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S&M2 [Live] Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

  • Artist(s): San Francisco Symphony
  • Summary: The live album of the metal band performing with the San Francisco Symphony at San Francisco's Chase Center features songs recorded over two nights in September 2019.

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Aug 27, 2020
    100
    No mere nostalgia trip, S&M2 stands as a tribute both to Metallica’s growing confidence as players and composers, and an absolute vindication of their decision to revisit one of their most inspired creative outings. Within our world, they remain utterly fearless and inarguably peerless.
  2. 90
    S&M2 is a success on the grandest of scales. [Sep 2020, p.84]
  3. Aug 28, 2020
    83
    Overall, everything is brighter here versus the original S&M. It’s a celebration of Metallica, their fans, and their music. Let this version of S&M2 be the one that’s remembered.
  4. Aug 27, 2020
    70
    Overall, 'S&M2' is a worthy successor to its predecessor, but not without its faults. ... From the outset, it’s clear the recording is sharper and punchier than its 20-year-old counterpart, but with a far less forgiving mix. While before the orchestra and band blended into one digestible wall of noise, at times, it sounds like instruments are competing for room this time around.
  5. Sep 3, 2020
    70
    Burton was a classical music aficionado, and was said to have introduced elements like harmony and sophistication into Metallica’s early no-frills thrash. S&M2 puts that influence on full display.
  6. Aug 28, 2020
    70
    What makes S&M2 so absorbing and entertaining is how all the musicians involved embrace both the ridiculousness and seriousness of their endeavor, creating a glorious overblown noise impressive in its ambition, heft and unspoken absurdity.
  7. Sep 1, 2020
    52
    The album suffers from the same primary problem that plagued the original S&M: Metallica’s best songs, intricate and ambitious though they may be, are not actually well suited for the additional orchestrating they get here, precisely because they are plenty symphonic already.

See all 8 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 19
  2. Negative: 5 out of 19
  1. Aug 28, 2020
    10
    Trolls lowering the ratings. LISTEN TO IT. This is--somehow--even better than the first S&M! Songs you were meh on sound tuned up and roar!Trolls lowering the ratings. LISTEN TO IT. This is--somehow--even better than the first S&M! Songs you were meh on sound tuned up and roar! Spectacular and as good as Metallica's very best! Expand
  2. Aug 30, 2020
    10
    Don't trust the people who hate this album their all people who like pop music the worst genre because it takes 0 skill to make they don'tDon't trust the people who hate this album their all people who like pop music the worst genre because it takes 0 skill to make they don't play instruments, they don't write their own lyrics, and they don't even use their own voices thats how bad they are. especially that one album future nostalgia Expand
  3. Aug 30, 2020
    10
    These 60 year olds still got it! The track list maybe a bit exhausting. But it's never enough of a good thing.
  4. Aug 30, 2020
    10
    Absolutely incredible. One could nitpick what was chosen to be amplified or quieted for songs in the mixing (certain parts of the orchestraAbsolutely incredible. One could nitpick what was chosen to be amplified or quieted for songs in the mixing (certain parts of the orchestra often take a backseat or are muted for bits), but pushing that aside, the album you actually get lives up in every way to the first S&M and is a classic needed in any fans library.

    I won't be listening to anything else for quite a while, that much is certain.
    Expand
  5. Sep 9, 2020
    9
    An awesome sequel to the first S&M album, with amazing variations of existing songs. The best tracks are (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, TheAn awesome sequel to the first S&M album, with amazing variations of existing songs. The best tracks are (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth, The Unforgiven III, Scythian Suite Op. 20, Iron Foundry Op. 19. All songs are as great as the first album. Expand
  6. Sep 16, 2020
    4
    Here's me watching S&M 2 on the ever-so-slightly overpriced DVD so you don't have to. Fade to..., eh, into, hmm, a rapid jerky intro ofHere's me watching S&M 2 on the ever-so-slightly overpriced DVD so you don't have to. Fade to..., eh, into, hmm, a rapid jerky intro of travelling high speed through San Francisco in a car. Oh, there's a fan from Columbia roaring approvingly at a camera. An outside shot of the famous Fillmore club on Geary boulevard, home to many a rock legend live set, but unfortunately onward to black-clad 'metalli-fans' outside the spangly new corporate 'Chase Center'. This performance is a christening of sorts, coming two weeks after opening. Yes, yes, you have tickets, stop being smug. And it's gone none more black, we're inside, cameras panning, people cheering. A round stage, surrounded by the SF Orchestra lit up just by their music stands. Serious looks. Middle-aged couples in the audience gurn in anticipation. Big cheer for conductor 'Edwin **** as he strolls out in black shirt with two rows of studs buttoned across his shoulders. Edgy. A shot of an audience member holding a flag with Michael Kamen's face on it, then to smiling Edwin. Kamen's dead since '03. Big respek audience member! Thus ensues 15 minutes of widdly-widdly wind work before James opens his gob on song three: 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. Therein two upright lads fight over a xylophone in a panic. Moshtastic. Alas no. The hair on my neck remains seated, much like the crowd. With the jingly-jangly nature of the orchestra, the bombastic songs lose their primal punch, rendering them sort of like over-the-top Mission Impossible scenes, John Woo-style. Weird. Doesn't stop Edwin and the lads sharing celebratory grins with each other though. Slower songs, ala song 4: 'The Day That Never Comes', work well with cello accompaniment but fast bits evoke little Tom Cruise, knees up, elbows in, running nowhere in circles. There's a full 15 minutes of close-ups of fan-tallicas (all camera-friendly couples, not an unsightly freak in sight) and orchestra members (young beardy flautists) before James (with greased back two-inch sorta-silvery long-ish hair, looking not far from a pub regular in your home town) spits into the 'phone. At 32 minutes the audience is so bored they're resorting to acapella football-esque 'woah-woah-woahs' to the self-satisfied approval of sweaty tub-thumper Lars. The overblown nature of it all continues into newer tracks 'Confusion' (chunky, chugga, parp-peep filler) & 'Moth into a Flame' (fast trumpet noises), the refrain 'build a higher ground' works well with the orchestral lift mind you. Cue close up of Lars chewing his tongue and leering at the thought of all this done-before* money-spinning predictability. *By Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd for example. Saddle up for the 'Outlaw Torn' getting the biggest cheer for the chunkiest riff yet. Kirk has a Flying V! There's four cellomen readying themselves. No Wagnerian tritones but again, being slow tempo, this does work and, pray tell, a little shiver occurs. Although for the wrong reasons as the classical flourishes are reminiscent of those '80s Bellisario shows like Magnum when there's jeopardy ahead - De-de-daaah (hint of triangle and washboard). Then the colour has had enough of this rubbish and disappears for a piss during the intro of utterly forgettable and appropriately monochrome 'No Leaf Clover'. In the middle, the music stops, James goes off for a smoke and Lars address the crowd with his prowess for geography and blurts his way through the country flags he sees in the crowd. And much like his drumming, he makes mistakes. Therein I fall into a coma for the next 30 minutes of orchestral manure in the dark before being sickly awoken to Cliff Burton's 'Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)' which is uncomfortably strangled by what seems to be David Tennant in slip-on shoes and a distorted cello. RIP Cliff, glad you're not alive to witness this bland band shorn of the ingredients that made them resonate with fans. Finally a decent song stumbles back in from the toilets, holding four watery arena-priced cups of Heineken in a Styrofoam tray and 'Wherever I May Roam' pipes up. Short-lived consciousness and more shut-eye during 'One' where the granite slab of a riff is pitifully soaked down by the orchestra. The machine-gun ratta-tatta just farts out a wet request to take its eyes, arms, legs, and life, leaving it where it rightly belongs in "hell" (James squeals this out a castrato). That's it, enough soft-bag desecration. It's not working. I can't go on. Not even 'Enter Sandman' is saved. S&M 2? Sniffling & Mewling squared! *Headbutts keyboard*. Expand
  7. Aug 29, 2020
    0
    Sorry, but for 80 + points? a live album from an old, though well-known band? This album did not bring any innovations, but critics gave aSorry, but for 80 + points? a live album from an old, though well-known band? This album did not bring any innovations, but critics gave a rating, as if it was something unreal, 0 out of 10 Expand

See all 19 User Reviews