Metallica's S&M2: The Sequel We've Always Needed - RPC Jukebox #1

Welcome, metal-heads, to the first edition of RPC’s Jukebox, where we analyze Metallica’s S&M 2, the sequel to 1999’s S&M, featuring the seminal metal band in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony! From new hit songs off Death Magnetic and Hardwired… To Self-Destruct to classics from the Black Album, Ride the Lightning, …And Justice For All, and Master of Puppets, this live performance combines the different eras of Metallica’s discography with a dynamic symphonic flair and top-notch production. Watching the video recording brought back memories of a pre-coronavirus world, where we could all join together and just rock out with each other in a stadium full of fellow fans. I miss those days. Enjoy the episode!

For this episode, we were joined by the Super Saiyan Death Metal God himself, Nick, who certainly schooled me with his wealth of metal knowledge! And our host, Mike, the Captain himself, gave us a little background on his knowledge of Metallica and his favorite tracks off the original S&M, as well as S&M2! So, without further ado, allow me to disclose my own history with the band, and with metal itself.

As some of you may know, I grew up in a Roman Catholic household, but thankfully, most media and art forms were considered pretty acceptable. It was a bit restrictive in terms of content, but my parents loved music, enjoyed watching movies and TV, and were pretty cool with the less…mainstream art forms, like video games and comics. My mother was a musician at the local Church, at the time, so she understood and appreciated classical music and oldies and popular music. As long as it wasn’t glorifying violence or sex, she was cool with it, and I could listen to it.

Of course, harder music like rock and metal was a tough sell in my house. Metal in general had a reputation for being “the devil’s music,” so it wasn’t exactly allowed within our walls. As I said in the show, I didn’t become a Metallica fan until long after their initial popularity in the ‘80s, so my first exposure to their work came while listening to the great (now defunct) radio station in Hawaii called 97.5 KPOI. They were a bastion of good music in a sea of pop, hip-hop, and reggae at the time, so I really enjoyed listening to them. While they went through their regular playlist of Tool, Radiohead, Incubus, and Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes, I finally heard my first (and favorite, to this day) Metallica song, “Nothing Else Matters,” from their 1991 Black Album, officially titled Metallica.

It was life-changing.

I know that hardcore metal fans and Metallica die-hards would probably laugh (or at least chuckle) at that admission, but “Nothing Else Matters” really spoke to me. The lyrics were beautiful, full of longing, and a little melancholic. The instrumentation had so much raw emotion and soulfulness. The slow build to James Hetfield’s guitar solo was euphoric, and the outro to the song is amazing in its deliberate, slow fade out. It felt like an exhalation, like the ending to a climactic melding of souls, intertwined as they unleashed their furious, rhythmic love of music out into the world. Okay, that was a stretch, even for me, but you know what I mean, right?

I mean that it was really good, and I dug it.

Now, that may have been the song that got me into Metallica, but it wasn’t the only one I loved. “Unforgiven,” “The Day That Never Comes,” “Fuel,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Enter Sandman,” and countless other songs have hit me in a way that most bands’ work did not, and that’s not me throwing insults or shade at other musicians. I just connected with the dynamism and complexity that Metallica brought to their music. James Hetfield’s commanding voice, Kirk Hammett’s shredding those lead guitar solos, Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo’s awesome bass guitar, and Lars Ulrich’s pounding drums combined to form a unique sound and a driving energy that was unlike anything I’d heard before. And it was built upon the contributions of the great Cliff Burton (RIP), Dave Mustaine, and Ron McGovney, who had all been members of the group in the past.

All of this is preamble to the main event, which is the latest release from the band, S&M2, the sequel album to 1999’s S&M, a collaborative effort between the San Francisco Symphony (conducted by the late great Michael Kamen) and Metallica. S&M is quite possibly my favorite album of all time, so hearing about the sequel album was exciting for me. I tend to be an optimist when it comes to this sort of thing, so while it may have caused trepidation for many fans, I thought it would be interesting to hear how a more mature and experienced Metallica would sound with a symphony backing them. Much like the first S&M, it did not disappoint.

Note: I won’t go into a full breakdown of the performance here, but I will highlight certain songs. If you want our full thoughts on the concert, listen to us discuss it on the podcast above!

While it’s true that I do feel like a few songs could have been added to the tracklist, I think S&M2 is a worthy successor to the original symphonic metal album. The performance begins with “The Ecstasy of Gold” and “The Call of Ktulu,” which is as solid an opening here as it was on the first S&M. Contrast that with the intermission/opening of disc two, which features the symphony performing two movements from Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite as the band takes a short break. I’m certain that Hetfield and his bandmates wanted to give the symphony a moment to shine on the recording, which is certainly a laudable decision on their part, but Nick raised a good point on our podcast when he said that the ten minutes or so spent on showcasing the symphony could have been used to play one or two new Metallica songs. Thankfully, the band closes things out with a strong second half, anchored by the ending duo of “Nothing Else Matters” and “Enter Sandman.”

Disc two also features a performance of “(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth” by an extremely talented bassist named Scott Pingel. Pingel utilized a standing electric bass for the performance and absolutely shredded it! It was a show-stopping performance and a very memorable tribute to Cliff Burton, who originally recorded the song on the band’s 1983 record, Kill ‘Em All. It’s an astonishing solo, and Burton performed it expertly, both in studio and live, and Pingel’s tribute was incredible to behold.

Overall, I was hugely impressed by S&M2, and I cannot wait to see what Metallica does with their next project, whatever form it takes! This band is a constant source of energy for me, and their work never fails to lift me up when I’m feeling desperate or depressed. We at RPC will continue to support the band, and we hope you will, too! Please go to Metallica.com and buy their merch, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays! Continue to support the musicians, bands, and artists you love! We need them now more than ever!

Thank you for all your support and for listening to the first episode of RPC Jukebox! We hope to make this a recurring series on the Renegade Pop Culture Podcast Network, and we hope to have Nick back on as a guest host for many episodes to come! Thanks to my co-hosts, Mike and Nick, and we dedicate this podcast and our upcoming Tooned Up and X-Men episodes to the memory of actor Chadwick Boseman and his friends and family as they mourn his loss. He was a true king to us all. Please donate to cancer research if and when you can. Thank you.

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