METALLICA — Load (review)

METALLICA — Load album cover Album · 1996 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Stooge
When I was around 12 or 13, I got my first exposure to Metallica. At this point in my life, the band was in the midst of their “Load” era. Maybe this is why I react much more positively to Metallica’s transformation from metal maniacs to hard rockers than the average metal fan. Hell, they already dabbled in the rock realm with The Black Album, so why should we not be surprised that they took it a bit further?

When Metallica thrashed, they thrashed with the best of them. With Load, they proved they could rock with the best of them. And rock hard this album does! “Aint My Bitch”, “King Nothing”, and “Thorn Within” can get me pumped as much as “Blackened”, “The Four Horsemen”, and “Ride The Lightning” do. It’s just by slightly different means.

Compared to the album that preceded it, much of Load sets a darker atmosphere. Singles “Until It Sleeps” and “Hero of the Day”, along with “Bleeding Me” and “The Outlaw Torn”, are some of the gloomiest tracks in Metallica’s discography. Oddly enough, in the case of the two mentioned singles, they are rather uplifting at the same time.

It is commonly said that the Load albums would be better if they trimmed out the filler and created a double album as originally intended. If this were the case, I suppose I would nominate “Cure”, “Poor Twisted Me”, and “Ronnie” as songs that the album could possibly do without. They don’t do much that other catchier rockers on the album already do, and do so to a much lesser effect. “Bleeding Me” and “The Outlaw Torn” could afford to be a bit shorter in running time as well. Many may consider it wise for Metallica to have excluded the country-tinged “Mama Said” from the album, but I like it for the sake of variety and it’s grown on me a bit over the years.

Despite all the negatives associated with Load, I see the positive. There is no reason for a metal head to be ashamed to own this album. Great album by Metallica!!
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