Product Description

The kings of speed metal have never been keen on being labeled, and LOAD, which follows up the 1991 mega-hit METALLICA,is a surprising pastiche of sonic fury. Metallica still rocks hard. James Hetfield's lyrics are still full of venom andanger, and the music still could scare small children. But the band is ready to show off other sides of its craft. "Hero Of The Day" sounds like an R.E.M. song, albeit a heavy one, with its tender beginning and ending confluence of harmonised vocals and catchy guitar riffs. A dose of the blues can be heard in the slow-burning "Bleeding Me", and a downright country twang pervades "Mama Said".
Still, this is a metal album, and there are headbanging riffs o'plenty. LOAD may seem like a departure from the Metallica "norm", but it's actually what the band has been doing all along: writing well-crafted songs without a regard for what others think. The only difference is that the one-time denizens of the underground now have the world's rapt attention.

Track Listing

1. Ain't My Bitch
2. 2 X 4
3. The House That Jack Built
4. Until It Sleeps
5. King Nothing
6. Hero Of The Day
7. Bleeding Me
8. Cure
9. Poor Twisted Me
10. Wasting My Hate
11. Mama Said
12. Thorn Within
13. Ronnie
14. The Outlaw Torn

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2527 in Music
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 79 minutes

From Amazon.com
With Load, Metallica takes a dramatic left turn with their music, continuing in the direction suggested by Metallica, their previous album. The songs on Load have groove; they're slower, with far fewer of the lightning-fast riffs that have been Metallica's trademark since their inception. While songs like "Ain't My Bitch" and "Wasting My Hate" are up-tempo and full of the vitriol one would expect from the quintessential heavy metal band, "2 X 4" is hard rock with a blues beat, "Hero of the Day" sounds positively mainstream, and "Mama Said" is an actual, honest-to-god ballad. While some diehard fans may find this mix unappealing, there's plenty to like about this album, including its laid-back, rhythmic orientation, and James Hetfield's characteristic growl tempered by his growing maturity as a vocalist. -- Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Decent album but with some great songs
I've had this album since it came out and i would say had Metallica not been greedy and took the best songs from Load and Reload and made 1 album it would have surpassed the black album song for song. As it is it has to be treated seprately.

I've seen Metallica 4 times -Juctice tour, Roam tour, Load tour and a few years ago at gig on the green in Glasgow.
The best tour for me was the Load tour not just because of the venue (Glasgow Barrowlands) but the songs.

So be under NO ILLUSION there are some fantastic songs on this album - Mama said, Hero Of The Day, Until it sleeps, Bleeding me & The Outlaw torn, with the latter 2 standing up against the best Metallica songs recorded since Puppets. In fact i'd go as far as to say that Bleeding Me & Outlaw Torn are better than every song bar "One" and Harvester on Justice.

Now that is a bold statement and not everyone will agree but it brings me onto the second point i am making - perception of Metallica fans.
I know a lot of Metallica fans and like me they've been into the band since Justice and they fall into TWO categories. They say you can't label people but i'm afraid that you can with Metallica fans - Camp no 1. Metallica fans whose favourite album is usually one of Kill 'em all, Lightning, or Puppets.
Camp 2. Favourite album is Juctice (and they'll likely rate St. Anger as well).

Now the first camp will pick apart Metallica's albums since Justice and they'll find some songs they like and will give credit where credit is due for example they'll admire the experementation of Mama said, sure they may not like the song, but they'll appreciate the effort to try something different.

The second camp will label every album since Justice as either "sell out" or "rubbish", they won't even say some songs on some albums (God That Failed, Bleeding Me, Fuel etc) are good songs on overall decent albums, instead they'll label the entire album as either poor or ok.

So do yourself a favour, if you haven't bought this buy it (just don't pay more than £5 for it)

A Nice Change To The Cliché
If you want a change here it is. Metallica grew up and tried something different. You hear alot of metalligeeks (they are the narrow minded fans who want complex thrash metal - very original eh!) claim this album is terrible, metallica sucked from this album on blah blah blah...

Truth be told, this album is great. It's a fine mix between heavy metal and the blues. The riffs and songs in general are more in line with the Black Album but it has abit more variety.

The tempo for most of the songs are mostly mid tempo, which can drag abit but if you're like me who love some AC/DC or any of that classic heavy stuff then it's right down your road.

Don't expect any "thrashing" classics, just some great mid tempo heavy metal.

Buuut if you're as opinionated as the 80s Metallica/Slayer fans then you might aswell stay clear.

This album changed my life
I'm a big Metallica fan, but I wouldn't be if it weren't for this album. I saw the video to Until It Sleeps while in Spain as a 17-year old and I was captivated by the arresting images and the music which stayed with you hours after hearing it. I didn't really like heavy metal, Nirvana was as heavy as I would go, but this felt different; it had, well, soul. A couple of days later I went down to the local music store, bought the album and then listened to it everyday, sometimes more than once, for the next three or four months.

I still like "Until It Sleeps", but it's been overtaken in my affections by "Mama Said", "The Outlaw Torn" and, especially, "2x4" - there are times when I'm walking along the street listening to this song on my Mp3 player and I feel like I'm stepping a little bit taller. An irrepressible blues groove played by a metal band: it's just dynamite.

After twelve years, what really stands out for me now about this album is how well crafted it is. You might look at these guys and be scared to meet them down a dark alley, but they are real musicians. A lot of thought has gone into each song. After several listens, each one reveals an element you hadn't thought about; even on a song like "the Cure", which isn't one of my favourites, you listen again to the vocals and hear the overlaid tracks of Hetfield singing in two different ways, accompanied by the thumping bass line, and, with the effect that creates, you think, wow, that's clever...

I'll never tire of listening to it.