs like “Until It Sleeps”, “Of Wolf and Man”, and “The Memory Remains” grow absolutely epic in scope and have become the definitive versions of those songs for me as the years have gone by.
Standout Songs: “Of Wolf and Man”, “The Memory Remains”, “No Leaf Clover”, “Until It Sleeps”, “Nothing Else Matters”
