S&M

Orchestra was a good touch to being a certain feeling to Metallica. Think was an interesting mix and was really good in places but some of the time it feels forced. A lot of the time gelt unnecessary. Sot The Call of Ktulu

the live aspect is everything. the band's not my cup but this record is fantastic

Fun at times, ludicrous at others. Also limited by the weakness of some of the then-newer songs. And way overbloated! As a souvenir of the concert, the fans may have loved it, but as an album, I really wish they'd picked the best half of the tracks.

great music, poor execution. no idea what they were thinking.

The original songs are good. I don't really like the mix with the orchestra.

oh god, a live with classical orchestra, decidedly not one of 1001

I’m really really not into live albums, I don’t want to hear audience screaming for 20 minutes. Orchestra is great, songs are classics, but the audience ruined the vibes for me.

i find metallica incredibly one dimensional so this is clearly the best thing they've ever produced because an orchestra has come in with some new sounds. that said i couldn't imagine sticking it out for 2 hours. half an hour was more than enough of hetfield doing exactly the same thing over every fucking song.

What a load of wank.

Not my thing.

Mediocre rock opera

I love an orchestra - they make this almost bearable. I admire thé effort that went into these arrangements, although they teased me with an Ennio Morricone opening which made me think it was going to be better than it was. I quite like some of the melodies, in parts. I do not like the vocals at all. But I absolutely hate 2 1/2 hours of S&M in all senses. They may have thought the play on words was funny, but it just accentuated the torture for me. I’ll just repeat in a shouty way - Two and a half HOURS!!! It really will only be Once in my lifetime - I can’t go through that again.

On the plus side, I'm impressed at how well the instruments are blended. I can't imagine how hard it is to get the sound levels right with electric instruments and orchestral ones. So props on that front. Also, James Hetfield sings really well throughout. On the downside, I don't really see how the orchestra adds anything vital to these songs. Just a lot of bloat. Also, two-plus hours is two-plus hours too long. I really don't see why this needs to be on the list.

White guys wanking their guitars. Ew.

Bit fuckin long

Live albums are basically un-reviewable. In the past I've given them either 1 star or 5 stars, based on what side of the bed I woke up that morning. There are some exceptions. There are songs that are only truly captured live. Things that represent a significant moment in time. But, for the vast number of live albums, they are red meat for fans. They're enjoyable only with the significant context of the band's other music, and this makes them a categorically different listening experience than studio albums of fresh music. Context is half of everything in music, and the context required to enjoy a live album is missing. "Oh, you should listen to their other albums first." Exactly. And to make it worse... this is my first Metallica album I've ever heard! Not a good start for a band that– my loss– I've ignored. This one IS different. It's a genuinely ballsy attempt at mashing Metallica with an orchestra. Sometimes, that's amazing! It's a category I actually love. But the missing context is tying me in knots for this one. Therefore, I must regress to a rough point system: Starting at a neutral 3: -1 points for being over 2 hours long +1 points for sheer enormity of the balls required to do this +1 points for the orchestra being really pro and sometimes really enjoyable to listen to -1 points for many of the arrangements sounding like Super Bowl intro music. (but... what else could they have done?) -1 points for Robert Dimery thinking this was significant enough to put on the list So... 2/5? That's satisfactory. An ultimately confusing listen.

As an album... Too long and a bit over done. Some songs work well.

I like Metallica, Iv already given the black album and master of puppets 5 stars already through this project. But I’m not sure this album needs to be on the list, yeah it’s enjoyable and abut different but I’d rather listen to the original studio albums. Also 2 hours is far too long for an album, appreciate a 2 hour concert is something different. Probably being overly harsh here because Iv already given 2 of their other albums full marks, but the best songs from this live album are on those 2 albums. So this only gets a 2.

Heard it before. Over dramatic per usual.

A perfect encapsulation of Metallica in 1999: bloated and unnecessary.

I don't think I'm going to enjoy this!

Normally I’m a huge fan of Progressive Rock, whose internal mantra seems to be that it must be, at all times, as maximalist and pretentious as it possibly can in a musical sense. And in a way, S&M is prog-adjacent, with the addition of a full symphony orchestra with the heavy thrash metal of Metallica. But I don’t like it nearly as much as any prog record I own. First issue lies in the length (Over 2 hours! “Tales From Topographic Oceans” isn’t even that long!), where the more memorable songs (The epic “Call of Klutu”, with an immaculate segue into “Master of Puppets”) are dragged down by a lot of mediocre filler (Has any non-Metallica fan even bothered to listen to “Load” or “Reload”? Seriously…) which makes sense, given that those were more recent albums that Metallica released. But for once, I maintain that this album could be saved if we “trimmed the fat” and cut down on the sheer amount of filler. If it was the just the hits from the Black Album and before, I feel that many more fellas could enjoy this album. But until then, this album is only worth the first 30 minutes (Unless you’re a die-hard Metallica fan, in which case you’re eating well) until its novelty wears off. The San Francisco Orchestra though, nothing bad to say about them. 10/10 execution and direction, unfortunately dragged by mid-tier songs to fill the void.

Not the best met album

This didn't need to be made, and I didn't need to hear it before I died. Mostly feels like Metallica playing while an orchestra is also playing. There's no real interplay between them. Some cool moments, but... meh. Maybe if it was made in '89. 5/10

Sounded like cheesy film score. The songs were good, of course, but the potential was totally missed. A dissapointing record.

честно, люблю их но епт вашу мать, что с записью?? почему так плохо сведено. Это крутой эксперимент и я хотел бы быть там и послушать вживую, но чет не могу слушать это просто так

Симфоническая Metallica, ещё и в лайве. У меня были ожидания как от Apocalyptica на максималках. Но... Пацаны уже написали, я подтверждаю: что не так со звуком здесь? Пришлось даже бас в эквалайзере убрать. Вдобавок, иногда какая-то хрень со стерео происходила. И показалось, что все низы и середину сожрали электрогитары, из симфонического было слышно только скрипочки и колокольчики. Хз, мне симфонические лайвы Би-2 (кажется, первая российская группа, у которой фетиш на оркестровую музыку появился) намного больше нравятся, чем вот это вот. Может, проблема в том, что Металлике и не нужно ничего, кроме них самих?

Я признаю все величие и влияние Металлики, но если я захочу послушать этот альбом, я сделаю это отдельно. Больше 2 часов не самого качественного лайва не самого любимого жанра это жепа конечно. 2+. (Прошлому альбому 3, я дурачок, соре)

It really wasn't that interesting and the orchestra wasn't providing a ton to the show 2/5

This is definitely for a specific group of Metallica fans

Har aldrig riktigt fattat Metallicas storhet. Med eller utan symfoniorkester.

Goog, hope the rest of the really good Metallicas albums do appear here.

I got this album when it came out in ‘99. Of the two originals on the album I like No Leaf Clover best. Sometimes the orchestra adds something (like in No Leaf Clover), but most of the times I’m quite dissatisfied with the lack of effort by Kamen to actually add anything new to the already existing songs. I really liked the album in ‘99, nowadays I’m more ambivalent towards it.

This feels like a really good idea executed very poorly. Metallica and even the crowd often overpower the orchestra in sound, causing them to become background noise you forget about. Perhaps if it wasn't live this would be a lot more impactful, but the constantly cheering crowd is never not slightly heard in the background, and really bothers the sound for me. The intro with Ecstasy of Gold really feels like the most self indulgent thing ever, too, get over yourself. None of my criticisms are towards the orchestra itself, of course, they did great for what they could, and maybe S&M 2 would sound better, but no way am I trudging myself through another two hours of a live metal album anytime soon if I can help it. I'm sure this was awesome live, but the only thing keeping it from the lower stars, despite my pretty negative reviews, is the rare moment when a song works, or when they do something original to the concert so the crowd isn't screaming all the words.

A good way to experience Metallica. Too bad it's a live session.

There's at least 3 Metallica albums I'd give 5 stars and this is not one. This is pretty bad, like most 90's Metallica. Perhaps live would have been interesting but the recorded version sounds like a muddled mess. 1.5 stars but I'll be very generous and round up to 2.

An interesting concept to have a symphony with Metallica as they play some of their best songs. It feels like it’s trying to be James Bond and John Wick but significantly less cooler. This album is two genres that don’t mesh well and sound better on their own. An interesting concept but poor execution. 4.6/10

That was ill advised. There were only a couple of songs the suited or synced up with the symphonic accompaniment. This album was a struggle

Live-optræden, hard rock, et par bangers, men simpelthen for langt

Kai se on hyvä kokeilla uutta, mutta onhan tää nyt ihan perseestä. 2/5

Tää on ihan ok metallia, mutta onhan nuo orkkasovitukset vähän korneja. Ja ihan liian pitkä tietenkin. Outo valinta listalle.

Äh ei jaksa kyl kahta tuntia Metallica-pippelöintiä. 2/5 miks tää on listalla.

I like Metallica but the symphony was just doing too much

ma de...em nisam fan metallice, em ovo traje do iznemoglosti. u jednu ruku nije loše, ali sad baš da slušam cijelo...teško.

Too long

i find it a wee bit funny that it’s a metallica album immediately after a megadeth album. personally, i’ve never been one for live albums, and this one still doesn’t do it for me. rip jason newsted (not dead, but this was his last album with metallica)

too long

Ouains, Je trouve que l’orchestre est mal utilisé. Le band band joue les tounes comme ils le font habituellement et l’orchestre vient en ajouter une couche et rempli les endroits où il se passe moins de choses. Je pense que le jeu du band aurait du être ajusté également et que tout aurait du être réorchestré ensemble. Sur quelques chanson ça fonctionne tout de même très bien.

whatever

15 years ago this album was on repeat non-stop via Youtube in my room at home. A lot has changed since then, but the sound quality still sounds like someone ripped a DVD and converted the audio track to an mp3 file. The mixing and volume levels are all over the place. Everything is incredibly bloated - I mean, I've listened to Grateful Dead live bootlegs from the 70's with better sound than this. Then there's the setlist which is atrociously bad. Hetfield's voice is very rough on the first handful of tracks, and often time it feels as if the band and the orchestra are playing two different songs entirely. A few tracks like 'Call of Ktulu' and 'The Thing That Should Not Be' actually grow to something else entirely with the added orchestration, and both band members and audience seem to be having fun. Lastly, if this Metallica record is on this list, I will be very disappointed if the first four albums of their discography isn't on it as well.

I really want this to be good. But it just isn’t. Let’s start of with the wrongs. Only few of their early songs really benefit from the addition of a string orchestra and while some tracks off of Load and ReLoad benefit quite a bit, I still don’t really care about many of songs in the first place. Which might be why the second half of disc 1 seems so long. Just an overload of the (Re)Load-era. Who’s honestly happy to see “Devil’s Dance” here? Dishonorable shoutout to a hopeless rendition of “Fuel” by the way. Who got the idea of adding strings to that? I also don’t enjoy the tone the often obvious autotune adds to Hetfield’s vocal. It always feels kinda off. Just listen to “Wherever I May Roam”. Jesus… On the other hand the new song “No Leaf Clover” is among the best post-Black Album 90’s stuff Metallica did - absolutely incredible. The same goes for the S&M-rendition of “The Memory Remains” and “The Outlaw Torn”; possibly one of the most underrated Metallica songs ever. Would I have loved to have been there? For sure. The atmosphere in the room must’ve been awesome. But listening to it at home? Except for a few tracks, I’d much rather listen to the original studio recordings once again.

Meh. Strings cool at first, then just cheesy.

*dæs* Þetta tók sinn tímann. Sko, ég elska alveg margt með Metallica, en þær eru almennt fáar "læv" plöturnar sem ég fíla vel. Oft er verið að draga lögin alltof lengi án þess að það sé tilefni til. Og í þessu tilfelli finnst mér sinfó ekki vera að gera mikið fyrir flest lögin. Best: Hero Of The Day. Og Yeah-in hans Hetfield eftir Battery. Get sjálf framkallað slík stundum. Gerði það einhvern tíman á kóræfingu og kórstjóranum dauðbrá :D

Only the softer songs work with the orchestra (Nothing Else Matters is great). For the harder tracks it somehow doesn't fit or add anything

Nee, Metallica vind ik goed, maar dat orkest maakt het rommelig en minder strak.

Geprobeerd, maar dit kon me echt niet boeien.

Metaliek is nooit mijn band geweest. En zo met een heel orkest erbij wordt het helemaal over de top bombastisch / kitch voor mij.

Het concept staat me best aan; klassiek vermengd met heavymetal. Het is alleen zoveel!

I know this was a landmark album - and a bit like MTV's Unplugged series, would prove influential - but I don't really dig it. I've always been a little lukewarm on Metallica despite being a metal fan. A big part of that is James Hetfield's voice - it's the archetype of what a certain type of person thinks is 'badass'. In fact, beyond the first few albums, I've come to regard Metallica as a bit 'try-hard'. And there is no more try-hard album than S&M, which takes some pretty lean songs and makes them sound cluttered, soupy or downright comical. There's a bit of 'Hero of the Day' that sounds like Alfred Hitchcock going up to collect his honorary Oscar. Metal can be faintly ridiculous, which is part of the appeal. S&M takes itself far too seriously, and ends up seeming even more risible as a consequence. Not for me.

It’s an interesting novelty, but it leaves me cold. The rough edges all get sanded off. It used to be that Metallica’s appeal lied in those edges.

Yeah long as hell. Probably would have been tight live

Fell asleep three separate times during this album. 4/10

Over the top. Too long Cover art 0/5

I feel badly not liking this more. I am a big fan of the original material and think some of it is the best of the metal genre. It is not that the orchestra doesn't pair well. In fact, many of the earlier Metallica releases can be described as orchestral. Nonetheless, this doesn't work for me.

Wondering how to make the world’s most pompous and self-serious band even more so? Add a full orchestra. The crowd noise and singalongs are silly and grow increasingly annoying. Like so much metal this is strictly for fans; non-fans will find it super-samey, a monotony — nay, an eternity — of glug-glug-glug (with the extra ballast of strings) and might be given to wonder how this is anything more than a heavier Mannheim Steamroller. The opening instrumentals are vaguely interesting (likely because there is the least Metallica).

You can sometimes have too much of a good thing. Two thirds of the time this sounds like tuning into two radio stations at once as the orchestra PLUS power chords is so dense. It works best in the "ballads" and Master of Puppets, but this is not one I return to often.

I just don’t like Metallica enough to listen to 2 hours of more boring versions of their songs. Hit a couple and it was fine. Love this concept (Ben Folds orchestra versions are 5 star) but this one isn’t for me

Not an unpleasant listen but the inclusion of this album on this list is somewhat baffling. There are literally DOZENS of examples of "popular band gets orchestral backing". They used to always be the cheap albums at Best Buy. This one gets a bit more credit since it's performed live and with the actual band (a lot of those other orchestral albums are done with cover bands), but it's still more of the same. None of these arrangements are particularly fresh or exciting. They're all very similar to the studio album versions, plus with the mix/master of this album Metallica actually drowns out the orchestra most of the time. So we're left with an otherwise generic live album of what (in my estimation) is a pretty generic pop metal band. This would normally garner 3 stars from me but this album is NEARLY 2.5 HOURS LONG. Sorry boys. That's just not fair.

Well. If I liked Metallica I would probably like this too. But I don't, so that's a waste of 2 hours. None of this inspired me to grab the black Iron Maiden t-shirt and stop washing my hair.

Not the right intro to the band. Will maybe listen back after hearing the originals.

Didn’t like… LIVE albums not the same as regular recordings

It's a live metal album, on the list of things that are not for me this is extremely high, could be ok background music so gets 1.6

Meh

I'm a pretty big Metallica fan. I've stood in line to buy albums and tickets. Buuut.... this album does nothing for me. The orchestra adds nothing. It kinda makes it sound like Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

2.75

Overly self indulgent - some good moments from their back catalogue but wholly unnecessary. It REALY sags in the middle - not to mention it never ends.

I've never been a fan of Metallica and didn't know any of their songs. This was a bit more commercial and smoother than I was expecting, after listening to Megadeath yesterday. Of course, having a symphony orchestra back-up can do that, not to mention the fact that they had been kickin' around for 20 years at the time of this release, well into their U2 phase. Overall I don't mind this LP, though I find the occasional 'scary laughs" by the singer annoying. I prefer Megadeath's full frontal guitar assault.

A long old slog

Definitely better than I expected. Still not my cuppa tho, did not make it through the 2 hours shamefully

Not my era or style of music. Can't give it more than a 2 I'm afraid. Best Track Enter Sandman.

2 hours?! No. The only good part of this album is the orchestra.

I don't enjoy Metallica but I do enjoy symphonies. This was a mess where it sounds like Metalliac had a keyboard that would play a symphony only to be drowned out by their instruments. I found the symphony didn't add to the sounds of the song. 1.5/2

kinda cringe

What the fuck is this shit? After all of the stellar work Metallica did in the 80s, and all of the completely forgettable work that they did afterwards, it's kind of surprising to see an album on here from the very tail end of the millennium. I like the idea of mixing classical and heavy metal music together, since I think the genres have more in common than they are generally given credit for. This album feels mostly like a Metallica concert with a symphony mixed under it. The band's instruments aren't so much integrated into the symphony as they are yelling over it like a drunk guy at a party. James Hetfield's voice has lost a lot of its power, which is unfortunate because it is front and center when it could be strengthened by instruments that compliment his sound. It's hard to tell if this album is just poorly executed or a cynical attempt to make Metallica relevant again after their many poor decisions in the 90s. There's nothing that frustrates me more than a good idea that fails because of laziness on the part of content creators. Even the fucking name of the album is lazy. I'm on the third song and I already want this to be over so badly. There are 17 more songs on this fucking album. I honestly think it would work better to play a Slayer album at the same time as a Beethoven symphony. At least that way when it didn't work I could comfort myself with the fact that it was never intended to 2/5

Not quite as bad as I'd expected. The first track functions really well as a soundtrack to a modern action film. Went downhill pretty soon after that though. Also, it was interminable.

No. No. No. I get the idea, I do. But it just doesn't work that well. The early Metallica stuff isn't made better by the orchestra and the newer stuff becomes cream on cheese, as the material is already cheesy stadium hard rock. And then it's two hours with hetfield on vocals. There are some moments of goodness sprinkled around that saves the project from the lowest score.

Symphonic performance of Metallica songs, accompanied by Metallica. Clunky at best. If it were the orchestra on it's own, it would've made more sense because they can take creative liberties with how it would performed. Instead, you get Metallica playing their usual songs live being back by an entire orchestra, creating a sound that is so cluttered that it's hard to justify. It's like the orchestra is window dressing for the band instead of the focal point, ultimately serving as an ego boost for the biggest metal band on the planet. It's also over two hours long, though split by two CDs. I think this can be forgiven since it's meant to be a grand live performance that seizes a lot of opportunity to utilize the orchestra, but it's still quite a bit overly long for me. Ultimately, I think this set up works well for Metallica's more thematic songs. The heavier picks like Fuel and Nothing Else Matters kinda get the wind sucked out of them by the orchestra, whereas songs like One and The Call of the Ktulu are natural fits for this sort of synergy.

metallica is boring

Hey guys feel like doing a live album with a symphony orchestra? It'll be real classy. Sure. My mum said all her friends who only listen to Mozart will buy the album if there's a symphony orchestra on it. Double bubble! Really though. Not an album anyone could describe as essential. Some good songs, but they gain nothing much by this.

Interesting 🤔

I want to like it, but it's a bit too energetic for my brain.

S&M is never boring, but it does blur at times and plod at others. And that's a shame, because I root for symphonic metal whenever it crosses my radar. Here, the only symphonic effect is that of a middling film score, and no visuals to accompany it for its two hours. The band does drive on a few tracks - One and Battery stuck out. Metallica's lyrics are certainly not the highlight, but they're at their best when Hetfield's vocals are present in the texture. I also learned from his stage banter that I share some speaking tics. This sounds like it would have been a fun live concert, but a great live recording it is not.

So hard for me to rate as there are such classics on here (Nothing Else Matters) but while I like metal, I dont like all of Metallica I couldn't sit through the whole album in one go so has to be a 2, even though some amazing songs

Poor poor show

I've never really been a Metallica fan... I gave them their time of day when I was a teenager, but I soured on them awfully fast. There's a weird sneer to Hetfield's vocals, and they always seemed too well off for their heaviness to be grounded in anything. There was too much pageantry to it. Not always, I guess. ....And Justice for All was stripped down to the point of sounding amateurish. But S&M is super representative of that pageantry problem - if anything, it's the worst offender. It feels less like a concert album and more like a ride at Universal or Disney World. I feel like my chair should be vibrating and I should be wearing some special eyewear. None of this feels like what I want from heavy metal. It's too rehearsed for there to be any danger, any improvisation. There is no audience participation. I doubt beer was served at this concert. It's all of the big and stupid and none of the human.

Part of me hoped that the symphonic element would add something to the table on this live album. Unfortunately, its pretty forgettable. Although, its still not awful to listen to, I feel like other Metallica albums would fit this list better.

Metallica has made great music, but this combination with an orchestra transforms their trash metal music into MOR daddy rock.

Shite. Never liked it.

Imagine giving someone the opportunity to listen to a live album that is over 2 hours long, who thinks Enter Sandman sounds cringeworthy and Nothing Else Matters sounds like a poor man's Stairway to Heaven. I won't fool anyone, after 30 minutes I had enough. Won't give this a 1/5, because I do understand why most music listeners appreciate this. 2/5.

Not a big Metallica fan

It's a live metal concert. Definitely not my cup of tea but probably not bad if that's what you're into

I like classical music. I like some Metallica. I like the concept of mixing the two. It is a live album so the songs are elongated with crowd cheering etc. I am not a fan of live albums. This is album was over two hours and just ugh.

Not the worst. I think the DVD would be more interesting as a spectacle, and I quite enjoyed the songs I knew better from the original (Master of Puppets, One etc)

SO LONG OMG I am not finishing this sorry not sorry

ça disssssone

I like Metallica a lot but this is very pretentious. The orchestral element doesn’t add anything to the songs, quite the opposite. Several times I thought it sounded like the songs had been adapted for a movie soundtrack. A real shame.

2/10 not my vibe

Good as far as it goes, if one were a Metallica fan. I'm not, so it didn't hold a lot of interest for me. I expect I like this version better than I would like the original tunes.

Bland

2.8 - Ponderous, plodding and overdone. A classic case of virtuosity with no taste. The strings add a maximalist, over-the-top element to songs that already lack subtlety. God, and this album is so fucking long!

Lo mismo para sus fans tiene algún valor, pero a mí no me ha interesado casi nada. No digo que esté mal, solo que no me interesa este refrito filarmónico.

music is not bad in some tracks but, god this is cringey as fuck!

En ole erityinen livelevyjen tai varsinkaan äijärockin ystävä. Tämä ei muuttanut mielipidettä kummastakaan.

Fuck Metallica

Shoulda been the Vitamin String Quartet.

Metallica S&M gets a 1 from me. It’s the worst live album i’ve ever heard. Beyond superfluous this venture actually made me question whether I ever enjoyed the originals. A completely failed experiment in my books, leave me alone.

Absolute hack inclusion Hey let's include a live album where they play many of their best songs but accompanied by a symphony orchestra! Fuck this shit outta here, wasted spot. There are so many other deserving albums that this shit beat out man.

Gay

Chaque matin, mon cadran sonne et je me réveille en état de torpeur totale. Parfois dans le déni, je snooze en croyant que j'aurai droit à encore quelques heures de sommeil. Mais chaque fois il y a bel et bien une nouvelle journée à affronter. Metallica, et particulièrement cet album (ou bien en général ?), incarne à la perfection ce sentiment de haut-le-coeur et dédain de chacun de ces matins de marde qui mènent à rien d'autre que l'ostie de routine plate. 4e album sur 345 que je ne réussi pas à écouter au complet.

Initially thought I didn't like James Hetfield's voice and that's why I haven't gotten into Metallica. He is great here, Phenomenal even. I didn't know he could actually sing. The orchestra goes hard as fuck. Unfortunately it still falls flat for me

lol. nah. Nice gimmick though.

When they aren't just generally sweetening the music, the strings feel like "Stayin' Alive"/"I Will Survive"/"Tragedy"/"Disco Inferno" disco strings. The brass saturates songs with a Bond-soundtrack Albert Broccoli feel. (Why, WHY? did they do that to "Master of Puppets"?) The crowd noise is very carefully mixed and controlled and feels fake because of it. James Hetfield's vocals are always at the front of the mix. Lars Ulrich's drumming keeps the same great position as ever. But bass and guitars just get sucked into the orchestra, sometimes prominent, sometimes disappearing where the cheeseball orchestra gets the "solos" instead. It's hard to give this a terrible score because despite its faults, the songs do come through pretty well. They still mostly rock, as much as they ever did. But after TWO HOURS of this, I just hate it. Hate it. Just listen to the original version of "One" and then the version here. Hetfield's vocals here sound weak, like he's pushed them too far for his lounge-act backing orchestra. There's a new melody with sweet soundtracky brass over top of guitars that used to pummel you in preparation for the "darkness imprisoning me..." lyrics. It's no longer believable. At least they lest Kirk Hammett have his solo. Hate it. It should be on a list of records to avoid listening to as long as you live. 1/5

Ich verstehe es nicht. Warum gibt es immer wieder Rockbands (die erste die mir einfällt war Deep Purple), die unbedingt beweisen wollen, dass sie neben einem klassischen Sinfonieorchester bestehen können? Hey, schaut mal, wir machen ernst zu nehmende Musik und Klassik-Liebhaber müssen jetzt nicht mehr auf uns herab sehen? So ein Bullshit. Wird der Song besser wenn eine Wand Geigen ein Brett wie Battery untermalt? Für mich nicht.

Nunca me gustó Metallica, una bandita performática que siempre suena igual, e incluso en este álbum pretencioso, en vivo, suena peor que nunca a mi gusto... es solo para fanes.

Not a fan of this

No thanks (live edition)

i dont wannnaaaaa

Things that shouldn't go together: Orange juice and toothpaste Water and a grease fire Dress and sneakers Toaster and the bathtub Sleeping and driving Ice cream and ketchup Bleach and ammonia Cell phones and water Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony

Oh hell no. This is really 0 stars, but I can't move on unless I give it one star. I hate that Jason's last album with Metallica is this awful trash.

the only thing worse than dad metal is dad metal LIVE

Nope.

Yuck. No more metal please.

No. What? Is this a joke?

There are 1001 albums that this guy has told me that I have to listen to before I die. That means that, within the Anglosphere that this list was mostly chosen from, this is the cream of the crop with what culture had to offer. If I had died without listening to this album, I would have been perfectly content. I did not miss out on a great achievement of humanity. Some songs benefit from the string arrangement, but others did not sound good. Especially One. Some of the performances also did not sound very tight, as one might expect of a band of this caliber. Overall, ass album.

If Metallica had no haters, I'm dead

this being the first ever metallica album i have listen to was certainly an experience

I hadn’t heard of this album before, and I can see why: I don’t like it at all, sorry...

#304/1001. By the third song this sounds more a joke than a blasphemy. Why sprinkle the beauty of raw metal with some classical jingle jangle? If ypu want a classical metallica, check out Apocalyptica. This is almost as bad as Metallica & Lou Reed. Whew, only 2 more hours to go.

Don't mind Metallica, but never liked this.

Mehtallica

I can't face this. It was Metallica yesterday and again today. Please fix the app so that we don't have to encounter the same artist twice in the same week and certainly not two days running!

I like Metallica a lot, I like the original versions of most of the songs but this is horrendous

Nope. There's no fucking way I need to hear this before I die so I'm not going to. Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning, sure, bit not this. This is my first Did Not Listen.

No va

Elevator Metal. This album captures the live experience Metallica jumping the shark into the warm, still waters of cultural irrelevance.

Bombastic. Once the band stars playing, there is not the tiniest sliver of space. And it sounds like the drummer presided over the mixing one star - a tiresome listen

No, Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets only.

Dnf

The longer it goes on the worse it gets.

At least it reminded me to see The good the bad the ugly soon again.

Aptly named, since listening to all of this did indeed feel sadomasochistic

Autotuned to death. Zero soul in the vocals completely ruins what could have been a decent album.

I deeply dislike this kind of music

Metal mit Streichern ist nicht meins

TOO. MUCH. HETFIELD!!!!

Too long Too repetitive I don't like the mix. Can't hear that orchestra

Overwrought and super, super corny.

As a lifelong diehard Metallica fan, with almost thirty years to think about this album — this is crap. The symphony backing was a gimmick, and it would have been far more interesting just to have them do the music. It’s just a live album with some deep cuts. I’ll listen to Metallica whenever and whichever, but this isn’t any more interesting than a metal version of a Grateful Dead bootleg.

i’m not listening to this

there ain’t NO WAY i had to listen to this before i die……….. 2 hours and fkn 13 minutes i’ll never get back

Its metallica again. And its long as hell again. And it still stinks again. Again and again and again. I was hyped for it to be the best one yet with like 15 minutes of just instrumentals. But then James has to come in a ruin it. He literally might be the least appealing singer ive ever heard. At least one who does it for a living. But when I got to master of puppets I had a realization that ive heard this before. I think an aunt had this on cd and I put it on an iPod or my trusty rca peice of shit. Its OK now though. Just OK. Thats one of the better tracks along with battery just cause its feels so different than the source. But God damn is this record long as hell. I had to listen to it in 2 parts cause who has 2 full hours free at once? I got through the 1st half pretty painlessly but the 2nd was tough due to my own dumbassery. I had that shit on shuffle for some number of songs then turned it off and couldn't tell you what I had heard previously. I mean its hard to keep track of crap you dont like. So I might have missed one or 2 but no way in hell im going back for any reason. I essence this is a cool idea. Put an orchestra behind a metal band. Cool thought. But it extenuates the things I already dont like about this band. They think they are more important than they are. Big huge sweeping bullshit. They dont deserve all this pomp and circumstance in my opinion at least. I get that they matter alot and ill acknowledge that but it doesn't mean I have to like it. The success they have had is a good for them type thing but I just dont get it at all.

Such an tired idea to make "symphonic" versions of old songs and the album sounds just like that. The symphonic arrangements sound like unused Bond soundtrack ideas and prove that sometimes good idea on paper is not so good in real life.

Hey ... its the biggest sellouts in Rock history! Let me put this out there straight away, if this were any of the first four studio Metallica albums, they would easily be 5-stars for me. But unfortunately once the 90s hit, this band sold out big time, and starting make records that sounded like garbage. Note: this is the first album after almost 250 albums, that I am skipping through. I am not listening to 90% of this album that is a hot mess. I listened to the classic 80s tracks, that sounds completely awful here. So much wrong with this album, that I can rant about, but I care so little about it, I just want to move on to the next one. But before going on ... I want to say thank you to the 1,001 list for ruining my Saturday. I am going to go put on ...And Justice for All on vinyl so I can cleanse the palate.

Utterly crap

Worse than a late period Metallica album, or an SFO concert. Might be ok without the terrible singing - uh. I'd rate Metallica's early albums right up there, struggled to finish this one.

Day 16. Best tracks: - Human, No Leaf Clover, For Whom the Bell Tolls I can't believe this album is on the list. I purchased this album the day it came out and have regretted it ever since. This works as music videos or a live video album. IT IS SO LONG. And absolutely boring in audio-only. It just needs some editing, a new setlist (ONLY ONE RIDE THE LIGHTNING TRACK IS ON THE SETLIST - a travesty), and an engineer who can make it sound like it wasn't recorded behind a single-pane of soundproof glass. 2/10. Great in as an audio-visual album. Horrible in audio-only. Does it belong on this list? Absolutely not. Not even as a novelty. And having this on the list and not "Ride the Lightning" cannot be explained or justified.

S&M isn’t wrong. This is like being hit on the head – if not the bottom – with a velvet cosh. The album and performance are all expulsive excess, but Metallica were never truly extreme. They always had things under control – or at least sounded as though they did. If their thrash peers Slayer ever roped in a symphony orchestra, it would have to sound like Penderecki. Metallica’s, by contrast, sounds like the Boston Pops. They are, after all, a pop group of great competence. And this is a pop concert – a Best Of disguised as an experiment. A step outside their comfort zone, where they play crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser. The real addition here isn’t the orchestration – which adds little, like when the UO accompanies a screening and just drowns out the dialogue – but the pleased crowd itself. Few of Metallica’s peers wrote such anthems, and none with such melodic reach. Listen to them sing along. It’s very endearing. You can hear, in every unified shout, the sound of disbelief: This is actually fucking happening, and it is awesome! And it is awesome. Briefly. In the moment. It’s dumb, and it’s pandering, but that’s who Metallica were in the ’90s – self-aware showmen with stadium-sized egos and tunes to match. I went in dreading what I was letting myself in for, but it turned out thrilling. Sure the orchestra do nothing truly significant, but the ground is there for Metallica and they play their best songs one after another and sound really happy about it. Sure, two hours and thirteen minutes is too much. A masochist should never be completely satisfied. 2.5 I haven’t listened to this since it came out. I recall it being funnier. All these years later I can find nothing to laugh at - this was, just, a bad idea horribly executed. It is entirely excruciating and over two hours long. The one concession here to the presence of an orchestra is that the guitars and bass are turned down in the mix but Metallica make absolutely no musical room in their arrangements. They simply perform their songs as usual, leaving the orchestra to play where they can - burnishing cadences, throwing nondescript melodic fragments in between Hetfield’s vocals and, of course, making horror film noises. There is no realisation, even for a moment across more than two hours of music, of the real power and depth of an orchestra. The San Francisco Symphony here sound staid and prissy - exactly how most people who dislike or don’t listen to orchestral music think orchestras always sound. If it was painful for metal fans to hear Metallica so neutered, it is doubly so for anyone with affection for orchestral music listening to this nonsense. That the concert happened was forgivable because there is nothing wrong with trying something new or a bit different. But to release it for broader public consumption is unforgivable. We are only about 200 albums into this project but I am certain that S&M will prove as potent a piece of torture as anything this list can throw up. You know what, I have been unjust. I’ve only now remembered that at the very end of the concert someone says ‘Same time next year!’. That is genuinely funny. 0/5

Terrible

2 hours 15 minutes of misery

Classical and rock usually go together well. This appears to be the exception that proves the rule. Nothing Else Matters is the only track on which this experiment actually worked. The rest was more M&S than S&M. I really don't want to be this harsh, but its a 1 for effort I'm afraid.

What a load of nonsense. It just didn’t work for me. I can’t imagine it working for a die hard Metallica fan either, but I guess it must’ve done.

Why does a thrash metal band feel the need to make this? Vanity? Another reason to feel vindicated why i detest Metal.

Uff, Metallica is one of those things I don’t get at all.

This seems totally unnecessary

Ugh. Not my style at all. Too unimaginative and too cliched even with an orchestra.

Nope, 3 songs in, won't do it. Pre-black-album Metallica is great, but this is pure wankery. Absolutely does not earn a spot on this list.

Good metal band. Some good music.

I don’t like metal music.

Dear god, this was brutal. 2 hours 13 minutes of musical masturbation that wasn't even that musical or impressive. The brilliance of orchestra was ruined by this annoying rock band stepping over them. The brilliance of Metallica and their thrash metal perfection was muddied by this annoying string accompaniment. The opposite of Reese's peanut butter cups.

For the love of god, why? Were Metallica like ‘Why aren’t any of our songs ever used on a James Bond or Mission Impossible soundtrack?’ That’s the feel of the orchestral stuff. Well rehearsed band meets well rehearsed orchestra. Not sure i can do the 2+ hours that this requires. Honestly, of all the Metallica albums, this is in the 1001 best? Maybe the dude is a Metallica fan and all of the albums are on here, even St Anger. In fact, to continue down that line of thought, this album and St Anger point to Metallica just wanting to fit in - why are we never accepted by the classical crowd? Why arent we accepted by the nu metal crowd?

Så här mycket Metallica under en vecka har jag nog inte lyssnat på sen jag var 16, och då var det inte mitt val/fel. Precis allt som kan tänkas vara bra med Metallica har berövats. Här finns inte tillstymmelse till punk, skitighet , tyngd eller nåt som kan uppfattas som farligt. Det är direkt beklämande och smärtsamt att lyssna till. Måste ju vara med här pga att det är en av musihistoriens största kalkoner och det måste man ju kanske höra (?). Tänk om någon sagt till dom 1986 att dom skulle spela "Battery" med en jävla symfoniorkester tretton år senare. Det är lika otänkbart som att Sex Pistols skulle uppträda med finstämd jazzkvintett. Snacka om att gå vilse Ett gigantiskt magplask. Det luktar "död hud-Ceasar"... av! Keeeesssoooo!

Nej, jag orkar inte.

Hur får man redan usel hårdrock att låta ännu värre? Lägg till en symfoniorkester lajva Robert Wells. Fy fan vad outhärdligt, och i över 2 timmar dessutom. Inskränkningar i yttrandefriheten sa du? Jag är för!

En dålig idé som utförs illa. Symfoniorkestern spelar för sig och Metallica gör sin grej, där emellan skrålar publiken. Det smälter inte ihop på något sätt. Även om man sminkar grisen så är den ändå en gris.

Ughhh

Ja daaag

Bombast.

I didn’t finish this Mannheim Steamturd schlockfest. If you are going to do classical fine, go all the way but this sounds like John Tesh had a baby with Trans Siberian Orchestra and it has genre dysphoria. Yuck.

Second Metallica album in 3 days. Why am I being punished? Still not for me, even with an orchestra.

A terrible and gimmicky attempt to appear relevant at a time when this band had become a hollowed out shell of what it once was.

Literally no album has ever been less necessary. I'd say it ruined their legacy, but pretty much everything they'd recorded since "...And Justice For All" had already done that. "Nominally speed metal with a symphony" remains one of the single dumbest ideas I've heard of nevertheless.

ecstasy of gold- the fucking car commercial song? honestly its nice to finally be able to name this song. too bad its sucks ass. 3 call of ktulu- oh jesus. 2 master of puppets- 3 until he sings and then its a 1. i think its funny when he lets the audience sing so you can hear hordes of drunken toddlers with no sense of rhythm attempt to scream along of wolf and man- 1 the thing that should not be- 2 fuel- 2 the memory remains- 1 no leaf clover- what. 1 enough a metal band playing with a symphony could be so cool if it was literally anyone else

Too fucking long

Amazing performance, if the shitty band got out of the way.

metallica was bad by 99 anyway, throw in a live performance and it's 2 hours long? brutal.

This album suffers from being live. Crowd noise, self indulgent "thank yous", generally not great mixing, unintelligible lyrics. Really hard to pull anything symphonic out of the mix other than the violins and a few horn blats. Probably a lot more interesting for someone who already knows the music in its original context. Is Metallica always this cringe? 30 minutes in and already fatigued. This is just relentlessly unpleasant on the ears. Gets more listenable starting at Hero Of The Day. Okay, yeah, that was painful. I'm sure there will be worse stuff to come, but this gets a 1 just for putting me through 133 minutes of that.

Did not even bother listening to it, sorry not sorry

I'm not much of a fan of Metallica anyway but I was surprised at how bad this sounds. The bland orchestration fight it out with the guitars for the mids and they wind up weakening each other. A huge case of more is less.

Who the fuck thought that was a good idea!

Who on earth thought this was a good idea? Turns out that putting a symphony orchestra with Metallica sounds exactly as self-indulgent and pretentiously shit as you might expect. Who knew?

I still hate live albums AND it's instrumental?? How awful.

Not only is it Metallica, it's also a live album. This shit deserves negative stars.

O, nee. 1 ster voor de eerste minuut waarin het orkest, zonder Metallica, "The Ecstasy of Gold" van Ennio Morricone speelt.

Das Livealbum S&M wurde im April 1999 in der Berkeley Community Theatre in Kalifornien aufgenommen. Die Produktion erfolgte in Zusammenarbeit mit dem San Francisco Symphony Orchestra unter der Leitung von Michael Kamen. Metallica, eine US-amerikanische Band, stammt aus Kalifornien und zählt zu den bekanntesten Vertretern des Thrash Metal. Das Album kombiniert orchestrale Arrangements mit bekannten Stücken aus dem bisherigen Repertoire der Band. Zu den hervorgehobenen Titeln gehören „Nothing Else Matters“, „Master of Puppets“ und „Enter Sandman“. Ergänzt wird die Setlist durch zwei speziell für das Projekt geschriebene Stücke: „No Leaf Clover“ und „-Human“. Das Genre bewegt sich zwischen Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal und orchestraler Rockmusik. Die Umsetzung hebt sich durch die orchestrale Untermalung vom sonstigen Werk der Band ab, bleibt aber inhaltlich eng an den Originalkompositionen orientiert. Insgesamt stellt S&M eine experimentelle Erweiterung des bisherigen Stils von Metallica dar. Die Kombination mit einem Sinfonieorchester bringt neue Klangfacetten, ohne den Charakter der ursprünglichen Songs grundlegend zu verändern.

These guys are so overrated.

Way too much Metallica on this list.

Did not like this AT ALL reminded me a tiny bit of Trans Siberian RR - no thanks

No. Just no. Highlights everything wrong with Metallica while simultaneously dulling the positives. Give me Pretzel Logic over this any day. There I said it.

i love orchestral music but instead of the orchestra improving the sound of metallica, the sound of metallica ruined the orchestra for me. i don’t know how they managed to make a full orchestra sound cheap and basic to me. NO MORE METALLICA!

My god... The instrumentation... The lyricism... The musicality... It's all so indescribably awful. Please never make me listen to it again.

not listening

How was Lars able to keep time with actual musicians? I would hate to have been the conductor with his shitty drumming. Falco did the symphony album infinitely better than this and I doubt he shows up on this list. Utter and complete crap.

Un directe no és un àlbum.

On paper, S&M should have been something special—Metallica’s thunderous riffs combined with the grandeur of the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Kamen. But in reality, this is an absolute mess, a complete trainwreck of clashing sounds and baffling choices that somehow makes Metallica’s greatest songs sound worse. It all starts out promising enough with Ecstasy of Gold, but let’s be honest—that’s a cover, and frankly, the orchestral version without Metallica is better. Then comes The Call of Ktulu, a solid instrumental that actually benefits from the symphonic backing, followed by Master of Puppets, which is still decent. But then, as if the universe decided things were going too smoothly, the entire album falls off a cliff. What follows is nearly two hours of an orchestra and a metal band fighting each other, neither willing to give way, resulting in a sonic disaster where everything drowns in an overcooked, muddy cacophony. The biggest issue is that instead of the orchestra enhancing the music, it just gets layered on top of Metallica’s already dense sound, making everything bloated, overstuffed, and painfully overwhelming. Metallica’s music is already loud, busy, and aggressive—adding a full orchestra doesn’t add weight, it just turns the whole thing into a confusing, cluttered mess. And to make matters worse, Lars Ulrich completely ignores the conductor and plays at his own tempo, dragging the symphony along like a car trying to outrun a landslide. But that’s not even the worst part—because for some inexplicable reason, they used autotune. And not just any autotune—1999 autotune, the kind that sounds like someone is singing through a malfunctioning Speak & Spell. James Hetfield’s voice, once rough but powerful, is smoothed out into a warbling, robotic disaster that makes every song feel lifeless and synthetic. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the song choices are awful. Sure, there are a few classics, but then they load the setlist with tracks from Load and Reload, albums that were already divisive, and they somehow make them even worse. For Whom the Bell Tolls—my favorite Metallica song—gets absolutely butchered, Enter Sandman is a travesty, and Battery sounds like a Metallica cover band got trapped in an elevator with a malfunctioning orchestra. It’s bloated, directionless, and utterly joyless. S&M isn’t a grand fusion of metal and classical music—it’s an overproduced, ego-driven nightmare that drowns in its own excess. If you ever wondered what happens when no one in the room says no to Metallica, this is it.

The Black Album roasted all these guys' brains.

Pretty painful listen I won’t lie. The steep hurdle of a runtime would not be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact the whole performance feels like it loses all of its energy about 30 minutes in. They definitely thought this was going to be way more ‘epic’ than it turned out. Whenever the orchestra’s sound isn’t being overwhelmed by the band (Hetfields vocals are especially at odds) it always feels like a tacky inclusion to whatever song is currently playing, if we lived in some alternate universe where Pierce Brosnan got a 5th James Bond movie, I could see the studios getting inspired by Limp Bizkits involvement in Mission Impossible II and shitting out something like this for its soundtrack. (Tragically, Michael Kamen, who had the unfortunate task of conducting the orchestra half of this birth defect of a concert, was actually responsible for one of my favourite James Bond soundtracks)

I find it ironic that Metallica walks out to The Ecstasy of Gold at concerts in the same way I found that Pink Floyd's The Wall inspired a group of real-life Neo-Nazis. A bunch of greedy pieces of shit walking out to a song about a greedy scumbag? Do you think the old timers in the SFSO felt shame? Why is this album on here? It's like someone made a 'foods you must eat before you die' list and included gum and nuts from the Simpsons. It's the musical equivalent of when Homer designs a car, who the fuck is this for? If you wanted symphonic metal, go listen to another band. Very few songs on here are improved by the presence of an orchestra. The second half of the first disc is bloated with dogshit from Load and Reload, sprinkled in with No Leaf Clover which is an original composition for this album (and is good). The second disc of the album is what you came here for, the reason you sat through (or skipped) everything after Master of Puppets on the first disc. I have such conflicting feelings about this album after listening to the GOOD parts of this album. Metallica songs don't work well in a symphonic metal style, they are a thrash band with a thrash vocalist, a shitty drummer, a guitarist addicted to pedals and a bassist who gets 'lost in the mix' (fucked over by the former 3 pieces of shit). I absolutely dreaded listening to this, I feel a great sense of personal shame that my existing love for Metallica has tided me over here. This dogshit half-baked idea unfortunately still has good Metallica songs on it Hetfield's voice is ass, the orchestra still doesn't fit in with the sound, Ulrich is a shit drummer, this idea was totally fucking half-baked and whatever I still liked it. If this were just disc 2 it would be a 3 or a 4, but it's both discs; it's overly-long and full of post-Black Album shit. This album is entirely carried by the songs I put in the highlights section, and I feel a deep sense of personal shame that I enjoyed this dogshit. I think the band itself had a deep sense of shame, 'oh our dead bassist that we love, unlike our new shity bassist, LOVED classical music and ummm uhhh he would probably think this is cool?' They couldn't just admit the truth? Lars Ulrich probably saw the ticket price for an orchestral performance and had his eyes roll up dollar signs. Probably the same reason that tickets for the Australian leg of their 2025 tour start at $500 AUD. Despite the songs I enjoyed on here, I won't be listening to this Tuxedo T-shirt of an album anytime soon. Highlights: Call of Ktulu, No Leaf Clover, Nothing Else Matters, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Wherever I May Roam, One, Enter Sandman, Battery

1 stern

Combining an orchestra with Metallica is like putting perfume on a turd and telling me it's a candy bar. There's no way I was going to try and endure this album.

Kanske tillförde något till ljudet att ha en symfoni med sig, men jag står inte ut med sången.

I’ve never understood Metallica. Generic metal with a guy who sounds like he is yodelling on vocals. The addition of a fawning crowd woooing at every chord change is unnecessary. The only saving grace of this album is the orchestra, which stops us from being a pile of shite that steams for two whole hours.

No siis tässähän on vain Metallican hittejä rivissä. Orkesteri tuo vähän mutta ei paljon. Saisi enemmän tähtiä, mutten ymmärrä, miksi tämä on mukana listalla.

Listan turhin levy: Metallica kierrättää hitit livenä, ja taustalla kuuluu jonkinlainen orkesterikokoonpano (kesto 2h 13min). Hetfieldiäkin kyllästyttää, minkä vuoksi hän iloittelee varioimalla laulumelodioita omaan, maskuliiniseen tyyliinsä. Huonontaa lopputulosta.

Not a fan of metal unfortunately

who had this brilliant idea

The symphony was cool, but I really get listener fatigue whenever I have to listen to Metallica for more than 2 songs. I couldn't wait for this album to end so that I could listen to something else, but this album just carries on forever. I think they could have taken advantage of the symphony a bit more by playing their slower songs more. Or at least space those out better because the front half of this album really dragged on. The fatigue faded a bit when Nothing Else Matter came on, and I thought it was a really nice song to have with the symphony. I appreciate the ambition to add a symphony to Trash Metal, and for the most part I thought it worked. But like I said at the beginning, I just can't listen to so much Metallica in one sitting.

Cheesy orchestra meets cheesy metal. What's to love?

Refused to listen.

Wretched. I hope that the sell-outs at the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra lost money on this.

if you rated this more than 3 you're an ass

What a 2 hour plus load of pretentious bullshit.

Oh dear.

I never really listened to Metallica much growing up so honestly the first full album listen being a live concert kinda sucked, I wish I was able to hear them actually recorded & then the live version. They were good but I didn’t know any of them, so it being live held no value to me. Pretty cool but just not it for me.

I liked parts of it. A full symphony backing a metal band is a cool idea, but for a lot of the songs, the orchestra is drowned out, which loses a lot of the value it could have. The orchestra also doesn't sound "full" so much as "muddy" quite often, and Metallica seems to have an even narrower dynamic range than usual. This adds up to an unrelenting wave of... noise. Just noise. It also has all the usual live album problems of crowd bleed, boring layout, awkward timing, and inconsistent sound. I was very curious about this album going in, and it at least has a good argument to be a live album, as it's a project that is not suited for a studio. Still, it did little to mitigate my bias against both thrash metal and live albums.

I laughed when I saw this come up and I feel like I am piling in with the other negative reviews, but come on! This is a grandiose and overblown novelty album, but at TWO AND A QUARTER HOURS it is overstaying its welcome. I felt like I had heard everything it had going for it three-and-a-bit tracks in; more precisely, three minutes into a NINE MINUTE version of Master of Puppets. And actually, now that I think of it, the first track was just Ecstasy of Gold by the orchestra alone. The rest of the metal / orchestra mix is less than the sum of its parts, it feels like both are trying to play loud enough to be heard over the other. I think this is the first album which I have heard that is so-bad-it's-good. Still bad though, one star.

Pretty noisy, definitely not for me.

AAAAAHHHHHHHH

Oh for fuck sake. Two hours? Absolutely not. I can't stand this band.

Hahahahah! Oooo Boga ti ljubim! Ne znam koliko će mi se ovo u detalje ići raditi, ali ajde. Tekstovima se sigurno neću baviti, a ni tražiti smisao u ovom dvosatnom koncertu. Baš nas voza ovaj generator albuma... Bruno i ja smo S&M brijem preslušali 7493 kao klinci (osnovnoškolci rekao bih), smiješno je, ali ovaj album ima posebno mjesto u mom srcu. Nisam ga pustio valjda 20 godina. Album snimljen u Berkeley Community Theatreu sa Sinfoniskim orkestrom San Francisca: ********** S & M ********* 1. The Ecstasy - Ajme meni, zaboravio sam da se otvara sa Ennio Morriconeovom "Dobar, Loš, Zao" temom... već me strah... 2. The Call of Ktulu - Ja nemam pojma kaj da pišem, meni ovo sve budi sjećanja iz djetinjstva i vrištim od smijeha... 3. Master of Puppets - Orkestar roka i jebene su partiture... Lars nemre da ne sjebe (svovremenski klasik), djuskam si... Isuse nemrem se prestat smijati, ali to neće trajati još sat i četrdesetipet minuta.. 4. Of Wolf and Man - Već mi je dosta, mislim da ovaj album didn't age well... tek je četvrta stvar... bezveze pjesma 5. The Thing That Should Not Be - Super mi je kak su ovdje teški rifovi, a violine sviraju ko da je disko, niđe veze... Mislim da bi mi bilo draže slušati njihov neki studijski album... po mogućnosti St. Anger da mogu sav svoj bijes ispoljiti.. Počinjem kuhati krumpir.. 6. Fuel - Ma tooooooo bato!!! Zali, pali!!! Sad bi otvorio bocu rakije!!! Ovdje me užasno smeta jebeni orkestar... ali užasno... toliko je nepotrebno da je to strašno... a ovaj Michael Kamen koji je pisao partiture, jebote, ko da je htio uništiti Metallicu, toliko je pretjerao sa svime... nemam pojma kaj da slušam u cijelom tom kaosu... Cliff Burton jebo ti Isus mater i tebi i ko je obistinio tu tvoju ideju u djelo... 7. The Memory Remains - Okej, ovo nije thrash metal nego trash metal... ovo je Sena M. metala, Barbie girl tresha... čujem publiku kako urliće i pjeva "na na na", brijem da je tamo bilo jebeno... u kuhinji baš i nije 8. No Leaf Clover - Zašto se pobogu, zašto sjećam skoro svih pjesama... da bar toliko i uživam... kak je ovaj album na ovom popisu? Kad pogledaš ocjene kritičara, to je sve 1/5, 2/5, i 3/5... pa kaj nema na svijetu neki album koji može zamjeniti ovo? Nit je ovo njihovo najbolje, nit mislim da može nadmašiti neke albume koji se nisu našli na ovom popisu... jebi se generator... izvadio i meso za ispeć.. 9. Hero Of The Day - To sam ja jer jebeno moram proći kroz ovu muku isusovu... a ova pjesma je divan laksativ uz kavicu i moje crno govno od sinoćnjih ruskih imperialnih tamnih piva koje tako nježno cure uz mučan Hetfieldov glas koji se trudi romantično pjevati, ali i zvuči ko dečko koji kad odraste želi biti ličanin... 10. Devil's Dance - Kad cujem da Lars broji uvod na čajni, uvijek se pitam tko će od benda prvi i zadnji krenuti, imam osjećaj da je sposoban i na istoj snimci svaki put drugačije uletiti.. tek je 10. pjesma... prošli tjedna bi već bio gotov sa slušanjem... Beethoven i Schubert si kucaju grob do groba i mole boga da ovo bude izgubljeno u ropotarnici povijesti... 11. Bleeding me - Ovo sam prespavao fala kurcu, taman je krumpir gotov za restani... mislim da moram ponovno srat od uzbuđenja i stimulansa kojeg ovaj album tako altruistički raširenih ruku radosno pruža .. 12. Nothing Else Matters - Serem... i to sa potpunim zadovoljstvom i trudim se stisnuti, točnije, opustiti šupčić toliko suptilno da proljevčić kaplje u ritmu slušajući ravnomjerno rasparčena govanca kako padaju u već osmeđenu vodicu kroz cijelu pjesmu. Poseban naglasak stavljam na gušt viška zraka koji borbenom silinom izlazi tokom solaže. 13. Until it Sleeps - Dragi moj, svi mi već spavamo... jedino što me drži budim je vruće ulje koje me šprica po rukama dok pečem meso. 14. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Za mene... zovu me na Mirogoj... I ova pjesma je tako pretjerana sa svime.. nemrem... a tek je pola... 15. Human - Beethovenu I Schubertu pridružuje se Bach, kad je čuo da je zapravo on bio inspiracajia cijele ove sranjostrofe, te jebu mater svakom zrnu pepela kremiranog Cliffa Burtona.. salatu sam napravio 16. Wherever I May Roam - Jel može postati dosadnije... kak' sam ja ovo mogo slušati... evo iskreno kako... 17. Outlaw Torn - Ova pjesma zaslužuje proljev epskim razmjera, proljevna epopeja u hexametru.. Odiseju usliši moj vapaj i pomogni da svrši ovo neopjevjevano govno! Nika nije htjela izaći iz sobe dok ovaj festival fekalija ne završi, ručao sam sâm... 18. Sad but True - To sam si rekao kad sam shvatio da još nije kraj albuma, ovo jednostano ne staje... još tri pjesme, ajde, možeš ti to ... 19. One - Nije nego devetnaest mamu ti jebem... devetnaest pjesma, devetnaest... dižem si spomenik.. A tek kako su ovo raskasapili sinfoničari... Ma ono... ne!.. ne!.. i ne!!! 20. Enter Sandman - Šteta što nije došao ranije da me uspava.. ovo je već odbrojavanje, još jedna, samo još jedna... Ovi hitovi su uništeni do nepopravljivosti, ovo je JNA tenkom pregaženi osječki crveni fićo.. želudac ponovno krulji, nije dobro... 21. Battery - Za kraj nešto življa stvar koja ponovno pokreće moj gastrointestinalni trakt. U brzini hard core ritma trčim, skidam svoje već dobro izasrane gaće... restani izlazi u gotovo svom originalnom stanju sa primjesom pirea i prožvakanom svinjetinom... umoran sam, znojan... ********** THE END ********** Izmoren, iscjeđen, iscrpljen... Album je gotov, a moj bi dan trebao početi, kako... Izlazim na balkon, puštam da me Borisova kiša očisti, da ispere ovu dvosatnu inkontinencijsku paradu... Gledam u nebo mokrog lica i zahvaljujem se Bachu, Beethovenu I Schubertu što su izdržali ovo samnom... Ulazim natrag u stan, pljunem u pepeljaru punu pepela... Moje srce sada ima novo slobodno mjesto, a moje djetinstvo novi ožiljak... 2/10 (ja sam stvarno "Hero of the Day")

Eh. This was an overkill.

Very much not my thing. Would never choose to listen to a song from this concert over the album versions.

Couldn’t get through it. Ecstasy of Gold got me amped and it was all downhill from there. Don’t think the symphony was additive.

I hate Metallica and I hate the whole concept of symphony cross-overs so I’m not listening to this and giving it one star

Tried to come into this with an open mind but in the end just really don’t care for Metallica, such a self-serious band - if I’m going to listen to metal give me a little more prog rock mixed in, like some MAIDEN. Symphony was cool, but would rather just hear them on their own.

Wow I'm shocked about this but I do not care for this album. I feel like it has such a great concept and I'm sure it would've have been different to see it live but I think the orchestral arrangements/harmonies not only add nothing to but actually detract from the songs quite a bit.

Wasn't a fan of live versions of albums

No. I am not an angry man, and thus this album was not meant for me.

Terrible

A stupid idea like this smells like flop sweat and desperation.

Man what a slog. I have no idea who many Metallica albums are on this list, but I assume it's at least 3ish. Metallica has some great albums, some good albums, and some horrible albums. This thing is it's own thing entirely. I remember this happening 25 years ago and thinking it was a dumb idea then and after sitting through 2+ hours of this now, I can confidently confirm that. There is no reason for them to have ever done this, an ill conceived idea for novelty that no one ever asked for. I can't believe this is on this list. There is nothing significant or essential about this at all. Just stick with their great albums and not this incredible misguided misstep.

so dumb

may have been cool to see live, but not so much as a record.

While I appreciate how cool it is for any band to get a symphony treatment, I’ve never been a fan of Metallica’s music.

Absolute shite, minus 1 for lars

It turns out I don’t like Metallica

Oh dear - awful.

I'm glad I listened to this. Sorry meant I'm glad I'm not listening to it anymore.

Wow man, I’ve never had this album be brought up not to be mocked. Like isn’t this universally hated? How did it end up on this list. I did not listen to it. Checked out Madter of Puppets and it sounds like shit. I like Metallica but this was a big miss for them.

His voice rings like a bell sometimes, so clear and precise! Nothing new there, though. I enjoyed the strings but couldn’t make it through a 2+ hour album. DNF.

😩 I used to play these songs on guitar in high school. I can barely recognize them in these versions lol they’re cheesed out and sound like a midi keyboard band soundtrack to a video game.

Woof. Same note for 2 hours and 13 minutes. Whoever added this to the list is a sadist.

I like the play on the abbreviation: S&M (symphony and Metallica). I am familiar with some Metallica but not many so this will be an intro to some of these with the orchestra. Ecstasy of Gold sounds like the start of a Zelda style video game. I like the concept and I think for super fans or in person would be epic? but I personally felt it was too long and was worn out by it pretty quickly. I rather try at a different Metallica album. 1.5

Horreur complète. Mélange contre nature ! Le massacre de Call of Ktulu puis Master of Puppet, qui font partie de mes morceaux préférés de Metallica, m'a suffit. => -5 / 5

No.

Wtf man This aint it.

this was awful, what the hell is this doing on the list?

Ride The Lightning and Justice For All have been important steps in the history of my taste in music, but I stopped paying attention to Metallica roundabout their black album. Listening to this pompous nonsense for the first time and Jeeesus... I believe doing Metal dressed in symphonic instruments is insidious. Like it exploits people's unfamiliarity with and their often weird, fearfully respectful distance to classical music while diluting both *that music* and the harshness and point of the original, just to sell it twice, and milk some money out of Karen and Bob who normally don't enjoy either but now get to feel sophisticated and, oooh, adventurous. I mean, to leave no doubt about it, they put a stave on the cover: "Look, this is serious music, everyone!" With that said, I was looking to find at least some interesting arrangements here but no. Metallica do shit versions of their songs and an orchestra happens to play along and all over it, some soundtrack to a Special Agent James Rambo flick ordered from Wish. Trash music for money. Garbage Inc. In terms of Did I need to hear that?, the most unfathomable of the so far 141 entries I've had.

No…

Such a fucking tedious band.

Man, I really like Metallica, I swear I do, but the way they play their songs here is just an assault on my soul. The emotional weight in their songs are completely lost here, given over to stadium rock BPMs and shoddy singing from James. I find the symphony on this really good compared to most of the ways I've heard symphonies incorporated into popular music. It's hard to give this album an 1 given the symphony's best efforts, but I connected with this in a hateful way. I ended up skipping a few songs to get to the last three songs, which I felt surely the couldn't fuck up. While enter sandman and battery were par for the course, their version of one is nearly unrecognizable to me, it almost completely lacks the soul of the original song at all. The only thing going for this album over the studio versions of the songs is sometimes the symphonic backing, and, if you saw some of these performances in person, it seems like the energy might've been a lot of fun.

Like Metallica but not this

I don't have a single Metallica album on my record or CD shelf. And it will stay that way after listening to these recordings.

Oh god no. How did this make the list? Not only a live album, but a compilation (I trule hope this is not considered a greatest hits) album on top? Just no. It's not that I hate Metallica, I just find them bland and uninteresting. I tend to like most classical music, but the combination of the two just ruins any interest or enjoyment. And why is this nonsense album so incredibly long? I want my two hours back.

Hated this one

Whilst the idea of combining Metallica and an orchestra is pretty neat, the result is an overly-long and at times mind-numbingly repetitive performance that long overstays its welcome.

I did not enjoy this but at least it was over 2 hours long.

Ugh.

interesting, but it gets old fast.

interminable and frankly just kind of lame. james hetfield's voice also just does not sound great in that weird way a lot of 90s and 2000s metal vocals sound that i can never quite describe. I'm sure this would have been cool to attend, but as a recording it is miserable and neverending

me no likey

Meh

not listening to a live metallica album when idgaf about the original recordings. first track was dope though i love that movie

So this is a live album which is basically a 'Greatest Hits' compilation? I don't think it's a particularly good live album (let's compare with Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison for example). It adds nothing. I ended up listening to the original songs from earlie albums. This is poor.

you know how the theme to Mission Impossible II has the power chord guitars, and it sounds like the year 2000 in the dumbest way possible this is like that another thing 2 hours longer than it ought to be

Sorry I love Metallica, and I love orchestral music, but i just couldn't sit through this. Not even sure why this was included in this list when there are other much more generational heavy metal albums out there to listen to.

bad! just bad! The orchestra makes every song sound like some sort of James Bond movie theme.

I can appreciate trying something new and fresh with classics and reformatting them into something else, but unfortunately I did not think this was very good. Would rather listen to the originals any day. One and a half.

Too too too long. Can something be both epic and dull? As I think this is. + A star for the ecstacy of gold.

This album is bad. Blending metal with an orchestra was an interesting idea someone had when they were high, but highdeas don’t always turn out the best. This sounds the score to a shitty action movie. No part of this was enjoyable.

Metall-i-skit

I lasted 2.5 songs. That's as far as I could get. It's sooooo bad. I feel bad for the poor musicians in the orchestra who have to pretend like Metallica are good. 1 star.

i dont like the live versions so much however Metallica in general is nice

Listening to this album is like eating a raw potato

I remember when this came out in 99, and I sat through it then. I had friends raving about it. I didn't get it then, and I still don't now. The idiotic title (wink wink, see what we did??) should tell you all you need to know without having to waste over 2 hours(!) on this. Only worth one star because the SF Symphony Orchestra is fantastic and they're doing all they can with the material.

Yuck.

A Metallica album with an orchestra? Alright, fine. A Metallica album live? Sure, whatever. Both together? No one was asking for this, and no one is better off for it existing. Don't know who is on vocals for this album but they're particularly bad.

Meh.

Interesting concept overall but this is not for me

Sheer pompous HUBRIS. The best bit is the intro; scored by Morricone, performed by the orchestra and therefore nothing whatsoever to do with Metallica. And this mf is over 2 hours long 😧 Visceral dislike and a true test of endurance to get through this. These guys are absolute tossers 😅🖕

Chun-chun-chunnnnng with an orchestra trying to make itself heard in the background. For 2 hours and 13 minutes. It's a novelty record.