S & M

This album had the potential to be really good but unfortunately was not. Don't get me wrong, Metallica is my favorite band, but I don't see how this is prog. The idea of having a symphony back up Metallica was an excellent idea, but ended up not succeeding. The main reason this album isn't very good is because the setlist is horrible. Over half of the songs are from 1996-onward. The only songs worth listening to are The Call of Ktulu, Master of Puppets, Nothing Else Matters, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Sad But True, Enter Sandman, One, and Battery. That is only eight out of twenty-one. Hardly worth buying the whole album. I recommend just buying the MP3s of those songs. (I got the album for free, save for corrupted files of No Leaf Clover and Battery.) One positive thing is that the instrumentation, by Metallica and the symphony, is exceptional. James' voice sounds great, and although Kirk's soloing is his newer technique of using lots of wah pedal, it still sounds good. Even though this is not an album I'd recommend to proggers it is one I recommend to Metallica fans, just because it adds a new twist to old songs. (Note: this album does have two previously unheard songs, -Human and No Leaf Clover.)