November 23, 1999 - S&M

A week after my last release and a year since their cover album "Garage, Inc." Metallica released a live album called "S&M" on November 23, 1999. This is no ordinary live album though, as Metallica are joined by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the legendary Michael Kamen! Having a full symphony definitely makes everything sound pretty epic and while some might think they would clash, the orchestral music goes really well with the metal. There are two full discs of Metallica goodness, including two brand new songs! Let's see what "S&M" is all about!

The album kicks off with Metallica's entrance music "The Ecstasy Of Gold" by Ennio Morricone and it's played entirely by the symphony. It's a really epic piece and a really cool way that Metallica walks out on stage before every show, made of course more epic by a live orchestra! The strings sound really great in particular, but everything sounds great as it builds and builds until a sudden finish. Our first Metallica song is "The Call Of Ktulu" and I love that they chose to open the show with this amazing and epic instrumental track. More so than even most of the songs on this album, I feel that the symphony really adds a lot to this track. They add an extra haunting dynamic to things and it really does sound beautiful and amazing as the orchestra really spices up the long and quiet intro. Once things get louder the symphony continues to add an extra epic layer to an already great song! Words do not do proper justice and cannot adequately describe all the cool little extras that the orchestra adds. Metallica play the song perfectly note for note, including a great solo by Kirk Hammett as you'd expect, but it's the symphony that really shines on this one as everything just sounds so epic and awesome! The finale sounds especially heavy and awesome and it's an absolutely phenomenal way to kick things off! The ending builds and builds and leads right into track 3, the classic "Master Of Puppets" and crowd erupts as they nicely start up the iconic guitar riff. The symphony takes more of a backseat on this track, but they still add some cool little bonuses to this already awesome song. The music sounds great, but James Hetfield let's the crowd do way too much of the singing on this song; I know it's a popular one, but c'mon man, it's like half the song! James puts an interesting spin on his vocals in the chorus, but things still sound pretty sweet. The epic instrumental interlude is made more epic by some nice horns that go nicely with Hammett's epic guitar. The guitar solo is awesome as you'd expect and the symphony even spices it up with some cool little parts! Hetfield sings a full verse finally, but still not whe whole bridge which takes away just a bit from an otherwise pretty sweet performance. The next track is "Of Wolf And Man" and the symphony does a great job of spicing things up and making things sound really epic. They do a great job of sticking to the script and Hetfield sounds pretty good leading the way. Hammett's solo sounds pretty sweet and all in all this was a really well done rendition of this song. Track 5 is "The Thing That Should Not Be" but the symphony adds a cool little bonus intro that is fast and pretty interesting. It's great added emphasis to the quiet opening and the guitars sound good as they move into the heavy main riff. The symphony continues to elevate Metallica's already great work and it's hard not to like all the epic and cool add-ons that just make things sound even more awesome! The song is great as it is, but I think the symphony definitely improves things and everything so far has been pretty incredible. This song is especially awesome due to the extra cool intro, and also an extra outro! Hammett plays an epic new guitar part after the song ends and it's a perfect setting of the stage as they ramp right into "Fuel" and take off very nicely. The symphony adds some extra emphasis but doesn't really wow me on this one as there's not as much room for them to exist in along with the fast-paced music. Things still sound good for sure, and maybe it's because I'm not as big of a fan of the "Load" and "Reload" stuff, but I just think the symphony is trying a little too hard on this one to be involved every second of the song. It's not bad at all, it's just a little too much at times, and other times it's quite tasteful and solid, like the nice way they wrap things up at the end. Just like on "Reload", the next song is "The Memory Remains" and this was never one of my favourite Metallica songs, but I'm not surprised it was chosen since it's a big single that also has a sing-along part. The symphony helps the song out a bit, especially in the still too long sing-along part. The symphony improves this song, but still can't truly save it. I'm probably too harsh, most of the song is still solid, but the sing-along part at the end goes on for way too long, I don't care how cool they thought it was. The next track is "No Leaf Clover" and it's the first of the two brand new tracks! The symphony starts off by themselves and they play a pretty epic and cool opening that includes a quiet part that sounds especially good. Hammett and Hetfield both play some solid guitars when they come in and Hetfield sings a pretty solid verse as well. The symphony is unsurprisingly everywhere on this one and the verse sounds pretty solid. They go quiet again for the chorus and Hetfield sings in a really low voice and I think he sounds fantastic and makes things even more epic! After another epic round Hammett delivers a fittingly epic guitar solo and the part that follows the solo might be even better as there is some cool guitar still and lots of cool orchestral music. This is a pretty awesome new song and maybe Metallica should write with a symphony more often, because that was great! Track 9 is not only a "Load" song, but it's a slow one too as for some reason they chose to play "Hero Of The Day". The symphony adds some nice bits to the slow music, especially the strings section, but this song is just not one of Metallica's best and, to me at least, a poor choice for this album. Hetfield sounds decent singing it, and just like the original it's not bad, it's just not what I want from Metallica, especially at a live show. The symphony is the highlight on this one for sure: they still sound solid, and I understand why the orchestra fits with this slower song, but it's still a poor choice when they have so many better songs than this one. Up next is the third and final song off "Reload", "Devil's Dance" and the symphony adds some cool extra emphasis to the main riff while Hammett leads the way with the oretty catchy guitar. At least this is one of the better songs off "Reload" and along with the symphony's cool extra bits things sound pretty good. Hetfield sounds pretty good in the chorus and this song is worming way better for me than the last one, it seems like it belongs here and things sound solid. This is also the first really obvious instance of Hetfield's new thing: "come dance-AH". His very emphatic AH at the end of words would become a James-ism and here it's a decent added oomph, but it gets old pretty quick. This is still another solid song that the symphony makes even better. The first disc wraps up with "Bleeding Me", another sappy "Load" song, and worse yet, it's a nine minute one! I clarify as always that this song isn't actually bad, but seriously guys?! You picked this song over something like "Fade To Black", which would have sounded great with the symphony?! It's a very puzzling decision, but alas here we are. The symphony fits right in with the slow main riff and as usual, they do enhance things and make them better, but it's like a 2 to a 3 kind of better. The same problems exist: the song is just too long and too average. It's a pretty sad way to wrap up the first half honestly, but most of disc 1 was really awesome.

The second half of the album begins with "Nothing Else Matters" and this was a no-brainer for this album with this song being such a huge single, and also being a slower song that works really well with the symphony. There's lots of beautiful strings and everything has an added epic flair to it, including James adding some extra panache to his vocals. This song is like one big showcase for Hetfield as he leads the way almost entirely by himself, including playing the guitar solo, and he does a pretty great job! It's wonderfully and beautifully done and it's a great way to kick off the second half. Up next is "Until It Sleeps" and there's a few too many songs off "Load" for my liking, even though this is one of the better ones off that album. As usual, the symphony improves things and adds some cool and epic extras to the backdrop and things sound pretty solid. I rip on all the "Load" songs a lot, but this was a fine performance for sure. Track 14 is "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and this might seem like an odd choice for this album, but the symphony actually sounds great with this heavy song! Words could never do proper justice; the symphony adds so much awesomeness to this already fantastic song, it's simply amazing the whole way through! Phenomenal! Spectacular! Bravo Metallica and bravo SFSO. The next track is the other original song and it's called "- Human" and similar to the other original song there's a symphony-only intro that sounds pretty cool, until the heavy guitar comes in and starts up a slow but cool riff. The symphony continues to play some cool stuff overtop and while this isn't quite as epic as "No Leaf Clover", it's still a pretty solid and new song! Hetfield sounds pretty good singing the verse and the chorus and Hammett delivers an epic guitar solo as well, everything you'd want from Metallica, plus tons of cool orchestral stuff! Track 16 is "Wherever I May Roam" and the symphony makes the intro (and everything really) sound pretty epic. Hetfield sounds pretty good singing overtop and this was a great choice for this album as the symphony is able to really spice up all the quieter parts. Hammett plays a ton of awesome guitar as they jam out the ending and this was expertly done by everyone, great job! Up next is "The Outlaw Torn" and it's really disappointing to see another long song off "Load" on the setlist. This song is not bad, but it's definitely way too long with not enough cool stuff happening and it's not one of their better songs in my opinion, making the ten minute track a pretty poor choice honestly. As usual the symphony improves things, and they really do make the slow verse much better, but there's only so much they can do to help out this very average song. I almost fell asleep in the middle of this one, that's how little is going on until Hammett finally wakes us up with a solid guitar solo. Then it's back to mediocrity, what a strange and poor choice for this album. Track 18 is yet another off the Black Album, "Sad But True" and things sound pretty epic and cool once again as this is another no-brainer for this album with such a succesful single and such a catchy main riff. The symphony tastefully adds to things and it's just the cherry on top of an already solid song. It's well done the whole way through!The next track is the only one off of "...And Justice For All" and it of course is "One". This is an excellent choice for this album  as it starts off slow but builds nicely as things progress and as usual the symphony adds to and improves things. This is already a phenomenal song, but the symphony makes it sound even better and Metallica are spot on as well and everything sounds awesome. Words don't so proper justice when things start to ramp up as there is just so much cool orchestral stuff going on behind the heavy music. Hammett is going absolutely nuts with all kinds of awesome guitar and this is simply, and spectacularly, one of the best songs on the album, and that's really saying something! So fucking good! The penultimate track is probably their biggest hit "Enter Sandman" and the symphony adds some cool stuff as usual, but this song doesn't leave a lot of room for them and as popular as it is, doesn't really mesh the best. I would say it still improves it slightly, but it's just not as dramatic or as fitting as some of the other songs. Everything is still solid enough as they jam through, but the "now I lay me down to sleep" part doesn't line up right and gets cut off at the end on an unusual little hiccup. After the song appears to be over the symphony plays a dark and cool part, then the band kicks back in and continues to jam for another couple minutes, but it's just the chorus over and over. The symphony continues to aound great but it's a little drawn out for me until they end with a nice rock and roll flourish. James thanks everyone and the show appears to be over, but we know there's an encore coming. And that encore just might be my favourite Metallica song, "Battery". The symphony plays the whole quiet opening part on their own and man do they ever sound epic and phenomenal! It's such a well done intro and the symphony sounds fantastic! And then the fast guitar explodes onto the scene and we're off on a wild and wonderful ride! Words most definitely do not do justice: this is such an awesome version of this song and everyone sounds so good! Hetfield engages the crowd with a nice "are you alive? How doe it feel to be alive? Show me!" and Hammett delivers the amazing guitar solo, very nicely done! At the end of the song the flourish starts up again and Hammett goes absolutely nuts with some incredible soloing! What a way to wrap things up! Superb! Bravo! Amazing! Each band member says thanks, except Lars Ulrich who teases "same time next year". He was a couple decades off, what an asshole.

That is the end of "S&M" and I thought it was an absolutely amazing album! I don't compare it with any of their studio albums, and I usually don't do live albums, but the addition of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra makes this a unique exception and boy is it ever a good one. Aside from a few too many songs off of "Load" most of the album was quite awesome and I think I did enough raving and drooling during the review. It's a phenomenal album and it's actually the last album of the year! 29 albums this year (plus this live album makes 30, but I'm also not ranking it against the studio albums) easily makes 1999 my biggest year yet! So I will be doing a top 15 for the first time!

Top 15 Albums of the Year

1. Slipknot by Slipknot
2. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory by Dream Theater
3. Still Life by Opeth
4. Liquid Tension Experiment 2 by Liquid Tension Experiment
5. Showbiz by Muse
6. Hatebreeder by Children Of Bodom
7. Burn The Priest by Lamb Of God
8. Calculating Infinity by The Dillinger Escape Plan
9. The Battle Of Los Angeles by Rage Against The Machine
10. Sonic Brew by Black Label Society
11. Stupid Dream by Porcupine Tree
12. Act Of Depression by Underoath
13. Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers
14. Happiness... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch by Our Lady Peace
15. Issues by Korn

Five new bands are in the top 15, and two in the top 5, including the #1 spot! The top 4 albums are sure really fucking good, but Slipknot's debut is one hell of an awesome album. I can't wait to finally start the new milennium!