In 1999, the famous American metal band Metallica treated themselves to a concert with a symphony orchestra around their 20th anniversary. It became a great success, with epic metal symphonies like One, Master Of Puppets and of course the dragging ballad Nothing Else Matters, getting extra bombastic dimensions through screeching strings and blaring brass. The resulting album S&M was a great
… success worldwide and is considered one of the best live albums of all time. A logical step to do it again more than 20 years later. It's just a shame that Metallica has released hardly any material worth mentioning in those intervening two decades. Three skinny albums that are far in the shadow of classics like (1988) or (1986). So S & M2 has to make do with a tracklist full of tried and tested songs, which is practically similar to S&M. Admittedly now with new, even more daring and never-ending bombastic orchestral arrangements. (MR)more
