Load is one of Metallica’s most infamous albums. The band had changed both their look and sound, having cut their hair. Everything about the album was about Metallica selling out to remain relevant. Yet somehow, the album stayed at #1 on the Billboard Albums chart. Four singles were released. It is Metallica’s longest album.
My first problem is the cover. Bodily fluids are not art. My second problem is the album is too long. I don’t mind long albums when they’re interesting, but this wasn’t. There were a lot of songs I wanted to skip. Let’s get this over with.
Members:
James Hetfield: vocals, rhythm guitar
Kirk Hammett: lead guitar
Jason Newsted: bass
Lars Ulrich: drums
The Tracks:
- “Ain’t My Bitch”: This is a terrible opener. It sounds immature and stupid.
- ” 2 x 4″ : The first of many songs I wanted to skip.
- “The House That Jack Built”: Is this referring to Jack Daniels? Yeah, no.
- “Until It Sleeps”: Finally, a good song! Actually, the best on the album. It almost sounds like it belongs on a different album.
- ” King Nothing “: This is like a bad version of “Enter Sandman”.
- “Hero of the Day” : This feels like a parody, and a bad one.
- “Bleeding Me”: Is it possible? Another good song? This is pretty good.
- ” Cure”: Sigh, back to the garbage. I wanted to skip this one.
- “Poor Twisted Me”: The production is terrible.
- ” Wasting My Hate”: Oh this song is a waste, all right.
- “Mama Said”: This feels more like a country song than a rock song, and not even a metal song.
- ” Thorn Within”: This almost sounded good. Almost.
- “Ronnie”: The album could have stopped with the last song. This was another skippable song.
- “The Outlaw Torn”: This is a slog of a song. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished it.
Final Verdict: I’m fine with a new direction. But everything about this album feels like Metallica feared they weren’t relevant and sold out. This was garbage from start to finish. The only reason I didn’t give it an F was it had two good songs.
Grade: D
Aspie Catholic 