You don't build an eighteen-year rock career by standing still and you certainly don't become one of the biggest names around that way. This is something that Metallica clearly realise, and S&M marks yet another development in their musical evolution, more unexpected and dramatic than any to date. With the help of composer Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra they have reworked a selection of classic Metallica numbers as you have never heard them before. Recorded from live concerts in April '99, the album covers the whole span of the band's career, from Ride The Lightning, represented by For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Call Of Ktulu, up to more recent material from the Load and Reload albums. As you might expect, these last two dominate proceedings, with their softer-edged style more easily adaptable to this sort of project, particularly on tracks such as Hero Of The Day and Until It Sleeps. There is plenty included from the back catalogue, though, including an appearance by Enter Sandman towards the climax, as well as two completely new songs, No Leaf Clover and -Human. Of the recent tracks there are some surprises, with Bleeding Me being an unlikely inclusion. The surprising thing about all this is that it works. Metallica have always been one of the more musical bands in the heavy rock sphere and haven't shied away from augmenting their sound with distinctly un-rock instruments in the past, but this is still something of an experimental success. The added orchestration allows the talent of the original compositions to shine through in a way that sheds a completely new light on them.