S&M contains performances of Metallica songs with additional symphonic accompaniment, which was composed by Michael Kamen, who also conducted the orchestra during the concert. The idea to combine heavy metal with an epic classical approach, as James Hetfield has stated repeatedly, was an idea of Cliff Burton. Burton’s love of classical music, especially of Johann Sebastian Bach, can be traced back to many instrumental parts and melodic characteristics in Metallica’s songwriting including songs from Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. The other inspiration was Deep Purple's 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Purple revived their hybrid musical performance in 1999's In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra after being notified that Metallica were doing theirs earlier that year.
In addition to songs from previous albums spanning Ride the Lightning through ReLoad, there are two new compositions: "No Leaf Clover" and "−Human". "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone, Metallica's entrance music, was played live by the orchestra. "No Leaf Clover" has since been performed by Metallica in concert, using a recording of the orchestral prelude.
Several other songs, including "Wasting My Hate", "The Unforgiven", "Low Man's Lyric", "Fade to Black", The Unforgiven II, "Through the Never", "Harvester of Sorrow", and even more obscure and lesser-played tracks such as "Ronnie" and "Mama Said" were considered for selection, but were eventually dropped as it was decided by both Metallica and Kamen that they were not well-suited for symphonic accompaniment. Unexpectedly, the nearly ten-minute "...And Justice For All" was also considered for the setlist but, due to the gap in time since the band last played it and with little time to prepare, the idea was abandoned. On the S&M DVD documentary, Metallica and Kamen can be seen and heard discussing the orchestration for "So What?", though it's obvious both parties were enjoying a good joke and had no intentions of performing the song.
Changes were made to the lyrics of some songs, most notably the removal of the second verse and chorus of "The Thing That Should Not Be" and playing the third verse in its place.
The "S" in the stylized "S&M" on the album cover is a backwards treble clef, while the "M" is taken from Metallica's logo.
The drum kit Ulrich used on the album currently resides in a Guitar Center in San Francisco.
S&M sold 300,000 units in the first week of release, and went on to sell a total of 2.5 million copies. As of 2003, the album had been certified 5× platinum. As of August 2013 the album had sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.
Live concert recorded with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
"S&M" stands for "Symphony and Metallica".
Recording information:
Recorded live on April 21st & 22nd, 1999 at the Berkeley Community Theater in Berkeley, California.
Mixed and edited from August to October, 1999 at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California.
Additional editing at Plantation Studios in Maui, Hawaii.
Mastered at Sterling Sound.
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