{"id":18854,"date":"2025-08-23T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/18854\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T18:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T18:52:09","slug":"yer-metal-is-olde-metallica-load","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/18854\/","title":{"rendered":"Yer Metal Is Olde: Metallica – Load"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Next year, one of Metallica<\/b>\u2019s greatest albums will turn 30 years old. Yup, you guessed it, Load. That\u2019s why I\u2019m writing a YMIO piece for it this year. Not just to break the rules and piss off ole Steelio<\/b>, but because the band just released a remastered version of this precious little gem. Why would they do that, you might ask? No fucking clue. But, for collectors, you can expect a rather fresh-sounding remaster and roughly 10,000 useless demos and live performances. Not that you can\u2019t find all the live performances you could ever want from Metallica<\/b>. And whoever the jagoff is that keeps adding them to Metal Archives, fucking stop, ya stupid cunt. And if said jagoff is one of you, kill yourself. Anyway, this remastered version is apparently such big news that when I search for the album on iTunes, I get this ridiculously over-bloated version every time. And I suspect this hit piece will be just as big, forever immortalized as one of the greatest recollections of Metallica<\/b>\u2019s big, fat Load.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s set the stage. It\u2019s the 90s, and things have already gone weird for the band when they hired Bob Rock and dropped their massively successful \u201cBlack Album,\u201d splitting their fan base in half while attracting millions of arena-goers all over the world. This led to a strange anticipation during that five-year gap between Metallica and Load. Would they continue on this new path? Or have they got that out of their systems and we\u2019ll return to the days of \u2026And Justice for All? What they did next shocked the world. They cut their hair and put on mascara. The \u201980s kids revolted while the hype excited the \u201990s kids because they weren\u2019t getting one new album; they were getting two in two years. But Metallica<\/b> were still metal, right? I mean, they coated their new record in blood and jism, for fuck\u2019s sake. While every kid lied to their mothers about the unsavory artwork, one thing was for sure: the Metallica<\/b> we all knew and loved was gone forever. Goodbye to the underground tape trading. Say hello to radio rock!<\/p>\n

Load marks the beginning of fun-loving tunes and addictive choruses, like those found in \u201c2\u00d74,\u201d \u201cUntil It Sleeps,\u201d and King Nothing.\u201d It\u2019s also the beginning of filler-filled albums that could have used a haircut as well. Take the best tracks from Load and Reload, and you could have made a single solid album. But no\u2026 Instead, the masses have to suffer through two albums with more than a dozen tracks each and roughly two-and-a-half hours of music. That said, of the two records, Load has arguably aged better, bringing interesting concepts that no one would have expected from Het and co., for example, the underrated \u201cRonnie,\u201d where Hetfield delivers the story of my serial-killing childhood. Load also marks the first time the band wrote a song in a major key with the lyrically charming \u201cHero of the Day.\u201d The record is so odd that its weirdness is its charm. Plus, those were the times. How many of these classic \u201980s bands got sucked into the nightmarish \u201990s MTV mentality?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The band also began toying with longer closers, much like the old days in Ride the Lightning, though \u201cThe Call of Ktulu\u201d is a far sleeker track than Load\u2019s \u201cThe Outlaw Torn.\u201d That said, the closer is one of the more memorable tracks on the album. Even though it meanders far too much, the climax is worth it, and the closing riff is a nice bookend to the opener. The other with a similar length is the underrated \u201cBleeding Me.\u201d In comparison, the journey one takes in \u201cBleeding Me\u201d is one of the better ones in Hetfield\u2019s dark mind. It\u2019s a surprisingly powerful piece that tears me to emotional ribbons. A phrase I cannot use for \u201cMama Said.\u201d This song sees Hetfield taking us off the asphalt and onto a dusty desert road with horses and shit. A song that supposedly almost didn\u2019t make it on the album, yet was \u201cgood\u201d enough for a music video. Which is hilarious because the rest of the band basically makes a cameo, watching Het ride off into the sunset in a fucking cowboy hat and shit-kicker boots. Otherwise, the rest of the album is filler stuffed with mood-killing interludes, unnecessary crooning, and the time-period piece of shit talk box in \u201cThe House Jack Built.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like my piece on the mighty St. Anger<\/a>, no one asked for a write-up on one of Metallica<\/b>\u2019s best Bob Rock records. It\u2019s not metal or the Metallica<\/b> of the \u201980s, but times were a-changin\u2019. But, after the great success the band had with their self-titled record, do you blame them for taking this direction? While every metalhead bashes on this record, it\u2019s not like it was a financial failure. Kids at the time flocked to this fucking record, attracted to the groovy, bluesy riffs and personal emotion of Hetfield\u2019s lyrics. While there are plenty of flaws, and so much wah-wah pedal that the band decided to cut out solos for St. Anger, I\u2019d spin this lengthy record far more than any of the rest of the shit that came out. I mean, at least they didn\u2019t do a hip-hop collaboration like Anthrax<\/b>. Load and Reload were not the albums any fan wanted, but, for better or worse, Load began a new era for Metallica<\/b>, and they really didn\u2019t give a fuck what we thought. So, do yourself a favor, listen to the crisp remastered version, relive your Zack Morris years, and don\u2019t waste your hate on Met. Also, pull up your pants and cut your fucking hair.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next year, one of Metallica\u2019s greatest albums will turn 30 years old. Yup, you guessed it, Load. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[16571,7277,16572,18,16573,117,16574,16575,19,17,16576,16577,337,16578],"class_list":{"0":"post-18854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-16571","9":"tag-american-metal","10":"tag-anthrax","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-elektra-records","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-groove-metal","15":"tag-hard-rock","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-load","19":"tag-metallica","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-yer-metal-is-olde"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}