S&M | |||||
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Live album by Metallica and The San Francisco Symphony | |||||
Released | November 23, 1999 | ||||
Recorded | April 21–22, 1999 | ||||
Venue | Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, California | ||||
Genre | Heavy metal, hard rock, thrash metal, symphonic metal | ||||
Length | 133:13 | ||||
Label | Elektra, Vertigo | ||||
Producer |
Bob Rock James Hetfield Lars Ulrich Michael Kamen |
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Metallica live albums chronology | |||||
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Metallica video chronology | |||||
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Singles from S&M | |||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 5/10 |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
Entertainment Weekly | B |
Q | |
Rolling Stone | |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Spin | 8/10 |
S&M (an abbreviation of Symphony and Metallica) is a live album by American heavy metal band Metallica, with The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Kamen. It was recorded on April 21–22, 1999 at The Berkeley Community Theatre. This is the final Metallica album to feature Jason Newsted as bassist.
S&M contains performances of Metallica songs with additional symphonic accompaniment, which was composed by Michael Kamen, who also conducted the orchestra during the concert. The idea to combine heavy metal with an epic classical approach, as James Hetfield has stated repeatedly, was an idea of Cliff Burton. Burton’s love of classical music, especially of Johann Sebastian Bach, can be traced back to many instrumental parts and melodic characteristics in Metallica’s songwriting including songs from Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. The other inspiration was Deep Purple's 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Purple revived their hybrid musical performance in 1999's In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra after being notified that Metallica were doing theirs earlier that year.
In addition to songs from previous albums spanning Ride the Lightning through ReLoad, there are two new compositions: "No Leaf Clover" and "−Human". "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone, Metallica's entrance music, was played live by the orchestra. "No Leaf Clover" has since been performed by Metallica in concert, using a recording of the orchestral prelude.