Read on to discover the best collaborations between heavy metal bands and symphony orchestras...
Heavy metal bands and symphony orchestras... a match made in heaven?
‘Never the twain shall meet,’ wrote the famed English novelist Rudyard Kipling – words that might well describe the idea of pairing a symphony orchestra with a heavy metal band. Yet, towards the tail end of the 20th century, that is exactly what came to be. And combining these seemingly dissonant musical genres not only proved to be a huge success, but underscored unexpected similarities between classical music and rock.
Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony: S&M
The most high-profile instance occurred in 1999, when heavy metal band Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by the late Michael Kamen, joined forces to perform two shows in April of that year. A recording of the concerts was later released as S&M (Symphony & Metallica), topping the charts in several countries – though in the UK, it only managed to reach number 33 in the album chart.
Listening to S&M, it’s extraordinary how the orchestra serves to emphasise the musical cadences and emotional content of Metallica’s songs – paradoxically, the addition of a refined symphony orchestra actually intensifies the ‘heaviness’ of the metal. ‘I think that most musical genres are enhanced with the addition of an excellent orchestra and well-written arrangements,’ affirms Barbara Bogatin, cellist with the San Francisco Symphony and one of the orchestral performers at the Metallica concert. ‘The sound, colours and depth possible with a live orchestra make everyone sound better. The San Francisco Symphony has played with artists such as Sting and American rapper Common, and has worked with many other pop and rock artists that demonstrate this phenomenon.’
The orchestra: gradually embraced by jazz, pop... and heavy metal
Though the term ‘orchestra’ dates back to ancient Greece, what we’ve come to know as the modern-day symphony orchestra originated in the Baroque period – the orchestra played a major role in Monteverdi’s influential 17th-century opera L’Orfeo, for example, elevating its onstage theatrics and musical impact. As the orchestra become an essential part of the classical world, it was also adopted by other genres, such as jazz. Elements of the orchestra also started appearing in rock and pop recordings; prime examples include The Beatles’ 1967 song, ‘A Day in the Life’, which featured a 40-piece orchestra, and prog rock group The Moody Blues’ 1967 album Days of Future Passed, featuring the London Festival Orchestra.
Jon Lord and Deep Purple... laying the groundwork
Around the same time, seminal heavy metal group Deep Purple came up with the idea of teaming with an orchestra for live performances. Inspired by The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s 1961 album Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein, featuring the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, Deep Purple organist Jon Lord wondered if coupling an orchestra and heavy rock group could be equally successful. He composed a concerto and teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform the work in September 1969 at the Royal Albert Hall, in turn planting the seed for the development of symphonic metal.
‘Despite the yawning gap between orchestral and rock music perceived at that time, Jon was adamant that it wasn’t so,’ recalls Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover. ‘I believe that his motive was simply to point out that music is music, no matter how the pundits of industry try to define and separate it. Jon’s concerto was not just an exercise in using the orchestra as a kind of lush addition to a band, but the exact opposite; the band was the guest of the orchestra.’
Heavy metal bands and symphony orchestras... stylistic similarities
Deep Purple had laid the groundwork for symphonic-metal collaborations by showcasing what performing live with an orchestra could bring to a heavy metal group. But while prog rock bands soon followed in Purple’s wake, it wasn’t until Metallica’s adoption of the concept that it began to infiltrate the heavy metal genre. Metallica’s performance superbly demonstrated how the might of metal together with the majestic flourishes of an orchestra could elevate music to previously untapped heights. Yet, if one looks back as far as 1913 to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – a work Metallica have cited as an influence on their music – it’s awash with musical complexity, jarring rhythms and elements of brutality – characteristics also found in heavy metal music.
Scorpions and the Berlin Philharmonic... and many more metal collaborations
Since Metallica’s successful alliance with a symphony orchestra, there’s been a proliferation of metal groups performing with orchestras. German metallers Scorpions were quick to follow Metallica’s lead by teaming with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for their Moment Of Glory concerts in 2000 and 2001. An album of the pairing was also recorded and released – for the concert tour, Christian Kolonovits and Scott Lawton alternated as conductors.
Soon, many more groups from the metal genre and its subgenres followed suit, including Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Icelandic folk metal band Skálmöld and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra; Swedish neo-classical metal guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen and the New Japan Philharmonic; British metalcore outfit Bring Me The Horizon and Parallax Orchestra with Simon Dobson conducting; pioneering Scandinavian death metal group Entombed and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Choir; and Dutch symphonic metal merchants Epica, who teamed with both The Extended Hungarian Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and Choir of Miskolc National Theatre.
Heavy metal and classical music... both 'tap into musical extremes'
‘Classical music has so many styles, so it is hard to capture it under one flag,’ explains Epica keyboardist Coen Janssen. ‘Of course, heavy Rachmaninov and such are easily metal music, and happy Mozart maybe isn’t, but anything can be metal; you see it happening in our style with so many different directions and flavours.’
‘I think the common assumption that classical music and metal are at opposite ends of the spectrum is pretty inaccurate,’ says Will Harvey, violinist, artistic director and co-founder of Parallax Orchestra. ‘Metal and classical share a few important elements, one of which is their ability to tap musical extremes. Most musical genres tend to stay in their lane emotionally. The palette with which they can paint is limited by the genre, the instrumentation and the perception of what is acceptable to its audience. Unlike soul music, for example, metal is allowed to go to that darker place where the sound becomes deliberately ugly, and ugliness in classical music exists, too: similar to metal, it has the capacity to go from a whisper to the loudest, most dramatic place you’ve ever heard.’
Heavy metal bands and orchestras... links to the world of cinema
While Deep Purple opened the path for groups like Metallica to form a union with an orchestra, many of today’s metal and orchestral collaborations are taking their cue from the world of cinema. ‘For modern metal bands like Bring Me The Horizon, the influence is more orchestral film music,’ says Harvey. ‘More Hans Zimmer than Stravinsky – and the idea of including orchestral instruments is to accentuate the “epic” elements of the music or to give weight to its melodic content.
‘I think Simon Dobson and I, as the Parallax orchestral arrangers, were keen to write in a way that used the orchestra’s full potential. We are both a bit old-fashioned, perhaps, in the way that we write: we go straight to the page rather than making a demo first. I think most modern orchestral arrangers are used to making demos with orchestral samples, so write in a way that sounds good with those samples – the long sweeping string lines, sustained horns and staccato rhythmic underlay of modern film scores. The way that we write requires a bit more trust from the client, as the music will likely have articulations that are too complex to be played satisfyingly with samples. But it does allow us to write in a much more articulated way that means that the orchestra sounds much more virtuosic – something that classical music and metal share.’
Heavy metal and symphony orchestras... wider acceptance and inclusiveness
Pre-S&M, a collaboration between a heavy metal group and orchestra may have been considered sacrilegious. Yet in its aftermath, a new generation of orchestral musicians have embraced the coupling. This in turn has brought about an openness and inclusiveness within both genres, and has led to a wider acceptance and appreciation of classical and orchestral music in the mainstream pop world.
‘I think S&M was quite a cultural shock at the time,’ affirms Harvey. ‘It was new territory for everyone and probably wasn’t easy, either. Freelance players in cities like London are used to doing a wide variety of work, but full-time orchestral members (such as those in the San Francisco Symphony) tend to just play what their orchestra plays, and it might have been well outside their comfort zone! But having said that, many musicians now are aware of Metallica’s S&M as it’s part of the cultural consciousness. So, when modern collaborations happen, orchestral players are open to it, and it’s welcomed as an exciting change from the normal repertoire.’