Metallica
Load

It’s been ten years since I last spoke with the Metallica. They are like those jerk relatives whom you always revered, placed on a pedestal, and who at some point turned their backs on you, leaving a gap of incurable disappointment in your soul. I ran into "Death Magnetic" at a party some time ago, but I pretended not to even know it. It's true, over the years, I've randomly encountered videos and radio snippets of something that still managed to make me jump. It happened again a few days ago.

And so, it happens that at a certain point you have to settle scores with the past, and that a closet is not a suitable place for skeletons. I went back to flipping through the albums from when we were happy, when we truly cared for each other, lived in symbiosis, and yes, I can say it, we loved each other. 
This is not an evaluation, it is a re-evaluation. And it's more appropriately an outburst than a review.

The happy days, which seemed never-ending, found their grim conclusion in the summer of 1996. Why did it take five years for a new album? In 1991, Metallica had reached the height of their success and simultaneously begun their slow decline with the epochal "Black Album", which with its thrash serenades and its reach to everyone’s ears had mainstreamed metal to the general public, marking the era of great commercial success. Despite its evident flaws, primarily its commercialism, and those 12 songs that already yielded to the temptation to fill albums with 3-4 tracks that were essentially useless. 
"Load" features 14 tracks even. Too many, for there not to be off-notes. But beyond this, a new album from them, even if it were full of belches, would have had enormous success if released riding the wave of enthusiasm. Instead, they didn't ride the wave. They withdrew to deliberate, as if their history should be judged by them, in all calmness, and not by history itself.

Listening to "Load", like their new look, initially triggered shivers, and not the pleasant kind. Those sounds: the dirty guitars, those drums that seemed like frantic cookware, in a sea of potentially abrasive but no longer engaging riffs. It was another break from the past, or more precisely, a point of no return.
Devastating, though unripe and exaggerated in "Kill em all", a debut album that presents their unmatched manifesto (The Four Horsemen) subsequently, evolving incredibly in the single year that separates them from "Ride the lightning", finding the thrash path that would lead them straight to the masterpiece Master of Puppets. 

The continuity of the four horsemen is only in these two albums. "…And Justice for all" is already another chapter, other sounds, endlessly tough songs, the sounds tremendously dark and the lyrics more enigmatic. With One they touch the total stylistic perfection (music, lyrics, chilling video, this time the real chills). "Metallica" is another story altogether, made of compromises, of winks at success. The only continuity between these two albums is that dry snare that echoes like a gunshot and is one of their distinctive features. (Has anyone noticed that in these two albums Ulrich never uses the ride? It's always and only, in any case, the hi-hat.)

"Load" is hard-rock mostly, at its most heavy, it is southern-rock in parts and in the country ballad Mama Said. It’s what we did not expect and not even what we wanted. The kings of thrash had relinquished the crown themselves. And yet, in its excessive track list, there are no horrible songs, except for Ronnie. Yes, we could have done without King Nothing, Thorn Within, Wasting my Hate. There are decent tracks, some tough pieces like Cure and some appreciable experiments like Hero of the Day; there are also three little masterpieces: Until it Sleeps, Bleeding Me and The Outlaw Torn.

Today, I feel like making peace with them. It wasn’t what I expected, but 15 years later this album seems sincere, heartfelt, a change they owed to themselves, being consistent with themselves even at the expense of the audience, who wanted, want, and will always want the years of "Master of Puppets pulling your string, twisting your mind and smashing your dreams". 

Shortly after they attempted suicide with "Re-Load", not so much for the masochistic irreverence of self-referencing in Unforgiven II which, apart from the reckless title, is one of the few decent tracks on the album, but for the album itself, a terrible mishmash of rejected tracks from "Load". The self-destruction succeeded with "St.Anger", not a bold experimental album, but a pure act against their (unforgotten and monumental) musical dignity. 
But I still don’t talk to some of those.