This is a recording of Metallica's live show alongside the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Confused? Well, let me ease your fears by assuring you that this is a brilliant double cd.
The orchestral backing to the songs sheds new light on them and brings out aspects that I've never seen before. The two new tracks on offer are both excellent too, and seem to have been written to take full advantage of the extra musicians.
A minor quibble is that James Hetfield's vocals are sometimes a little poor, but that's to be expected from live performances (he's still streets ahead of the Spice Girls) and he pulls out all the stops on the new songs.
Also, the orchestra plays a very minor role on some of the songs. I feel they could have chosen some pieces more suited to this experiment, but again, this is just a minor point.
I recommend this to anybody who likes Metallica, even a little bit. The orchestral backing makes old favourites so fresh you'd be mad not to.