Metallica recently revisited one of the more interesting
concepts and experiments they ever attempted, performing live with a full
symphony accompanying them. Their first such endeavor, with Michael Kamen and
The San Francisco Symphony, in 1999 yielded a live album and home video as
successful as the collaboration itself, S&M. When their hometown was
ready to open a newly constructed venue, The Chase Center, coincidentally 20
years after their initial collaboration, Metallica was approached to perform
with the orchestra again. Portions of two back-to-back nights just a few weeks
ago (Sept. 6th and 8th)
have now been edited into a new concert film, simply titled, S&M2. The
film premiered last week in movie theaters nation-wide and as a preview of the
Blu-ray, DVD, and CD packages which will be out next month (just in time for
Black Friday, as if Metallica should release things on any other day…), and as
with most of their albums and concert videos, it is a lot to take in.
S&M2 is an interesting blend of many things. Visually,
in part because of its staging in the round, the film looks and feels a bit
more like Metallica’s late ‘90s concert video, Cunning Stunts than it does
the original S&M, or at least a blend of the two. It is a 20th
anniversary celebration while also being very current, and it takes on
unexpected weight being that it documents the last two performances the band
gave prior to singer/guitarist James Hetfield’s much-publicized return to
rehabilitation treatment. Between the high-level audio and video production and
the performance itself, Hetfield’s work throughout the concert is on par with
everyone else’s, most notably on an emotional rendition of “The Outlaw Torn”
and “The Unforgiven 3” accompanied only by the orchestra. The musicianship here
continues to be top-notch throughout, and whether you are familiar with all,
some, or hardly any of Metallica’s music, there are things here to impress
almost anyone, especially musicians, in general. Drummer, Lars Ulrich,
continues to lead the band through fast, tight arrangements, sometimes at a
tempo outpacing the studio recordings of the same songs, and even with most of
the band in their 50s, the songs seem to speed up rather than to slow down,
itself notable and impressive. Guitarist, Kirk Hammett, continues to wow with
his leads, solos and skilled work with both the wah-wah pedal and the whammy
bar throughout. Bassist, Robert Trujillo, who was not in the band during the
first S&M shows, adjusts his powerful attack to match the tone of
each song as the concert unfolds but shows controlled restraint in key moments
that help the songs work well even in a different context such as this.
To compare the original 1999 concerts to their 2019
counterparts, all of the shows featured two sets of 10 songs each with a half-time
intermission, but while the performances 20 years ago felt more like two halves
of a basketball game, the new S&M2 movie feels like it could be
viewed in four quarters, like a football game. The band opens with a direct
re-creation of the first 10 minutes of the original 1999 concerts, featuring
both a symphonic presentation of “The Ecstasy of Gold”, their traditional walk-on
music, and a flawless rendition of the 1984 instrumental, deep cut, “The Call
of Ktulu”, followed by three fan-favorites to get the show up and running. “No
Leaf Clover”, a song originally written specially for the original S&M
shows, is also included near the end of the first half. The highlight of the
first quarter, however, is an amazing, note-perfect rendition of 2008’s “The
Day that Never Comes”, which seems to have been written to be performed with a
symphony. That song didn’t exist when the 1999 concerts were performed, and the
opportunity for the band to feature orchestral versions of songs from the last
20 years stand out as the most intriguing highlights while also drawing
attention to the fact that Metallica have only released three LPs in the 20
years. The second half of the first set leans hard into the newer or more obscure
material compared to the well-known songs closer to the opening of the show. Engaging
performances of “Confusion”, “Moth into Flame”, and “Halo on Fire”, all from the
band’s most recent album, 2016’s, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, were a
nice balance to the 11 repeat songs that appeared in the 1999 shows and again
in the 2019 material. This is arguably the biggest misstep of returning to
performing with a symphony for a second time. Metallica has a plethora of
material that would pair well with orchestral arrangements, which they proved
the first time around, so it feels like a wasted opportunity for half the new
concert to include songs that already received that treatment instead of
devoting that time to other songs, both old and new (and how you can do
something like this twice and not include “Orion” at some point is far beyond
my comprehension).
Following the intermission, the symphony returned to the
stage without the band for a piece from Prokofiev which was introduced as a
sort of proto-metal in that its narrative theme focused on an ancient tribe which
shared elements of metal culture, followed by a creative take on a Mosolov
piece, accompanied by the band, which sounds like an early form of something
that laid the groundwork for what eventually became heavy metal, entitled “The
Iron Foundry”. These songs are such a change of pace that the third quarter of
the concert, easily the most untraditional and experimental portion, develops its
own unique pace where tones and moods blend and transition from one song to the
next differently than in the other segments of the night. A restrained, acoustic
arrangement of “All Within My Hands”, the only featured track from 2002’s St.
Anger, improves significantly on the original recording, featured
additional vocals from Avi Vinocur, and was followed by the highlight of the
second set, if not the whole show, a beautifully performed, emotionally-heavy
tribute to Metallica bassist, Cliff Burton, featuring orchestra member (and
Metallica superfan), Scott Pingel and Ulrich who jumped in for the end of a
rocking “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth”, primarily on a heavily distorted electric
cello!
It’s hard to go anywhere from there once you’ve hit such
an emotional high-point, so Metallica quickly switches back into “big hits and
fan favorites” mode for the final quarter of the show, breaking out five songs
in a row that are both predictable and were all performed with the 1999
symphony, though it’s hard to ever really get tired of hearing “One” and “Master
of Puppets”, especially when everyone is on their game at each musical
position. Overall, it would be fair for one to argue S&M2 can be seen as
more of a vanity project than a necessary addition to Metallica’s already
legendary catalog, especially after a slue of live dvds, albums, and official bootlegs
that have been available for most shows since 2008, but special shows and
releases of this nature allow long-lasting bands like Metallica and the other
all-time greats of rock history to both continue to engage with their audience and
to present their material in new and different ways, where songs can be viewed
from different perspectives or presented in different tones that make them more
than worth a fan’s time to see or hear. S&M2 might be a bit much to
deal with for someone who isn’t already familiar with at least the band’s
most-notable songs, but for casual or hard-core fans alike, there is plenty
here that is either entirely new or is an interesting enough take on an old
favorite to keep most entertained to the very end.
--------
Movie intro
--------
The Ecstasy of Gold (intro/symphony only) (Morricone)
The Call of Ktulu
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Day That Never Comes
The Memory Remains
Confusion
Moth into Flame
The Outlaw Torn
No Leaf Clover
Halo on Fire
----------(intermission)----------
Scythian Suite, Op.20, Second Movement (symphony only)
(Prokofiev)
The Iron Foundry (Mosolov)
The Unforgiven 3 (Hetfield and symphony only)
All Within My Hands (acoustic) (w/Avi Vinocur)
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth (Scott Pingel & Ulrich
only)
Wherever I May Roam
One
Master of Puppets
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman/The Frayed Ends of Sanity (tag)
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