Lou Reed
Metal Machine Music: Performed by Zeitkratzer

Reading this review without ever having listened to "MMM" or even having heard of it is pointless.
Well, maybe it will do you good. Reading is good. But perhaps you won't get the most out of it.

Run away while you can, and if you're interested or are a masochist, get yourself a copy of "Metal Machine Music" whether it's the original from '75 or the orchestral performance that I'm about to review here, it doesn't really matter: it was just to give you the idea that this is not a record.

No chorus, no verse, no lyrics, no song, no riff. Four sides of pure noise of feedback blown to the max.

It's clear that such a record can attract more criticism than praise. Few people have truly understood and deemed it a masterpiece.
The king Lester Bangs always showed his appreciation for this work (less so for Reed himself) considering it an absolute masterpiece and giving this definition:

"Do you know when you're so tense and anxious that all the nerves in your neck tie into a single burning ball? Well, if that gland could make music, it would sound like Metal Machine Music...(…)...this is really the sound of Lou's circulatory system"

And it's a metallic, austere, dark, evil, and perverse sound where the monolithicity of the guitar distortion reigns supreme.
So, what sense would it make to have such an album played over 30 years after its creation by an orchestra made up of classical elements?
Lou Reed states in the liner notes that at first, he was skeptical about the operation, but when he heard the first results, he was blown away. Lou is a big blowhard, as Lester would say. But indeed, listening to the Zeitkratzer orchestra play the entire MMM, one can't help but agree with him, at least this time. In fact, despite the diversity of the instruments used compared to the original, Metal Machine doesn't lose its grit or significance. On the contrary, the orchestral interpretation makes it all more anguished, perhaps even more human within possible limits, of course, because it is still pure noise we are talking about. It is also noteworthy that towards the end of the work, Reed (who remains backstage throughout the duration of MMM) appears with his faithful electric guitar and starts engaging in a truly inspired yet perhaps a bit too baroque solo.

It should also be noted in closing that this record is marketed with a DVD in which we have the performance of the orchestra and Reed's final solo where he enters the scene at the end as the most awaited guest, positions himself at the center of the various components, and almost seems to act as the conductor.

After all, this is his creature. He has always defended it just as a mother does with her child. And the more years pass, the more one realizes how Lou with this work saw the future. And if after reading this and listening to the work examined here you don't agree or consider "Metal Machine Music" a pile of rusty scrap metal being crushed under a steamroller, well, as Lou Reed himself wrote on the cover of the original version:

"Most of you won't like this record. I don't blame you at all. It's not for you"