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metallica sm2
Artist: Metallica & The San Francisco Symphony
Title: S&M2
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date: 28th August 2020
Label: Blackened Recordings/ Universal Music


Album Review

Once upon a time in Los Angeles... to recapture the whole career of Thrash Metal icons METALLICA would take me a week to research and a few days to write, the day to do this will come but it is not this day. To review METALLICA is an affair of the heart for me, because they mean very much to me. I started into Rock music with QUEEN but the first Metal band to blow me away was METALLICA. The good thing with bands like METALLICA is that these guys need no introduction (hell, even millennials know METALLICA). So we will start with the year 1999 and the band’s first collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony. In 1999, METALLICA recorded two consecutive shows with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Michael Kamen (X-Men). The recording was released in November 1999 under the name ‘S&M’ and it took the world by storm and won a Grammy.

Flash Forward to 2019, METALLICA does it again while celebrating the opening of the new Chase Center at the same time. The Rolling Stone wrote: “The band has proved, that everything is possible”. The Double CD is accompanied by a movie that chronicles and features the concert material, this audio-visual highlight from Greg Fidelman and Co-Producers James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich unites a good two and a half hours of live-material of METALLICA. 20 years ago I was not ready for the Bay Area Thrash gods to unite with a Symphony Orchestra, it was the time of Gatekeepers talking trash about the boys and I, along with thousands of others, was unsure if they still were the band I fell in love with. As time went by and I grew older, I once again became a fan (a big, crazy one). I rediscovered METALLICA and even their work after the ‘Black Album’, not everything was worth their former glory but they evolved as musicians and every once in a while (if you listened very hard) you felt them looking back at their rough, Thrash Metal start.

‘Death Magnetic’ was not a return to form, well it was a great step toward it but yet no one would have thought that METALLICA would do a record like ‘Hardwired’. After listening to ‘Hardwired’ I was shook, reminded of my favourites of the ‘Master of Puppets’ era and set ablaze by my heroes once again. The right moment to revisit ‘S&M’ and check the successor out right after that! What can I say? These guys are the epitome of professionalism, precision, and the perfect Rock star habitus. You can see (DVD) or just hear (CD) how much fun they still have while rocking out their greatest hits, which are some of the greatest Metal tunes at the same time. METALLICA still has what it takes to bring a smile to my face and the urge to rock to my heart. My personal favourites: CD2 ‘(Anaesthesia) - Pulling Teeth’, CD2 ‘One’ and CD1 ‘Moth into Flame’. So, fans will love this anyway and gatekeepers might skip it completely but I can say: “Check this out, ‘cause I say so!”


Tracklist

CD1
01. The Ecstasy Of Gold 2:42
02. The Call Of Ktulu 9:14
03. For Whom The Bell Tolls 4:37
04. The Day That Never Comes 8:27
05. The Memory Remains) 5:42
06. Confusion 6:41
07. Moth Into Flame 6:18
08. The Outlaw Torn 10:03
09. No Leaf Clover 5:30
10. Halo On Fire 8:20

CD2
01. Intro To Scythian Suite 5:17
02. Scythian Suite, Op. 20 II: The Enemy God And The Dance Of The Dark Spirits 3:39
03. Intro To The Iron Foundry 1:03
04. Metallica – The Iron Foundry, Op. 19 4:16
05. The Unforgiven III 8:19
06. All Within My Hands 6:14
07. (Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth 7:28
08. Wherever I May Roam 6:32
09. One 9:24
10. Master Of Puppets 8:30
11. Nothing Else Matters 6:40
12. Enter Sandman 8:48


Line-up

Lars Ulrich – Drums
James Hetfield – Rhythm Guitars,Vocals
Kirk Hammett – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Robert Trujillo – Bass, Backing Vocals


Website

https://www.metallica.com / https://www.facebook.com/Metallica


Cover Picture

metallica sm2


Rating

Music: 10
Sound: 9
Total: 9.5 / 10




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