The heavy metal band Metallica is good at making surprises for the world. That doesn’t always go down well with the fans, but the courage of the musicians is admirable. The best example of a failed cooperation was the joint album with Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed. Lulu presented the songs that Lou Reed had written for a play by the director Robert Wilson. The result of the unusual cooperation of disturbed fans and critics. Instead of joining forces, the result of the experiment was nothing but the worst for both sides. The presentation of the first collaboration with a classical orchestra was utterly different. Metallica recorded S&M with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra 20 years ago. It became a huge success. Now it’s the second round for the unusual collaboration.
Heavy Metal Merges With Classical Music
What at first looked like ingratiation to the musical mainstream, turned out to be independent work. After two decades, the two protagonists decided to continue. S&M2 will be released on August 28, 2020, and will continue the work of the first collaboration. The record features numerous titles that have been released by Metallica over the past few years and decades. S&M2 was recorded back in 2019. Now it seems like the ideal time to release another hit. After all, the music scene has also stood still in recent months because of global events. Metallica had previously interrupted their current tour; the reason was a renewed illness of singer James Hetfield.
Recorded A Year Ago
The reunion of the two bands took place on September 6th and 8th, 2019. The occasion was the opening of the new Chase Center in San Francisco. This reunion should now repeat the great success of the first edition. Twenty years ago, Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra received a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category. The album was an international hit and took top positions for many months. No less than eight million copies went over the counter. At the same time, the band released a film based on the album, which also made it to the cinemas. The English music magazine New Musical Express considers S&M to be one of the 50 best live records of all time. That proves that the second edition is following in big footsteps. The band didn’t leave anything to chance this time either.
James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich produced the record together with Greg Fidelmann. In addition to the album, fans can also expect a film this time. That traces the live performance of the two collaborators over two and a half hours. The 80 musicians of the orchestra recorded numerous songs from the Metallica catalogue in new arrangements. The film will also be available on stream and directed by Joe Hutching. The album itself comes in countless editions. Whether as a CD, download, in various special editions, with or without a film. The tracklist contains 22 songs. These range from the traditional live opening work “The Ecstasy of Gold” to Sergei Prokofiev.