S&M2

About

When Metallica joined forces with the San Francisco Symphony for 1999’s <i>S&M</i>, there was natural skepticism amongst fans on either side of the genre divide—at a glance, metal and classical music are true opposite, the oddest of couple. But Metallica has long understood the spiritual links between the two. “If there's any sort of dissonance, it's largely optical,” guitarist Kirk Hammett tells Apple Music of the pairing. “There have been musicians in the past who were searching for a sound and a feel like heavy metal, but it just wasn't invented yet. The technology and the sounds weren't there, so they had to settle for what they had at hand, which is string sections and bra. To a certain extent, there was a type of classical music that was the heavy metal of its time.” To celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, the two outfits reunited to open up San Francisco’s newly completed Chase Center arena with a two-night event in September 2019. Where its predecessor positioned the band in front of the orchestra (at the comparatively modest Berkeley Community Theater), <i>S&M2</i> finds them fully integrated and playing in the round, thanks in large part to major advances in sound design and cordless mic technology. “This time, it really felt like we were just one big, big, big band,” Hammett say. “For me, it's the ultimate: being able to play a huge, fucking loud power chord, and to hear 70 instruments just fall into place behind it to make it so much bigger.” .

via Apple Music

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