Metallica is one of the undisputed greatest metal bands of all time. Their meteoric rise from the underground San Francisco thrash scene in the early 1980s to worldwide fame by the time they released the Black Album in 1991 is unparalleled in the metal community. You’d be hard pressed to find a streak of albums as good as the five Metallica released during this run:
Kill ‘Em All (1983) – Metallica’s debut album, originally titled Metal Up Your Ass and then renamed as a reference to how they felt about music critics, comes off a little cheesy lyrically but shows the band’s incredible musicianship and writing prowess. Very few weak spots. Combined with the success of their No Life Til Leather demo and this album, Metallica established themselves as a force in the thrash scene. Dave Mustaine has writing credits on this album, but drank himself out of the band prior to its release.
Ride the Lightning (1984) – Perhaps the best metal album of all time. Whispers of the band selling out come from the inclusion of “Fade to Black,” a so-called ballad written about the band getting their equipment stolen on the road. Nearly perfect, save “Escape.”
Master of Puppets (1986) – Perhaps the best metal album of all time. Their last, and maybe best, effort with original bassist Cliff Burton. Good luck finding a weak track on this one.
…and Justice for All (1988) – Maybe Metallica’s angriest effort in the wake of the death of Cliff Burton. Replaced by Jason Newsted, he and the band delivered an incredible effort - if they had only remembered to record the bass. It’s also important to note that Metallica created their first music video, a haunting war retrospective for “One,” which gets airplay on MTV.
The Black Album (1991) – Undeniably, a worldwide commercial success that catapulted Metallica firmly into the mainstream. The album, the band’s first with producer Bob Rock, featured major singles which received continuous airplay on radio and MTV. Commercial success is obviously bad, so whispers of the band selling out become more audible at this time.
After the release of the Black Album, Metallica embarks on a multi-year, worldwide tour to support the album, which ultimately manifests itself in a live box set entitled Live Shit – Binge and Purge (available on VHS!). While the band is touring, however, the musical landscape is shifting significantly. As we well know now, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden started to achieve major mainstream success starting in 1991. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – hair metal was out, grunge was in. It’s cliché, but it’s important to consider when we start to look to Metallica’s next two albums following their inconceivable start to their recording career.
Fast forward to 1996: the music world is abuzz with talk that Metallica has a new album coming out. They’ve recorded a massive amount of music over the course of the last 5 years, their longest span without a release since their inception. It’s going to be a double album! Metallica fans of the world rejoice – the greatest metal band in the world is back. And they’re going to put metal back on the map and back on MTV, flannel and Doc Martens be damned. And it’s going to be called…Load?
Wait – where’s the old Metallica logo with the cool vertical lines on the M and A? Why is their jizz and blood on the cover?
What’s this new ninja star logo? I guess that’s kind of cool. Why are they wearing sunglasses inside, that’s an amateur move but I guess they are rock stars….OH NO – THEY CUT THEIR HAIR.
It may seem like an overreaction in hindsight, but this was the range of emotions that longtime Metallica fans felt about this album. Instead of a double album, the record company decided to split the album into two separate releases a year apart. Load, its subsequent brother album Reload in 1997, turned the chatter of the band having sold out to full on shouts that they were going completely mainstream.
And they had a point – the band had completely revamped its image in an effort to capitalize on what was happening in the current music climate. The newly cleaned up haircuts were a particular sticking point – perhaps best noted by Mike Inez’s handwritten note on his bass in Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged session – “Friends don’t let friends get haircuts.” Sadly for the band, it wouldn’t be the last time they tried to adapt their music to the what was popular (please see St. Anger).
Load and Reload were much maligned when released by the metal community. The sound of the albums are a sharp departure from the Metallica their fans had formerly known. Combined with their change in image, the reception of these albums was almost doomed from the outset. On top of these factors, releasing 27 songs within a little more than a year is a very ambitious project. Double albums, as these two releases essentially are, rarely play through from front to back. Bands tend to explore more diverse sounds and are more prone to take risks when compiling such albums, but are also more liable to include more filler for the sake of completing their task of completing a double album.
As we approach the 25th and 26th anniversaries of these albums being released, I want to take a look back at them and see how they fare against the test of time. There are a few things we need to consider in this discussion and some key questions to ask ourselves:
- After 25 years, are Load and Reload objectively good albums?
- Did we really need all 27 of these songs to be released?
- If we took the best songs from both albums, would Metallica have released an album comparable to its first 5 albums?
To do this, we are going to do a brief track-by-track analysis of the albums and then try to compile a version of Load with the best tracks from each. This has been done before, but we now have the context of all of Metallica post 1997 releases to evaluate these albums against their entire catalog (did you forget about their Lou Reed collaboration called Lulu? I hope you did). Each track will be rated out of 5 Metallica ninja stars.
Load (1996)
Ain’t My Bitch (5:04)
- Rating: 2.5 ninja stars
- Review: A decent opening track. If you like hearing James Hetfield say the word bitch a couple dozen times, this song was written for you. Out of my way, out of my day, out of my tracklist.
2 x 4 (5:28)
- Rating: 2.5 ninja stars
- Review: Get used to this sound. Kirk Hammett discovered the wah-wah pedal sometime between 1991 and 1996 and he wants to make sure you know about it. “Friction, fusion, retribution” is a nice lyrical play but when your chorus revolves around hitting someone over the head with a 2x4 maybe it’s time for counseling.
The House Jack Built (6:28)
- Rating: 3.5 ninja stars
- Review: The first bright spot of the album. Haunting and different. A little longer than it needs to be (this will be a theme throughout both albums).
Until It Sleeps (4:28)
- Rating: 3.5 ninja stars
- Review: The first single from Load that went straight into MTV heavy rotation, and you can tell it was written to be. It’s a good song – but I’m sure you were as confused as me to hear this as the lead single from the band who wrote “Enter Sandman.”
King Nothing (5:28)
- Rating: 4 ninja stars
- Review: The last single released from Load – which is a shame as it’s probably the best song on the album. Another memorable video. There’s also a fun nod to “Enter Sandman” in the fade out of the song as James says “we’re off to never never land…”
Hero of the Day (4:21)
- Rating: 4 ninja stars
- Review: The second single – approaching ballad territory but kicks in towards the end. A lyrical bright spot for Metallica on this album, and a personal favorite of mine from the album.
Bleeding Me (8:18)
- Rating: 4.5 ninja stars
- Review: This track ebbs and flows from a plodding and methodical Newsted bassline to a series of beautiful crescendos throughout. Some of Hetfield’s best vocal work on the album, and perhaps the most underrated track on either Load or Reload.
Cure (4:54)
- Rating: 0.5 ninja star
- Review: A low point on both albums. A 5-minute tale about a man’s battle with alcoholism that should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Poor Twisted Me (4:00)
- Rating: 0.5 ninja star
- Review: "Poor Twisted Me" would have been a good alternate title for this article. The second half of Load is not the band’s best work.
Wasting My Hate (3:57)
- Rating: 0.5 ninja star
- Review: Like James says in this song, I won’t waste my hate on it. The only Metallica song in their history without a guitar solo at the time, although it wont be the last (Sorry Kirk).
Mama Said (5:19)
- Rating: 2 ninja stars
- Review: A good country song. Very different than anything Metallica had ever done to this point and a nice tribute to James’ mother. Better than the previous 3 tracks by a mile.
Thorn Within (5:51)
- Rating: 2 ninja stars
- Review: A straight forward rock song, with Kirk messing with his wah-wah pedal again, written mostly by Newsted. A return to form to the beginning of the album. Like most of these songs, it didn’t need to be this long.
Ronnie (5:17)
- Rating: 1.5 ninja stars
- Review: An off-beat, borderline country twangy song about a school shooting which features a semi-spoken word in the middle from Hetfield. Not good.
The Outlaw Torn (9:48)
- Rating: 5 ninja stars
- Review: An epic closer. Some have speculated it’s a tribute to Cliff Burton (“Time was never on my side, so on I wait my whole lifetime”). Hetfield’s best lyrics on the album, a memorable chorus, and instrumental ending reminiscent of classic Metallica tracks of yesteryear. If you have not heard this song, I could not recommend it more.
- Overall Album Rating: 3 ninja stars
- Review: Load delivers some very bright spots – but there are equally, if not more, lows. Tracks 8-13 could have easily been taken out to pasture. The songs that do work are very good – if not a little too long.
We’re going to bring the following tracks with us as we consider Reload: “The House Jack Built,” “Until It Sleeps,” “King Nothing,” “Hero of the Day,” “Bleeding Me,” and “The Outlaw Torn.”
Reload (1997)
Fuel (4:30)
- Rating: 5 ninja stars
- Review: Finally, a straight-ahead ripper to open the album. The best track on either album. Quench my thirst with gasoline – Yes James, I’m all in.
The Memory Remains (4:39)
- Rating: 4 ninja stars
- Review: I dare you to say something bad about a song with those haunting Marianne Faithfull vocals on it. Bonus half star for the cool video with the revolving set.
Devil’s Dance (5:19)
- Rating: 3 ninja stars
- Review: A promising set of verses that lead to a less than stellar chorus. Unremarkable but not the worst we’ve heard so far.
The Unforgiven II (6:36)
- Rating: 4 ninja stars
- Review: It’s usually never a good sign as a band when you start writing sequels to a song – but that’s not the case here. I actually prefer "Unforgiven II" to the original, even with the strange, trippy second verse. Fun fact – there is also an "Unforgiven III." (Quick "Unforgiven" power ranking: 2, 1, 3).
Better Than You (5:21)
- Rating: 1 ninja star
- Review: Here’s where things start to get very lean again. This song inexplicably won the 1999 Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Small solace for Metallica fans who are still upset that “One” lost the 1989 Grammy to Jethro Tull. This song stinks.
Slither (5:13)
- Rating: 1 ninja star
- Review: A notable lyric in this song asks “Have your heroes disappeared?” For tracks 5-12 on Reload, it appears that they have.
Carpe Diem Baby (6:12)
- Rating: 0.5 ninja star
- Review: Clocking in at 6 minutes plus, this track features James pining for a lost love and asking her to “come squeeze and suck the day.” In contention for the worst song between both albums, all due respect to “Cure.”
Bad Seed (4:05)
- Rating: 0.5 ninja star
- Review: “You bit more than you need, now you’re choking on a bad seed.”. This is the band that wrote Master of Puppets.
Where the Wild Things Are (6:54)
- Rating: 2.5 ninja stars
- Review: After a series of misses, this track is most listenable so far on the back end. A haunting melody combined with the best set of lyrics on the album since "Unforgiven II," we have a flicker of hope for Side B.
Prince Charming (6:05)
- Rating: 2 ninja stars
- Review: The music is all well and good, but the lyrics are abominable. There is no reason for this song to be 6 minutes long.
Low Man’s Lyric (7:37)
- Rating: 1.5 ninja stars
- Review: At an unfathomable 7 minutes and 37 seconds, this track laments the life of a homeless man in ballad form. The song also features a moog and a hurdy gurdy. To be fair, Metallica doesn’t have a lot of songs that showcase the hurdy gurdy (shoutout Gene Frankel).
Attitude (5:16)
- Rating: 1 ninja star
- Review: James pleads “Just let me kill you once I’m oh so bored to death.” Yes, I accept. Please make it stop.
Fixxxer (8:15)
- Rating: 3.5 ninja stars
- Review: Another (attempt at an) epic closer. While not as good as its counterpart on Load (“The Outlaw Torn”), "Fixxxer" is one of the better tracks on this album, and a welcome ender after having to endure the last 7 tracks prior to it.
- Overall Album Rating: 2.5 ninja stars
- Review: Reload has some very high highs and some very low lows. The best and worst of Load-era Metallica is on display throughout these 13 tracks.
We’re going to take the following tracks with us: “Fuel,” “The Memory Remains,” “Devil’s Dance,” “The Unforgiven II,” “Where the Wild Things Are,” and “Fixxxer.”
After revisiting Load and Reload, I can’t say either album is objectively good. There’s a fair amount of nostalgia in listening to both, as this was the Metallica I first knew when I was introduced to the band. Approximately 25 years later, the songs remind me of that era, but that doesn’t mean that they’re good. When you consider Metallica’s back catalog, they are severely lacking. When you look at what’s to come (St. Anger, Lulu), they might as well be Ride the Lightning.
These are average albums that were the results of an ambitious idea the band had for a double album. They may have been better served trimming the fat a bit and releasing one solid album that might compare with their previous work. Based on what I think are objectively the best songs released from both albums, that might look like this:
Load
- Fuel (4:30)
- The Memory Remains (4:39)
- Devil’s Dance (5:19)
- The Unforgiven II (6:36)
- The House Jack Built (6:39)
- Until It Sleeps (4:30)
- King Nothing (5:28)
- Hero of the Day (4:22)
- Where the Wild Things Are (6:54)
- Bleeding Me (8:18)
- Fixxxer (8:15)
- The Outlaw Torn (9:49)
This album has a better chance of stacking up with Metallica’s back catalog than either Load or Reload ever did. The sound of the album is still a sharp departure from their previous work, however, they’re still Metallica. These are different, well-written songs that any band would be proud to release. Load and Reload on their own are average at best, but this collection of songs shows Metallica still had their fastball – it just sounded a bit more tuned down.
In recent years, Metallica has returned to their roots a bit with the releases of Death Magnetic and Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, with mixed results. If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that double albums are rarely classics, and that 27 songs over 2 albums in 2 years might be too many. I would’ve been okay if I never heard “Bad Seed” or “Cure.” The band did, however, reinvent themselves and open themselves up to a new audience by tinkering with their sound and taking a chance on this lofty project. Despite the many, many misses, there’s definitely some classic Metallica on both of these albums. Give my trimmed down version of Load a listen and judge for yourself. The chances are slim, but you may just like it better than the Black Album.
