Load (album)

Metallica released their fifth studio album, Metallica, in August 1991. A major commercial success, it debuted at number one in the United States and the United Kingdom, among others, eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time with estimated sales of 30 million copies worldwide. With the album, Metallica became one of the biggest rock bands in the world. From 1991 to 1993, the band toured to promote Metallica, performing 266 concerts across three concert tours. Another tour followed in mid-1994 to promote the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993). Throughout early 1994, the band members spent time away from each other: lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield devoted time to hunting; lead guitarist Kirk Hammett studied film, jazz, and Asian arts at San Francisco State University; bassist Jason Newsted created his own recording studio, The Chophouse; and drummer Lars Ulrich took the band's label, Elektra Records, to court in hopes of breaking their contract following a disagreement with the label's new management. The two parties eventually reached an agreement, with Metallica staying with Elektra under a new contract. == Recording ==

Beginning in May 1994, Hetfield and Ulrich worked as a duo in the latter's basement recording studio, The Dungeon, observing the band members' demos recorded on the road over the past two years. Full-band rehearsals began in October and finished in January 1995. At this point, the band members' influences ranged outside of heavy metal: Hetfield immersed himself in songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave, and American folk and country music; Hammett grew interested in David Bowie's works with Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, and the blues music of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Howlin' Wolf; Newsted grew fond of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More, particularly the bass playing of the former's Flea; and Ulrich was enjoying Britpop groups such as Oasis. The wide range of influences proved productive for the band. By the time the proper recording sessions began, they had almost 30 completed songs. These included "Streamline" ("Wasting My Hate"), "Load" ("King Nothing"), "Devil Dance" ("Devil's Dance"), "Fixer" ("Fixxxer"), and "Mouldy" ("Hero of the Day"). The recording sessions for the new album began on May 1, 1995, at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California. Metallica worked for most of the next year, with a break for the summer festival season. A short tour commenced in August, during which the band debuted two new songs, "2 X 4" and "Devil's Dance". In November, Hetfield learned of his father's cancer diagnosis and briefly departed for Wyoming to be with him, using the time away to write lyrics. The following month, Metallica made an appearance at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub, honoring the 50th birthday of Motörhead's singer Lemmy, performing several Motörhead covers. In January 1996, with so many new songs recorded, the band decided to scrap the idea of a double album and release the material as two separate albums. This was decided for multiple reasons. Firstly, the band would have had to back out of the 1996 Lollapalooza festival to complete production of the double album. Secondly, a double album only counts as one album on your contract, according to Ulrich, so "this way it counts as two [and] we get the pot of gold at the end even quicker!" Lastly, the workload tired the members out. Hetfield said at the time: "As time went on we realized that we couldn't tackle all of it at once; we were like nine months into the recording and weren't even done with half of the songs. It was too hard to focus." So, half the songs would be released first as Load and the other half as Reload the following year. Concerned about the long recording process, Elektra Records set May 1, 1996, as the mastering date for the upcoming album. From March to April 1996, the band was in New York City recording overdubs and commencing mixing at Right Track Studios, with further mixing being done at nearby Quad Recording Studios. The band invited local journalists to these sessions to hear previews of the new album. Hetfield's father died in late February 1996, after which Hetfield returned to New York to finish recording. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he stated that he "went back to when [former Metallica bassist] Cliff [Burton] died" and "got some of the feelings out through the music". Load is Metallica's longest studio album at 78 minutes and 59 seconds in length, the maximum duration a single CD could be. The long length was marketed by Elektra through advertisements on MTV and stickers affixed to initial pressings of the album itself. "The Outlaw Torn" had to be shortened by one minute to fit on the album; the full version of the track was released on the Reload single "The Memory Remains" as "The Outlaw Torn (Unencumbered by Manufacturing Restrictions Version)", with a running time of 10:48. == Composition ==

Music Load represented a stylistic departure for Metallica Metallica had listed several artists and bands they were inspired by while writing Load and Reload that took them away from their thrash roots, including Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, Ted Nugent, Oasis, and Alanis Morissette, among others; the songs "Mama Said" and "Wasting My Hate" were inspired by Hetfield's friendship with Waylon Jennings. Hetfield described Load as "the U2 version of Metallica". Load was Metallica's first album on which all tracks were down-tuned to E♭ tuning. Hammett said it was his attempt to play like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Thin Lizzy. Hetfield liked the change, believing the semitone drop in pitch gave his voice a "break". According to McIver, allowing Hammett to play rhythm guitar led to a looser, less "metal" and more "rock" sound, a result of Hetfield's growing maturity and the band's "desire to move forward". The band members also utilized more experimentation in their playing styles. Jon Pareles describes Ulrich's drumming as "land[ing] with brutal certainty a nanosecond behind the beat, letting the guitars and bass claw each power chord unencumbered". Hammett used slide guitar on "Ain't My Bitch" and various amplifiers to create different textures and soundscapes on "Hero of the Day"; Hetfield used a talk box to perform the guitar solo on "The House Jack Built", and a pedal steel guitar on "Mama Said"; and Newsted played a fretless bass on "Until It Sleeps" and used different amplifier effects to achieve his bass sound on "Thorn Within". Hammett described his guitar solo on "Bleeding Me" as a summation of all his influences, "with a good dose of my own style". Lyrics {{Listen Compared to previous albums, which touched on themes of confronting a frightening outside world, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, influenced by topics such as neurosis ("Thorn Within", "Poor Twisted Me") and psychotherapy ("Until It Sleeps"). Hetfield maintained that he wanted the lyrics to be vague to allow for listener interpretation. Nevertheless, the lyrics are amongst the band's most personal yet, with the author Mick Wall stating that they offer insight into Hetfield's psyche; several songs are addressed to himself. "Bleeding Me" was an "intensely personal" song about some of Hetfield's biggest internal struggles. He explained that "I was going through therapy at the time and I was so unwilling... it was like the therapist had put leeches on me just to get it all out. There was a lot of secret pain, so that song came from me experiencing therapy for the first time." "Mama Said" and "Until It Sleeps" are about the death and relationship, respectively, of Hetfield's mother, while "Hero of the Day" offers "estranged youth" and "mother-and-child" themes. Death and pain are also the main subjects of "The Outlaw Torn". Religion also impacted some of the lyrics, such as on "Thorn Within". "Ronnie" concerns a shooting that occurred in Washington state in 1995. The author Benoît Clerc believes it may have been inspired by the story of Ronnie Long, an African-American man imprisoned in 1976 for a crime he did not commit, who was eventually released in 2020. == Artwork and packaging ==

(pictured in 2023). The cover of Load is an original artwork titled Semen and Blood III. It is one of three photographic studies created by New York artist Andres Serrano in 1990 by mingling bovine blood and his own semen between two sheets of Plexiglas. He appreciated the collaboration and believed it would help expand his audience. Due to the band's differing views, a compromise was reached wherein the artwork's title would not appear in the album's liner notes, but Serrano remained credited as the cover artist. Load featured a new Metallica logo that simplified and modernized its appearance, going from "metal" to "alternative". The album booklet featured photographs of the band by Anton Corbijn, a former collaborator of U2 and Depeche Mode. With Load, the band adopted a new image that strayed away from their metal roots. They wore short hair, tailored shirts, leather jackets, and make-up. At certain press events, Hammett and Ulrich kissed each other. == Release and promotion ==

When Load was unveiled in May 1996, fan reactions were mixed, with many criticizing Metallica's new image and change in sound. Some regarded it as a betrayal of the band's heavy metal roots. In 2022, Rock commended the band for not caring what the fans think and doing "what they feel is right for them". Load was released on June 4, 1996, The album was a commercial success, debuting and spending four consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. In 2003, it was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping five million copies in the United States. Its avant-garde music video displays the band in their new image and features neo-biblical imagery, including references to the Hieronymus Bosch paintings The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Haywain, and Ecce Homo. The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 1996. The single became Metallica's first – and to date only – top ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as the band's second top five in the UK, with number one positions in Australia, Sweden, and Finland. "Hero of the Day" was released as the second single on September 10. Its music video, directed by Anton Corbijn and filmed in August 1996 in Los Angeles, but was the band's second number-one single on the Mainstream Rock chart after "Until It Sleeps". "Mama Said" appeared as the third single on November 25. Its music video, also directed by Corbijn, was filmed in November 1996 in London. It features Hetfield playing the song on an acoustic guitar, sitting alone in the back seat of a car. He travels down a metaphorical highway while the other three members peer at him through the windows. At the end, it is revealed that the back seat was a studio prop, after which Hetfield and a white horse walk off-screen. It reached number 19 in the UK. The fourth and final single, "King Nothing", was released in the US and Canada only on January 7, 1997. It was promoted by a music video directed by Matt Mahurin and filmed in December 1996 in Park City, Utah. It reached number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Mainstream Rock chart. Tour during the Poor Touring Me tour in 1996 Metallica performed various fanclub-only shows in June, after which they performed at the 1996 Lollapalooza festival. Metallica's appearance at the festival was controversial; longtime fans of the band accused them of selling out, while regular festival attendees believed their appearance was hijacking the music and culture the festival had been originally designed to reject. Metallica performed at the festival as a headliner, sharing the bill with Soundgarden, the Ramones, Rancid, and Screaming Trees. After the Lollapalooza shows, Metallica embarked on the Poor Touring Me tour, which spanned 19 countries and ran 125 concerts from September 6, 1996, to May 28, 1997. Newsted said, "We wanted to take the music to a new generation of Metallica fans." The tour began in Europe, where the band made appearances on the British television show Later... with Jools Holland and at the European MTV Awards in November. The American leg began in late December and spanned the entire United States and Canada. The band enjoyed their time on the road, with Ulrich stating the band members were in the best physical and mental shapes of their career. Ulrich and Hetfield married their respective girlfriends in January and August 1997, respectively. At the end of the tour, Metallica announced Load follow-up album, Reload, to be released in November. Reload was composed of outtakes from the Load sessions, with additional recording sessions taking place from July to October 1997. Upon its release, like Load, Reload was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, although overall sales were less than Load. == Critical reception ==

Load received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the band's performances and welcomed the change in sound. Rolling Stone David Fricke believed that longtime fans should get over the change in image and appreciate the band's growth with "easily the heaviest record of the year". Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald felt that Load sounded "tame" compared to Metallica's previous records, which Browne attributed to the "clean but parched production". In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said "this is just a metal record with less solo room, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and more singing, which isn't because they can't." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered Load repetitive, uninteresting, and poorly executed. One of Metallica's contemporaries, Slayer's Kerry King, expressed his dislike for Load in a 1996 interview with Kerrang! magazine, saying that the music lacks "attitude" and "fire". == Legacy ==

Opinions on Load and Reload have been mixed in the years and decades following its release. Both albums have typically placed low in lists ranking Metallica's studio albums. Many commentators agree that Load is bloated The author Paul Stenning wrote that several songs sound like extended jams rather than having coherent structures. Metal Hammer Paul Brannigan said that Load main fault was "quality control", containing tracks that can be considered "throwaway" and "mediocre". The following year, Loudwire Jon Wiederhorn argued that the songs on Load are "solid and well-composed" and the album rewards repeated listens. Hetfield also believed that former bassist Cliff Burton, if still alive, would likely have disapproved of the direction the band took for the two albums. When interviewed in 2002, Ulrich said he liked some of the material from Load and Reload and was more disappointed that fans reacted poorly to the music based on the band members' new image rather than the music itself. By 2003, Ulrich agreed that the two albums could have been condensed into one, but felt that at the time, he and Hetfield wanted to release all the newly-written songs and lacked "an edit button on our instrument panel". Reflecting on Load, Hammett said that pushing boundaries and surprising fans is part of Metallica's creative identity. He acknowledged that taking risks can either be rewarding or damaging, but ultimately, the band stayed true to themselves by experimenting and letting the music guide them. Bob Rock also remained proud of Load and Reload, believing it would have been wrong to copy Metallica. Speaking in 2025, Rock said: "Those records are on par with everything else that we've done creatively... I'm very proud of those records." == 2025 box set ==

Load was reissued as a super deluxe box set on June 13, 2025. Described in a press release as "an ambitious and comprehensive time capsule of 1995–1997 era Metallica", the super deluxe set includes previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, videos, live recordings, and more. The physical release is spread across 15 CDs, six vinyl records, four DVDs, a 128-page hardcover book, and additional materials. The reissue also includes a new remaster of the original album by Reuben Cohen and the original extended version of "The Outlaw Torn", which was edited down due to manufacturing limits. Reviewing the deluxe box set for Pitchfork, Drew Millard enjoyed the live material, believing the Load tracks blended seamlessly with Metallica's older material. He also praised the addition of the band's 1995 live Motörhead covers performed at the Whisky a Go Go for Lemmy's 50th birthday. Discussing Load itself, Millard called it the band's first misstep in their career, but one that was respectable in retrospect, writing: "There is dignity in flagrant, unnecessary failure." Rolling Stone Joe Gross also praised the live material in the box set, including the band's 1996 Lollapalooza gig. He summarized that Load "remains a reminder of a very specific musical moment, when the various competing versions of rock remained a subject of vigorous debate: Metallica threw on some makeup and stoked the flames." == Track listing ==

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes, except where noted. Metallica • James Hetfield – guitars, vocals • Lars Ulrich – drums • Kirk Hammett – guitars • Jason Newsted – bass Additional musician • Jim McGillveray – percussion (all tracks except "Until It Sleeps", "Poor Twisted Me", "Wasting My Hate", and "The Outlaw Torn") Production • Bob Rock – production • James Hetfield – assistant production • Lars Ulrich – assistant production • Brian Dobbs – engineering • Randy Staub – engineering, mixing • Jason Goldstein – assistant engineering • Kent Matcke – assistant engineering • Mike Fraser – mixing • Matt Curry – mixing assistant • Mike Rew – mixing assistant • George Marino – mastering • Reuben Cohen – 2025 remastering • Paul DeCarli – digital editing • Mike Gillies – digital editing assistant • Chris Vrenna – digital editing assistant • Andie Airfix – design • Andres Serrano – cover design • Anton Corbijn – photography == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts == Certifications ==