Metallica - Load

 underrated 90's rocker
I'm one of those annoying 80's Metallica fans. My favorite Metallica album is Ride the Lightning, and over the many years of listening to Metallica I've spent more time listening to the band's first three albums than the rest of their catalog. But I have a dark secret that most 80's Metallica fans don't have; I really, really like Load. In fact, I think Load is Metallica's superior 90's work. Load is a much better album than The Black Album.

Unfortunately, Load is not a metal album. Load is a straight up rock album, with splashes of blues and country, and even a little early grunge thrown into the mix. That's right; I hear splashes of Soundgarden and Silverchair on Load.

Because Load is not a metal album, and Metallica previously established themselves as a metal band in the 80s, problems have inevitably arisen. This always baffles me, because Metallica's 1991 release, The Black Album, is not a metal album either. The fact is, Metallica's last _metal_ album was ...And Justice For All.

So, logically, if The Black Album wasn't metal, why would fans expect Load to be metal?

The answer is strangely complicated. For some reason, a lot of Metallica fans cling to The Black Album maintaining that it was the band's last good album, their last metal album. This is absolute crap, and reveals quite a bit about how shallow a lot of Metallica fans are. The truth is, The Black Album is a solid rocker that doesn't compare to any of the bands 80's works, and it is full of radio-friendly rock songs. One thing that The Black Album is not is metal. The Black Album has more parallels to the alternative sound that was emerging in '89, '90 and '91 than it does to the metal albums that were being released in those three years. Obviously, I don't expect everyone on Amazon to agree with that statement. However, if we accept that Load resembles something closer to "The Black Album" than "Master of Puppets," then we have already established a good foundation. Any Metallica fan that likes The Black Album but doesn't like Load is either lying, or doesn't understand rock and roll.

Let us pretend, hypothetically, that Metallica secretly released Load under a different band name; Muffins. Now, the band Muffins doesn't have a bunch of 80's fans comparing their mid-90's rock album to some mid-80's metal album.

The truth is, Muffin's album Load is a top notch rocker. Released in 1996, Load has flares or rock, blues, country and alternative. The song Bleeding Me has a spacey 70's rock vibe. Hero Of The Day is a straight up modern day ballad. The song Cure has a lot in common with some of the grunge tunes released by Soundgarden and Silverchair, and the entire album feels like it's been spiritually touched by ZZ Top. All these elements sound pretty awesome, especially if they are all combined into one sweet compact disc, right?

Load is a long album; however all of the songs are good. You don't have to worry about skipping any tracks. The reality is that Load is a straight up rocker with infinite appeal for fans of bands like AC/DC and ZZ Top.

What Load is not is a 90's metal album. Metallica fans, especially Metallica fans stuck in the 80s, are the worst candidates to review this album. My advice to all 80's Metallica fans is to realize that when metal disappeared into the underground in 1990, and grunge emerged as the radio-favorite, Metallica stayed in the mainstream. If you want 90's metal, go dig for some of the stuff that stayed under the radar. Death's Human came out in 1991, and is miles ahead of The Black Album if you are in the market for 90's metal.


(no pun intended) Cliffnote: if St. Anger was released by the hypothetical band Muffins, it would still suck. St. Anger is just a bad album, regardless of prior expectations or the band name on the album cover. Just though I'd humor the idea.
April 24, 2008

 5 stars
just wanted to give this a 5 star after all the other reviews i like all metallica cd's some better than others - some worse , but still like them all March 30, 2008

 And then, it was over.
Oh how the mighty fall. But we were given plenty of warning this change for the worse was coming - The Black Album with its lack of complex structure and angst-ridden sound was the messenger with very bad news.

Load is the point of no return - the point where Metallica completely handed over their identities as a musical tour de force in exchange for a chance to grab 90s grunge fans who were filling Nirvana's coffers. And just like Nirvana, Load completely lacked direction and something relevant to say to mature listeners.

Where even the very poor Black Album held at least a few shreds of likeness to the Metallica of yore, Load is a mishmash of grunge, glam rock and blues that doesn't work on any level. Song structures are either boring or completely out of place. Lyrics are almost as laughable as early black metal releases. This is simply not what Metallica was meant to be. And it shows on every riff, every word, and every poor review. March 26, 2008

 Don't let the haters keep you from giving this album a listen
Maybe not the best Metallica album but it is by no means bad at all, much less the trash many claim it to be. On the contrary, its a pretty good effort and its no mistaken it is Metallica. If you are a hard core Metallica fan, this is either a must have because you love everything Metallica or you're gonna hate it like many others because you're still hung up on a single style of Metallica that takes you back to your better days (entering puberty with a crush on the fat girl down the street), who knows. If you're a metal lover and found you enjoyed other Metallica albums, you'll like this one too. Take my 3 stars lightly, I reserve 5 stars for very few, perfect albums, 4 stars for almost perfect. I'd give this a solid 3.5 stars if there was an options for it. February 24, 2008

 If you start here you won't be disappointed....
but if you're like me and have been listening to metallica for 20 years or so this is complete garbage compared to other releases. If somebody else would have released this record I would of liked it much more but I feel it did not live up to Metallica's standard of greatness. So, if you start with Load and you like that, then get Reload then the Black record and work your way into the older stuff. And Justice for all, Ride the lightning, and Master of Puppets are must owns' this record is not. If your looking for And justice For All again or the Black record skip this. Thanks for your time and enjoy the ride. February 19, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...