Michael Kamen and Metallica came together to record a live album combining rock music and the symphony orchestra. The title “S&M” is short for “Symphony & Metallica.” Michael Kamen had worked with the band before on the original “Nothing Else Matters” in 1991. Metallica debuted two brand new songs during the symphonic shows (No Leaf Clover and - Human). A concert video is also available, featuring footage captured from the two nights in April 1999.

James: “Michael Kamen came to us with the idea almost two years ago. He’d done projects with other rock people, like David Bowie, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd. He wanted to get a little more extreme, so he chose us. I'm sure there's something more extreme -- he could have picked, like, Graveworm -- but I think we were a pretty good choice. We said, “Hell, yeah.” You don't pass these things up. It took two years to pull together -- from the initial idea to deciding which orchestra to picking the songs.”

No Leaf Clover and Minus Human are the only new tracks contained on the album.  All the other songs on this album have been previously released on earlier albums.