S & M

Rock 'n' roll is no stranger to orchestras, or to pretension, for that matter. Nor is metal, as is evidenced by a little nugget called "Kashmir" recorded a quarter century ago by Led Zeppelin.

So when the speed-metal-turned-hard-rock tough guys in Metallica announced they would perform two dates with the San Francisco Symphony - with orchestral arrangements provided by composer Michael Kamen - it seemed somewhat bemusing, but hardly revolutionary. Once the novelty of this seemingly perverse collaboration wears off, the more important question to ask is, "Does it work?"

It's the sound of a band challenging itself and its audience. Well yes, yes it does. After a brief orchestra-only opening number, the 15-year-old "The Call of Ktulu" (from Ride the Lightning) begins with restrained finger-picking by Kirk Hammett. He is then accompanied by slowly building strings that weave in and out of the guitar's melody line before the band's bass, drums and rhythm guitar flatten everything in their way. Fortunately, the band does not drown out the orchestra, which adds much drama to the songs by fleshing out the middle range and making the high notes more shrill, and the bass more fat and heavy. With songs represented from virtually all of Metallica's albums, S&M is less a "greatest hits live" package than a reinvention of classics such as "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Battery," "One" and "The Memory Remains" .
Anyone who heard Kamen's string arrangement for "Nothing Else Matters," which makes a show-stopping appearance here, knows that Metallica songs are made to be embellished with strings and horns. (Better yet, check out the two releases by Apocalyptica, four Finnish cello-playing freaks who have a penchant for performing cover versions of Metallica songs.) Only on brief occasions do the arrangements interfere and become unwelcome, such as on "Master of Puppets", in which the strings sound a bit random and uncomfortably out of place, as if they had been invited to an arty party thrown by those contempo-classical noodleheads, The Kronos Quartet.

As far as live albums go, S&M is a rarity. It's the sound of a band challenging itself and its audience, rather than simply functioning as a tour souvenir or a bottom-line booster.