S&M

Hetfield said Burton had proposed combining metal with an epic classical approach. Kamen met the band at the 1992 Grammys and, after hearing the Elevator version of Nothing Else Matters, suggested a full orchestra. The sleeve's S is a backwards treble clef. Steve McLaughlin recorded the concerts and Randy Staub mixed them. Two new songs, No Leaf Clover and -Human, were added to the set, and the band opened with Ennio Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold. The second verse and chorus of The Thing That Should Not Be were cut and the third verse sung in their place. No Leaf Clover has since been played in concert with a recording of the orchestral prelude. It was the last Metallica album to feature Newsted.

Reception

It reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 with 300,000 copies in its first week and is 5x Platinum in the United States. It went to number one in Germany, Australia, Norway and Sweden and to number 33 in the United Kingdom. No Leaf Clover topped the Mainstream Rock chart, and The Call of Ktulu won the 2001 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Rolling Stone gave it three stars out of five and called it the most crowded, ceiling-rattling basement rec room in rock. Kamen died in 2003. In 2019 the band revisited the idea with the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and S&M2 was released on 28 August 2020. Spin gave it 8 out of 10, and NME ranked it 48th on its list of 50 greatest live albums. It sold 2.5 million copies in the United States. The 2019 shows that led to S&M2 were played at the Chase Center on 6 and 8 September. Wayne Isham directed the concert video.