Jason Momoa, the hulking star of the superhero film “Aquaman” and diehard metalhead, got his hands on an early copy of the upcoming “Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²” release. His short video review of the set can be seen below.
The Hawaiian-born actor, who is perhaps best-known for his role as Khal Drogo in HBO fantasy epic “Game Of Thrones”, is a huge heavy metal fan, having previously said that he listened to a lot of PANTERA, METALLICA and MUDVAYNE to get himself into the right frame of mind for playing a warrior like Conan in Marcus Nispel‘s remake of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger action adventure “Conan The Barbarian”. More recently, he tapped vocalist Oli Peters of the Canadian death metal band ARCHSPIRE to coach him on how to mimic his distinct vocal style for the early troop rallying scene in the Apple TV+ sci-fi series “See”.
“Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²” documents METALLICA‘s September 2019 sold-out shows with the San Francisco Symphony. The package will be available in various formats, ranging in price from $17 to $300, on Friday, August 28.
The “S&M²” concerts were historic on multiple levels: They served as the grand opening of San Francisco’s Chase Center, reunited the band and Symphony for the first time since the 1999 performances captured on the Grammy-winning “S&M” album, and featured the first-ever symphonic renditions of songs written and released since those original “S&M” shows.
The sold-out concerts were rapturously received by the 40,000 fans who traveled from nearly 70 countries, as well as the media: Rolling Stone raved “the group proved that anything was possible,” Variety noted an atmosphere “buzzing with excitement,” while the Mercury News witnessed “a concert that fans will be talking about for decades to come,” and Consequence Of Sound hailed “a true celebration of METALLICA and their musical prowess.”
“Metallica And San Francisco Symphony: S&M²”. “S&M²” will be available in a staggering array of formats, ranging from a digital album on all leading streaming outlets, to 4LP vinyl, 2CD, DVD and Blu-ray versions, to a limited edition color vinyl 4LP + 2CD + Blu-ray Deluxe Box featuring sheet music, guitar picks, poster and more, all the way up to a Metallica.com exclusive Super Deluxe Box, limited to 500 copies, each featuring actual sheet music used by the Symphony during the shows and hand-signed by all four band members (in addition to including everything in the Deluxe Box). With this long-awaited Blackened Recordings release, “S&M²” can be fully experienced by others beyond those who squeezed into the Chase Center over those two unforgettable evenings.
“S&M²” is a landmark release in the METALLICA catalog, both sonically and visually. Produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, the “S&M²” live album captures more than two and a half hours of James, Lars, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo joining forces with the nearly 80-strong San Francisco Symphony, legendary music director of the orchestra Michael Tilson Thomas, and conductor Edwin Outwater. The concert film is a brand-new edit done by Joe Hutching (“Through The Never”) and both the audio and visuals have been taken to the next level from the October 2019 theatrical version that played in over 3,700 cinemas worldwide.
The three-hour concerts were split into two parts and included a rendition of “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)” from METALLICA‘s debut album, “Kill ‘Em All”, performed as a solo by the Symphony bassist Scott Pingel in tribute to METALLICA‘s late bassist Cliff Burton.
Wait a minute… who sent an early copy of S&M2 to this dude??? Heads are gonna roll! ? ?
Glad you diggit, bro! We hope everyone out there digs it too!
Posted by Metallica on Thursday, August 27, 2020
