Appropriate bookends: Metallica, one of the world's foremost heavy metal bands, at their rawest and most dirty and grimy and then Metallica, the polished superstar metal band performing with an orchestra.
Granted, they can do what they want. I don't think they need to prove anything to anybody. They probably could have made the same ol' thrash metal album for 25 years and by 1996, when S&M was released, we probably would have criticized them for trying to be the same band they were in 1986, growing their hair out despite the receding hairlines and wearing the same scowls, T-shirts and ripped blue jeans.
Still, an orchestra. The Metallica of ...And Justice For All would have beat up the Metallica of S&M and thems just the facts. I think they're pretty content with things the way they are.
What frustrated me on the release of S&M was the band coming out of the woodworks to talk about how they were always inspired by classical music and all that jazz. What. Ever. If they'd covered The Carpenters, they would have talked about how they were so inspired by 1970s AM soft rock.
Essentially, Metallica is a band that can do what George Lucas does with the Star Wars films: Repackage them every couple of years and force everyone to rebuy it. It's a boon for the classical community -- and brought a lot of attention to symphony orchestras -- and it's a multi-platinum album for Metallica re-recording 20-year-old songs.
Also appropriate that ... And Justice For All was Jason Newsted's first album and S&M was his last. I can't do this stuff on purpose.
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