Metallica

From the Source

The live album S&M brought together 'symphony' and 'Metallica' as originally conceived by bassist Cliff Burton. It was recorded at the Berkeley Community Theater with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Kamen. Effectively, a double-live greatest-hits package, it spans Ride the Lightning to Reload with two new compositions 'No Leaf Clover' and 'Human' as well as a symphonic cover of 'The Ecstasy of Gold' by Ennio Morricone.

While the marriage of metal and classical music might raise eyebrows, James Hetfield considers it a natural progression for a band whose early albums were memorable for their huge scale. Says James: 'We were always trying to write such epic style pieces, especially on And Justice For All. Our pieces were really long and took you through these whole long mazes of sounds. So now, a song like 'Call of Ktulu' has come full circle. It's like the ultimate complement to that song to play it with a full orchestra because we were trying to be orchestral ourselves. The symphony also completes new songs like 'Outlaw Torn' and 'Bleeding Me'.'