Review Summary: A surprisingly mature rock album, Load might well have disappointed fans at the time, but when looked back at as an album itself rather than what it led to (hello St Anger...) Load is an inventive, introspective gem of a record.
As Hetfield tells us how he's 'already heard this song before,' in Load's first song, Ain't My Bitch, we'd be forgiven for disagreeing with him. After 1991's slightly more mainstream but still decidedly metal The Black Album, Load was the beginning of a new era for Metallica, one that left many fans feeling alienated and dismayed. By the time that this change had culminated in the release of 2003's practically nu-metal St. Anger, many Metallica fans were left wishing that Load had opened with a song that we really had already heard before, and all of the experimentation that Metallica engaged in for almost a decade could have been avoided. Load is often justifiably cited as the beginning of the chain of events that led to St Anger, but that's not really a fair way to look at it; Load is, when taken outside of the context of being a Metallica album, or even a catalyst for the release of their subsequent efforts, a great album that doesn't deserve the slander it so often receives.
So just why was Load such a departure from the classic Metallica sound? Well, after the Ride the Lightnings, Damage Incs and Enter Sandmans of the band's career had delighted the metal crowd for over a decade, the blues-rock which Load consists of really was a considerable shock. From the raunchy, almost rock-country opening of Ain't My Bitch to the spectacular, bluesy ending solo to closer Outlaw Torn, Load really showcased a different side to the group, and it was one that nobody had really been asking for, hence the less than savoury reception.
And it's a crying shame that Load was measured against the band's previous efforts, rather than against the competitors in the blues rock genre which it was really a part of; taken out of the context of its creators, Load has it's fair share of treats to offer. The House That Jack Built is one of the more experimental, ambitious and, most interestingly, eerie tracks that the band have ever released, culminating in an unnerving talkbox solo and a riff that manages to be heavy without being 'METUHL.' The nine minute Bleeding Me, which serves as one of the two pillars of the album, is also gorgeously judged, with a varied, surprising structure and brilliant vocals and lyrics. The second of the aforementioned pillars is the (also) nine minute Outlaw Torn, which is one of the slowest-burning songs of the band's catalogue, but rewards the listener's patience with one of the best buildups and climaxes of the album and, indeed, the blues rock genre.
Another thing that's commendable about Load might seem surprising given the fact that it opens with a song called Ain't My Bitch; it's actually a very mature record. Hetfield's vocals are much deeper and less hoarse than before, and they complement the more introspective, uncertain lyrical themes which permeate the album. Whereas before the frontman had focused his diatribes on the external world, such as his attack on drugs in the title track of Master of Puppets or For Whom The Bell Tolls' haunting adaptation of the ubiquitous Hemingway novel, the tracks on Load take a decidedly inward leaning. In Until It Sleeps, we see Hetfield struggling to cope with the cancer that took his mother. On Bleeding Me, we see a meditation on the effect that fame has had on the singer, and on Mama Said we're treated to quite a touching insight into Hetfield's relationship with, well, his mama.
This lyrical and vocal maturity is echoed in the more subdued (tempo-wise, at least) instrumentation seen on Load, especially when compared to the band's previous four albums. Everything has been calmed down, with the guitars tuned to E Flat rather than standard seeming seething rather than furious, and the tempos on some tracks practically being halved from what we were used to with Metallica. That's not to say that there aren't a few trademark headbanging moments; King Nothing features an irresistible bass groove that any true Metallica fan would struggle not to love, and the riff in the bridge of Bleeding Me is powerful and meaty enough to induce even the most reluctant listener into movement along to it's snakelike rhythm. Nonetheless, Load has a distinctly more 'adult' outlook than the band's previous efforts, and whilst that might have led to the occasional misfire seen in Wasting My Hate, or Poor Twisted Me, it's also the only way that we could have seen an Outlaw Torn or a Bleeding Me.
And so it's with great difficulty that I had to decide on my final rating for Load. My favourite Metallica album is ...And Justice For All, and so I naturally miss the winding complexity of the epics in that album, and the riffs that were breakneck enough to, well, practically break my neck. But unlike seemingly the majority of the fanbase, I can really be thankful for the change in outlook that Load provided. The immaturity and blind anger of late 80s Metallica did give us their best songs overall, but it could never have led to the contained, subtle rage of the epics that Load provides. And hell, even if it led to the (overrated, in my opinion) ReLoad and St. Anger, Load is actually it's own entity. So next time you see a Metallica fan spouting their usual 'Load suxxors' drivel, stop for a moment to consider something; whilst Load did lead to a change in Metallica's sound that ultimately led to their lowest moment, taken as it's own album, it's a mature, complex release that has plenty of rocking moments and grandiose riffage bubbling just under it's deceptive exterior. As that's something I really can't commend any other Metallica album for, I think Load deserves a hell of a lot more praise than it gets.
