Classical Metal

I found a lost treasure today...disc two of my Metallica S & M cd set originally released in 1999. I'm listening to "Call of the Ktulu" and "No Leaf Clover" and all the familiar songs I've missed for so long. This music reminds me of when I realized my life was about to change. I was at home, hurriedly cooking supper, listening to MTV.

I heard Metallica and San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra in the same sentence, and froze. Huh? I looked at the tv, and saw a huge concert hall, filled with rolling smoke that fell from the stage like the creeping mist after a rain. I saw lights pale, then blindingly bright dance across a platform...a rock concert, perhaps? Then I saw the sillouette of human forms, all alarmingly in perfectly curving rows, flanking the stage like attentive shadows.

The spotlights warmed and illuminated this eclectic mix of pomp and circumstance and the raucous ranks that comprise the group Metallica...Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, the unapologetic James Hetfield, with Jason Newstead (who took the place of original drummer Cliff Burton who died in a freak bus accident in Europe). Michael Kamen manned the classically trained emsemble, who sat, poised, looking alarmingly uncertain. No wonder...the crowd was going insane! Metallica, whom had suffered much speculation under rumors of breakup, addiction and worse, had been unusually absent from the public. They, like many of us, had gone underground because of pure speculation. But, they returned to the masses refined, insightful and artfully inspired. It was amazing to watch and to hear.

There was an eclectic mix of music lovers present that night, as this was no ordinary night at the opera...die hard metallica fans sat side by side with normally aloof and classically trained observers from all walks of life. I sat mezmerized, all constraints forgotten, as they spoke to me through arrangement and verse. I remembered where I came from, I remembered who I was. You see, I was lost to myself at that time, and had lost touch with the very core of my being.

Then the first note was struck, and it was not the electrified hum of an amp, but breath over reeds, the stroke of the bow on strings. I was awestruck to hear the familiar tunes I had come to love brought to life on a sheet of music. The orchestra obeyed as Kamen instructed, and Metallica stepped into the welcoming glow of the spotlight and made their screaming debut. The meshing of this ancient art with the newly discovered vehicle of energized music blew me away, leaving me stunned and moved. After all, what pleases one's senses is just another method of delivering the primal offering that all humans crave...the mathmatical magic of rhythm.

I have come to love this mix of formal and irreverant music, and it comforts me in times that I feel lost. It reminds me that I am a combination of the two, forever mixed and tormented by my polar natures. For a moment, I am comforted in the rediscovery of my lost treasure.

Whether you like Metallica or not, this is definitely worth a listen. And if you are a fan, I suggest you check out www.cdnow.com and buy the dvd. Your eyes and ears will not believe it!

Simply put? It rocks.