Metallica - S&M
On November 23, 1999, an album documenting one of the greatest collaborations in rock was released, a performance by metal giant "Metallica" along with the "San Francisco Symphony" conducted by the American composer Michael Kamen.
This is not the first time such a collaboration has taken place in our world, the veterans among us will surely remember "Deep Purple's" collaboration with the 1969 Philharmonic, but "Metallica's" is without a doubt one of the most special, exciting, mesmerizing, and best we have known.
By the Way, a second show already happened S&M2 !!!
Cayman knew "Metallica back" in the era of the Black Album in which he was a partner in the orchestra's composition of the song "Nothing Else Matters". The members met again at the Grammys a year later, where Cayman seeded the idea of collaborating with the symphony. They probably should have been brewing and meanwhile releasing two albums, "Load" and "Reload", which did not constitute the pinnacle of their talent and work. It could very well be that it was even the incentive to do something special and different. We must add that in one of James Hetfield's interviews he said that the idea in general came from Cliff Burton, who was very fond of classical music and was greatly influenced by it.
We are sure that many of you have attended "Metallica" shows, at least once in your lives, so the opening part of the show is certainly not unfamiliar to you. An instrumental track called "The Ecstasy of Gold" composed by Ennio Morricone for the soundtrack of the movie "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
BUT !!!!!
We will never forget the moment when we pressed play on the first disc and the symphony began to play the above opening section. There are moments when the music connects in an unfiltered and direct way to the nerves in the brain. Indescribable. This moment stunned, hypnotized, and completely crushed us. From there it was impossible to stop !!
With all due respect to the exciting opening, we must also give an objective opinion here (we have no such thing as an objective opinion). Cayman's work with "Metallica" should be a lesson learned at the highest music universities. If we ignore for a moment the challenges facing such a composer and arranger when faced with a cruel metal monster, his biggest challenge on top in our opinion is to have an added value. Create another dimension, do not "accompany", do not support but be an integral part of the musical lineup, and in this dear readers, he excels, amazingly winning this by far !!
We thought we would give you some examples of songs in which the symphony stands out, but it is not necessary. Every song in this setlist is insanely expressed and raises "Metallica" to heights we never imagined. The symphony's enormous size, power, and majesty give it an immeasurable galactic dimension to the already monsters "Metallica".
Some data for ending...
This live album consists of no less than 21 songs which are 133 minutes of pure enjoyment, the songs were taken from the albums "Ride The Lightning", "Master Of Puppets", "Metallica", "Load", "Reload" and "And Justice For All ". In addition to the songs from these albums, two new songs were added: "No Leaf Clover" and "- Human"
Now click play and get ready to get excited !! Spotify, Apple Music