Metallica-Load (1996)

 

Artist: Metallica

Title: Load

Label: Elektra

Format: CD

Cat: 61923-2

Year of Release: 1996

Country and Year of Edition: US 1996

Sell Price: $2.99 VG+/VG+ 3/14/23

Discogs Last Sold: 3/13/23 NM/NM $3.00

Low:$0.95

Median: $2.99

Average: $3.15

High: $8.00

Current low price: $1.05

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 115

Have/Want: 3573/263

Where Sold: Winchester, KY

Time it took to sell: 11 years

Where and When  new upon release

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

Load was the first Metallica album that seemed, er, uh, boring at times. They had been deviating from thrash purity since Ride The Lightning with things like "Fade To Black" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" that gave them arena standards.   The Black Album was it's own thing, their most commercial record and excellent on it's own terms, even if it was a drop below Justice which was a drop below Puppets which was a drop below Ride and you know.  KIll 'Em All.  They were all A level records and the band was the best in their class even with endless decline.  Someone at Rolling Stone might champion this as evolution.  Someone else, even me, might say well they do a good job at not repeating themselves.  So what rendered Load slightly impotent?

The first half of this I pretty much remembered right off the bat after realizing that "Fuel" was on the counterpart Reload.  That's how much attention I've paid to these albums since the mid 90's.  I started to rewrite their content and context in my brain apart from the actual records.  Why?

The opener "Ain't My Bitch" was really the only song I remembered from looking at the track listing and that's a good opener.  The band hasn't played it since 1998 as of this writing so that may say something as most of the other tracks on the record have been brought out here and there in recent years.  "Until It Sleeps" was the big single I remembered more so than "Hero Of The Day" and the long running live staple "King Nothing."  "Hero of the Day" I even had as a CD EP, but I still can't hum it for ya.   There was that reverbations of alterna-grunge clearly in the mix with these singles and it dates them to that mid-90's era.  "Mama Said" even takes on a surprise "country" feel.

Dated doesn't necessarily mean bad.  In Metallica's case they were trying to stretch where Black Album universality put them in a different stratosphere well beyond say the "Big 4" of Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax or everyone else for that matter.  They made it to stadiums and damn it, they weren't gonna give that up.   It doesn't lend itself to repeated listening and even this time around for me listening and relistening was a bit of a chore and I still feel like I need a couple more passes, which I know I wouldn't for anything prior.  You know it gets rough when I'm sitting there with headphones on appreciating the nice wah or good riff in tracks like "Ronnie" has a little ZZ Top in there or the slide in "Poor Twisted Me."   I tried to give the benefit of a doubt as I shook my head off from the quick doze off from a few songs before.  I don't know if I ever made it through this start to finish even if I know I did.  I started to doubt I had given this more than a couple spins in 1996 and I've relistened again fully awake.

 I definitely saw the Lollapalooza tour around this time, getting to Randall's Island too late for the final Ramones tour after getting delayed from extracting myself from work and caught in a traffic jam on a bus, only for Wu Tang to switch slots.  Soundgarden were next and Metallica made me forget the misery of missing the Ramones.  I check in on the Metal Militia every handful of years on one tour or another and they've always been a consistent live band, probably best at what they do.  Maybe the only band that does this on that level.

So what do I like on Load?  "The House That Jack Built" is a strong one for me with a relentless chorus and Frampton style squawk box.  "Mama Said" is the best of the ballad effort because it's an outlier in band context.  Lars probably had the most fun on "The Outlaw Torn"  and musically it's probably the best song on the record between the buildup to the solo all in slow groove tempo.   "Waste My Hate" is a pretty typical upper mid-tempo driver that lurches and restarts.  A bit too reflective, perhaps you want the hate used up and crushing all in it's wake and the song would be better, but this one is ok.   

The videos were singles for a reason, I find aspects of them all that I enjoy..  Probably "King Nothing" is the best of those and that is the one they play most live.  Sometimes the quiet verses send my brain thinking about something else.  It didn't seem forced in "One" or "Fade To Black" or "Sanitarium" the way it does sometimes on these songs.  With the Black Album a hit like "Enter Sandman" bludgeoned the riff with no bullshit and if they did a ballad like "Nothing Else Matters" it was a ballad.  Load's songs often suffer a little bit from Alice In Chain-itis and mid 90's commercial rock production techniques.  "Thorn Within" suffers this despite a successful partial nicking of the "Twist of Cain" Danzig riff.

One of those records that,  if another 25 years pass, I won't revisit and may never have if it weren't for this blog.