Metallica - S And M

I haven't seen Metallica live, nor have I seen any other of their DVD's.. therefore I cannot compare it to any of their others. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Not once did I feel boredom as each song was good choice without filler. Top socks

Im not a big fan of Metallica. However after watching this i am amazed at the way the band played with the orchestra.

Starting with the positives, this DVD does have good quality sound and visuals. The documentary sections are entertaining (as always) and amusing. However, to my mind - Metallica's songs were written to be played hard and fast and are 'riff' driven. What Hettfield left out of his compositions to make them sleek, fast and aggressive - the orchestra appears to put back in, adding violins & flutes trilling away over the top. At one point Hettfield actually laughs and shakes his head while imitating the 'lilting' violin parts at the end of a song.

Occasionally this kind of combination works superbly. Take, for instance, Page and Plants 'No Quarter, Unledded' with the London Metropolitan Orchestra and Egyptian strings with percussion. A true merging of east and west. But it worked mainly because they chose the more acoustic driven, folk rock, mystical Zeppelin tracks - which were benefited by strings. Zeppelins harder edged tracks like 'Black Dog' and 'Rock n Roll' were avoided completely, with just a touch of 'Whole lot of Love' included after the divinely played Kashmir (which, lets face it, basically had Orchestra parts built in with John Paul Jone's keyboard section). It worked so well, I had shivers down my back. It was genuinely ground breaking. Jimmy Page apparently had the same sensations when playing on stage. It was also plain to see both the band and Classical musicians were appreciative of the incredible contribution they were making to the music.

In contrast to this - the Metallica classical muso's often have puzzled looks at sheet music, frowns while playing the same repetitive notes. Its not all bad, but it is apparent. The DVD has the option to 'switch off' the Orchestra completely so you can listen to the gig with just the band. I have to say I went for this soon after - and enjoyed the rest of the gig undisturbed.

I like Metallica - don't get me wrong. But you would be better off buying a normal Metallica DVD every time. For me it didnt work, and I feel this was more of an ego driven concept than a genuine musical one, backed up by the fact Jason left the band soon afterwards, citing such reasons for his departure. But, hey, they had a go at it. Good luck to them.

At first , the mixture of Metallica and a symphony orchestra struck me as a strange combination. a little bit like a recipe with steak and custard both involved! but given a listen the Metallica plus orchestra combination really works....bigtime.

obviously the song arrangements have been adjusted a little but what you basically get is the lads usual comitted perfomance with violins embellishing the riff giving the song even bigger impact.

It's Metallica with an orchestra and it rocks!