Sheavy (original review from ProgArchives.com)

No we do not want a Reload of an album that was already standing on a precipice of doom and no return. If you thought the songs on Load were absolutely terrible then, this album must have come from your nightmares. There is not a single good song on this album, it is just a bunch have discarded ideas, and it really shows. probably the worst part to this entire album is the horrible voice in the middle of The Memory Remains. i was close to tears listening to that terrible sound, and then once you think you have gotten through it, it pops up again towards the end of the song. utterly horrible. The song that is even remotely close to being worthy of listening to is the first track Fuel, and itis just barely a two star song.

The hole created here to gid out of is deeper than the Mariana Trench.

UMUR "Reload" is the 7th full-length studio release by American heavy metal act Metallica. The album was released in November 1997 by Vertigo Records. The 13 songs on the album were written during the sessions that took place before the release of their previous studio album "Load (1996)". These tracks are however not leftover tracks from the "Load" sessions. 27 tracks were written during the sessions but as Metallica had been offered to play on the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1996 they opted to release a single CD album with the material they had finished recording instead of the double CD release they had initially planned. Thus 13 songs were left unfinished and Metallica went into the studio with producer Bob Rock again in October 1996. The recording sessions lasted until July 1997 and "Reload" was released in November 1997.

As expected the music style on "Reload" is very similar to the style of music on "Load". Heavy metal with bluesy hard rock/ heavy rock elements. You´ll often hear the statement that the tracks on "Reload" are leftover tracks from "Load" but I think the quality is just as high (or low) as on "Load". The album seriously lacks highlights though and while the tracks are mostly of an acceptable quality they are rather mediocre and unremarkable compared to the material on earlier releases.

The sound production is similar to the one on "Load". Professional but not up to par with the sound on "Metallica (1991)".

I don´t consider "Reload" a bad album or a failure in any way, but it´s overall an unremarkable and mediocre release. Especially considering the high quality of the band´s first 5 albums. Metallica simply sound uninspired. It´s like the hunger isn´t there. I´d say somewhere between a 2.5 - 3 star rating is warranted.

poslednijat_colobar Load part II

Reload continues the style of its predecessor - Load, but this time even worse than the first. Most of the songs are absolute irritating and illogical. They are much worse than a mainstreem radio songs. The Memory Remains, The Unforgiven II and Low Man's Lyric are exception. All of them are memorable and contain melody in contrast with the others. On Reload rules again blues, country and alternative music combined in inappropriate and unbalanced style. Because of the presence of less good songs than on Load and because of the presence of less good themes in the poor songs, Reload should be ranked lower than Load. The other reason for than wil be the less number of fresh and innovative ideas here. It could be considered as a lazy and boring release with using of universal chords that can be heard in 50% of radio rock songs. That's why they are lazy and boring: made without a will. 1 star

Stooge With the world well familiar with the new look (and sound) of Metallica, the band regrouped to tie together the unused material from the Load album to create an album that, surprisingly, doesn’t just sound like leftovers.

I’ll actually say that the performance on Reload sounds like a band with a bit more confidence in their new identity. While some of the material may have been recorded at the same time as Load, this album sounds meatier in the production department. It’s a bit louder, and the vocals and guitar in particular have more bite to them.

The listener is treated to their best album opener of the decade in “Fuel”, which is easily the song with the most energy on the album, with “Attitude” being a close second.

While there are quite a few songs that are pretty heavy, there are also several interesting tracks on Reload that are more on the lighter side of rock. “Low Man’s Lyric” is the “Mama Said” of Reload as they continue to explore other genres with a strong folk music sound, and introduces Metallica fans to the sounds of the hurdy gurdy, a stringed instrument that produces a similar sound to the bagpipes. “Where The Wild Things Are”, a rare Newsted-penned track, blends occasionally heavy riffing with some haunting melodies to great effect. “Fixxxer” closes the album with a somewhat relaxing and hypnotic rhythm. It’s a heavy song at times, but not in the sense you’d expect from Metallica.

“The Unforgiven II” is easily one of the highlights on Reload. The song takes the opposite approach of its predecessor “The Unforgiven”, switching from the less conventional heavy verse / soft chorus structure to the lighter verse / heavy chorus that many songs with the loose-fitting “power ballad” label utilize. The verse has hints of country rock in the guitar playing, and Kirk Hammett’s solo soars in a much similar fashion to his work on “The Unforgiven”.

Much like I did with Load, a slight trimming of tracks could have made for an interesting double album with these two albums combined. From Reload, I’d point towards “Prince Charming”, “Better Than You” (which they somehow got a Grammy for), and perhaps “Bad Seed” as potential cutting room floor material. Not the worst songs in the world, but I wouldn’t confuse them for classic Metallica tracks.

I often flip back and forth between which of the Load-era albums I prefer, so it’s only natural for me to give them both the same rating. Reload is well worth checking out!

The Angry Scotsman Load...of crap. Maybe its second half will be its better half?

NOPE

Actually, it's worse. I really do not want to go into any of the songs, and that's OK because there is not much to go into. Generic, boring...when can I stop using these words? Even though it was bad, at least Load sounded kind of cool. ReLoad does not.

I would not consider ReLoad, or the 2 albums prior, metal. And even if I had to, they are not good ones.

According to Lars, "that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things. The minute you stop exploring, then just sit down and f**king die". While I absolutely won't disagree with that, and in fact think exploring is a good thing, an experiment can go wrong...OK, enough dancing around. This album is terrible.

One and a Half Stars Only reason this album did not get a one, is because of the song Fuel, which is kind of good.

Pekka Metallica certainly wasn't scared of the thrashing that Load got from a big portion of their fans but stayed their course and released the rest of the sessions a year later as ReLoad. The sound was the same, the hair was the same, so the reception was the same if not worse still.

But ReLoad contains a lot of great material. The speeding opener Fuel is still a concert classic and on the same level is the sludgy pair of The Memory Remains and Devil's Dance. Both would be bettered still on the S&M live album, but sadly The Unforgiven II is a song they've never really touched live. Not quite on par with its predecessor, but a great country-tinged ballad nevertheless. James has great depth in his voice. Where the Wild Things Are and Low Man's Lyric are a couple of underrated masterpieces and very unusual material for Metallica, the former with its ethereal feel and marching rhythms and the latter with its violin and hurdy gurdy flavored balladness. The latter also features one of my favourite lines of lyric ever heard on a Metallica album: "I lie straight to the mirror, that I've broken to match my face". Fixxer is a great closing piece very much like the Outlaw Torn from the previous album.

But ReLoad also features many of the all time worst Metallica pieces. I will never ever understand on what grounds Better Than You won a Grammy except that it was a new Metallica track and when Metallica released new material they automatically got a Grammy for it. Attitude and Prince Charming are two other meaningless rocking-for-rocking's-sake pieces best left on the studio floor. But as they later said in an interview, every single Metallica song written since the beginning of their career had been released on a studio album and they weren't going to leave anything out this time either, no matter if all the songs weren't their best ever. Bad Seed brings things down as well with its lazy grooving, but it's not quite as passable as the three mentioned. Slither and Carpe Diem Baby are completely erased from the books of rock history, but they are very very solid pieces of work both somewhere in between the highs and lows of the album.

If you've seen or heard Metallica live in the recent years you might have noticed that some of the band members really drag the band down in the faster thrashier pieces by their sheer lack of ability and tightness, but with this kind of mid-tempo material everyone is at their best. Lars' drumming really fits the material well and Kirk delivers some very tasteful soli. James is vocally at his finest and Jason's sound is a pleasure to listen to.

Metallica stuck to their guns with this one and the results are varied. Some excellent underrated material and some genuine stinkers. Definitely one of their least good albums but still, yes, good as a whole.

jampa17 More of the same. The flow changed, maybe it work for them, but not for me.

Well, this is a back to back album called in a very original way ReLoad. The same thing, lame compositions, just straight metal with short songs and some kind of aggressive sound, but that sounds like a joke if you make a comparison with their old material. As well as with the Load album, the songs are pretty forgettable. If you don't pay too much attention, you can make a headbanging here and there but that's it, really, a forgettable album.

The only song that I really like is Fuel, because is fresh and aggressive but the album end up plain. So, I don't recommend this album. Maybe it work for background music for a party with the boys, but if you pay too much attention you will end up boring. Nothing interesting to talk about. Well, good sound and production maybe, but I always focus in the music, not in the make-up.

1 star is very fair. Nothing save this album of being poor.

Valarius This may seem an unpopular opinion, but I'm going to go ahead and give this record four stars. I feel the biggest problem regarding this album is that it generally has such a bad reputation that most peoples opinion of it gets swayed by what everyone else is saying. I'm not saying everyone is a sheep just following the trend, but I feel that most people listen to this record with their minds set that it is terrible because there are few good things said about it.

Well, I'm going to try (in vain) to defend it, because after a number of listens, 'Reload' has really grown on me, and I've come to realise there are a lot of very underrated moments here.

Okay, so these may be songs that didn't quite make it onto 'Load', but that doesn't mean they're terrible. 'Fuel' is a great opening track, which is as heavy and rocking as anything else Metallica have done. And then there's 'The Memory Remains' and 'The Unforgiven II' which are probably the only other songs most people are familiar with on this record. But with a bit of patience, there are some true gems waiting to be discovered here. For example, 'Attitude', 'Bad Seed' and 'Where the Wild Things Are' are all amazingly well put-together songs that are great to headbang to.

As usual the playing is all pretty tight. Kirk is becoming more comfortable with his wah pedal, Hetfield has his growl nailed to perfection, and Lars is, well... Lars.

I'm not saying this album is perfect, just that it is a lot better than people make it out to be. If it had been released by another band nobody would have a problem with it. But hey, I'll be the first to admit one thing, 'Low Man's Lyric' is indeed a pretty awful song. But that aside, this is a great rock album. Give it a chance, and then give it a few more. I did, and I don't regret it.