Symphony & Metallica
The mixture of heavy drums and blood curling loud guitars and a man who screams profanity into the microphone along with the ’’sweetness’’ of a violin and ’’innocence’’ of other classical instruments might not exactly appeal to most people(me included) but believe me this concert has to be one of the greatest ever, not in terms of size but in terms of music.
Basically billed as the concert which pitted a tuxedo against torn jeans as experts wondered and debated on what the fans would wear to the concert; the band collaborated breathtakingly with the San Francisco orchestra and played only in two locations at New York and then at Berlin.
I have to admit that barring a couple of songs, I hated this band and I could never get what people used to do at their concerts head banging and singing along with their lead singer.
Then Symphony & Metallica happened.
I basically picked up this CD more out of curiosity than anything else. Being a huge fan of Pink Floyd and seeing Metallica collaborating with Michael Kamen a man who had worked wonders with Pink Floyd in many of their songs.
This CD blew my mind.
The songs are basically all of Metallica’s greatest hits over the years but performed along with an orchestra.
One song to watch out for is Call Of Ktulu which is an instrumental .The song is around 9 Minutes long, starts off slowly and builds up pace and is accompanied by great guitars, great violins and all other instruments and backed up by great drums.
My absolute favorite in the entire album has to be No Leaf Clover which starts off with great pace by the orchestra and manages to keep the intensity throughout the song with brilliant soaring vocals by the lead singer; the song has some scary lyrics too; starting off with hope and ending up with downright desperation.
’’Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
is just a freight train coming your way’’
Nothing Else Matters is another classic as well, one of their most popular songs because (yeah! you guessed it) seemingly slow when compared to their other songs! And its a must listen.
Enter The Sandman easily Metallica’s greatest hit is also brilliant and the crowds involvement along with the band as they sing is just fantastic and the small little instrumental at the end of the song is really good. I was pretty surprised though that both parts of Unforgiven were not a part of the concert.
Some of the lyrics are absolutely ridiculous and downright laughable especially the song Fuel which makes absolutely no sense but makes up in its intensity and pace.
Other good songs include Master Of Puppets and For Whom The Bell Tolls .
One great thing to watch out for is the tremendous work put in by the drummer Lars Ulrich, hardcore Metallica fans tell me that its nothing when compared to other concerts but to first time listeners its a must watch out.
All the songs are excellent and will in all probability pump a person up when he is feeling low, though not with the lyrics but with the pace and frenzy of the songs. The album also provides a great background when one is exercising especially when pumping iron
All in All a great buy especially if you have some spare cash and you have no inspiration to buy the same type of music you are used to but
WARNING: if you can not take even a little bit of Heaviness and grunge then this is not for you.