Review Summary: If you can get over the the "tr00" metalhead in you, it's actually pretty good.
Load review
Metallica gets no mercy these days. The amount of hate directed towards them for the material they have put out in the past 2 decades is just baffling. One could say that this started with the Black Album, but if you look at it, it's still quite similar to their earlier work. In other words, it still sounds like Metallica. Load, however, is a completely different story. It abandoned the metal entirely and adopted a bluesy rock sound with a bit of southern inflection. But is that necessarily a bad thing?Â*
This album is often only referred to as "that album where Metallica's sound changed", causing people to just leave it at that and completely ignore the quality of the songs. As far as lyrics go, it's actually quite good, sporting some of James Hetfield's most personal and introverted lyrics. It's not always like that however, and the way Hetfield sings can often be sort of awkward. You can't help but chuckle a bit the first time you here James shout " It ain't my biiiiiiiTCHAAAAA!"
Lars adopts a much simpler approach to drumming on this record, often consisting of basic highhat-snare patterns. Most fans cried foul at this decision, but to be honest, I don't think that constant blast beats would have fit with this album's style.
Kirk uses a lot more melodic, bend based solos rather than the mindless pentatonic runs we've come to expect from him. One of the best examples is on Ain't My Bitch, when he comes out of nowhere with an unexpected country rock slide guitar solo. We also get a creepy talk-box solo on The House Jack Built that sounds like the voice of someone having a mental breakdown.
As for actual songs, the styles vary quite a bit, from pulsating "almost-metal" tunes like King Nothing and the second half of Hero of the Day to Grunge driven riffs in Until
It Sleeps to blues rock songs like 2x4 and Ronnie to country with Mama Said.
One of the problems with this album is one that I also felt was present on the Black Album, in that there isn't much to this record outside of the singles. Ain't My Bitch, Bleeding Me, King Nothing, Hero of the Day, and Until it Sleeps are all great songs, but aren't exactly representative of the quality of the rest of the songs. This is Metallica's longest album, literally ending one second before the physical limit of the disc would cut it off. This wouldn't be an issue if the record had some more standout tracks outside of the singles. Except for the epic The Outlaw Torn, nothing seems memorable, with plenty of throwaway tracks like Cure and Poor Twisted Me. This clashes with Metallica's older philosophy of "only the best tracks can make the cut", giving a solid 8-10 tracks of the very best quality they could make.Â*
Even with all its filler, I think that the good songs are strong enough to warrant an above average rating. Metallica would continue this hard rock direction with ReLoad, but that's a completely different story.
Recommended Tracks:
All of the SinglesÂ*
The Outlaw Torn
2x4
