S&M2 [Live]
by Metallica
User Score
6.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 61
  3. Negative: 22 out of 61
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  1. Brandabar
    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! Spectacular and as good as Metallica's very best!
  2. irv_
    Aug 28, 2020
    10
    Perfect show!!!!!!!!!! Metallica did a great job!!! Amazing sound!! Metallica one of the best band ever!!!
  3. cwatz
    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 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    Absolutely 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
  4. AtheisT_
    Aug 28, 2020
    10
    O Miga ( que nos traiu pela Roberta) não percebe nada de música, Best Band ever 10/10.
  5. Yzmtz
    Aug 28, 2020
    10
    Me encanta, ya hacía falta que sacarán algo ojalá vengan pronto a México plisss
  6. wimbleton_johns
    Aug 30, 2020
    10
    This is as good as music gets. Metallica & the Symphony were made for eachother. The album sounds great, and the band is in top form (singer James Hetfield especially).

    Highlights include: The Call of Ktulu, The Day That Never Comes, The Outlaw Torn, No Leaf Clover, Halo on Fire, The Unforgiven III, and All Within My Hands. However the entire album is fantastic from front to back. My    This is as good as music gets. Metallica & the Symphony were made for eachother. The album sounds great, and the band is in top form (singer James Hetfield especially).

    Highlights include: The Call of Ktulu, The Day That Never Comes, The Outlaw Torn, No Leaf Clover, Halo on Fire, The Unforgiven III, and All Within My Hands. However the entire album is fantastic from front to back.

    My only wish is thee symphony were a bit louder in the mix, sometimes they can get drowned out. However this usually isn't an issue and the album still sounds absolutely phenomenal.

    I said it before, this is as good as music gets.    … Expand
  7. popmusicsucks
    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'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
  8. AndyRyse
    Sep 1, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is just another way to justify they haven't aged well when the reality is they are just not giving us the type of music we need, new, refresh and they decided to stay in the same music style, they do not really know to evolve.… Expand
  9. nikris
    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 a rating, as if it was something unreal, 0 out of 10
  10. AlexSans
    Sep 16, 2020
    1
    Un álbum bastante repetitivo muy parecido a los anteriores nada nuevo aburrido no entiendo las buenas criticas si es un álbum pésimo no mesto para nada.
  11. Alf15
    Aug 28, 2020
    8
    The show was far better than i imagined, missing some more songs but good in the end , i don't understand what other bad reviews expected ,brand new content or something?Expected Metallica with a Sypmhony and got it
  12. Kape1976
    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.
  13. MusicNerdViking
    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, The Unforgiven III, Scythian Suite Op. 20, Iron Foundry Op. 19. All songs are as great as the first album.
  14. Rebbe
    Sep 11, 2020
    1
    El álbum sigue siendo un álbum igual que los demás en muchos aspectos nada creativo y bastante repetitivo en sonidos que nisiquiera son bonitos bastante aburrido el álbum.
  15. ninacine
    Sep 1, 2020
    2
    um álbum incrivel e emocionante, uma das melhres performances vocais do james e um dos shows mais emocionantes da banda
  16. Livaao
    Sep 2, 2020
    10
    Un bon album, dans la veine du 1. Certes l'effet de surprise n'est pas le même que la première fois mais ça envoie du lourd. J'ai mis 10 pour contrecarrer les 0 en mode troll. Si je dois mettre une note, je me dirige vers le 8.

    Pour du son encore meilleur, allez vers Springsteen et Pearl jam.
  17. FloydFrisbane
    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 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 toHere'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
  18. Dekielek112
    Feb 20, 2023
    10
    One of the greatest live albums of all time. This time, the songs and an amazing orchestra sounded packed together. A brilliant surprise of Anasthesia and some unpredictable songs make this record unique. The guys are in their live shining age.
  19. Xavier31
    Apr 15, 2023
    9
    Prime 2019 metallica! James in his best! one of the best metallica concerts of all time.

Awards & Rankings

78
#78 Most Discussed Album of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Slant Magazine
    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.
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  2. Pitchfork
    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.
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  3. Consequence
    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.
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