Metallica
Load

THE REVIEW

I want to do justice with this review, once and for all, to one of the most criticized and mistreated albums in the history of music.

Metallica returned after a full five years of absence following the overwhelming and unexpected success of the 1991 Black album, a record that transformed the four from a Thrash band known and appreciated only in the Metal scene to a popular group famous worldwide. Many longtime fans already criticized them at the time for their softening of sound but still, in the early nineties, Metallica were an untouchable band and a symbol of the metal audience on par with Iron Maiden. During this long period of waiting, many songs were written, which were initially supposed to end up in a double CD, but then the idea was abandoned. In June 1996, finally, the new work by Hetfield and company saw the light. Everyone expected an album following the previous one's path and very few hoped for a return to the sounds of "Master of Puppets," but no one would have ever thought that Metallica would release an album like "Load," so alien from the Heavy/Thrash sounds they had accustomed everyone to up to that moment. The new work was a real shock for fans and music critics who immediately accused the band of having sold out, of having released a commercial pop album just to make money, of their short hair, their clothes, and more. Metallica went from being a cult band to being clowns, continuously mocked by the metal audience and acclaimed by MTV.

Now, in those years, a truly paradoxical and ridiculous situation was created, which greatly affected the true value of "Load," which, fundamentally, is the most experimental album of their career, where rightly, like all the greatest artists, they have tried to push beyond their normal standards to stay creative and remain at high levels. The album succeeds in its intent, with its excellent mix of Blues, Hard Rock, Country, Metal, and Progressive, while totally moving away from all previous releases, and remains the last great Metallica record.

It transitions from tracks with simple, almost pop structures, like the gloomy "Until it Sleeps" or the curious "Hero of the Day," to real gems like "Bleeding Me," hypnotic and evocative with a thousand facets (the best on the album and one of the best pieces ever written by Metallica) that doesn't make you feel the 8 minutes of listening in the least. Another milestone is the concluding "The Outlaw Torn," the most metal track on the album, epic yet oppressive and dark. Pleasant and relaxing is the ballad "Mama Said" and very beautiful are "The House Jack Built" and "Wasting My Hate" with their Blues/Hard Rock rhythm.

Certainly, the rest of the tracks are quite poor ("Cure," "Poor Twisted Me," and "King Nothing" are unqualified atrocities), and we can say that the album is not consistent, but it deserves more than a narrow pass just for the tracks mentioned above.

After the criticisms concerning Load and its follow-up, Metallica returned in 2003 with a ridiculous album starting from the name "St. Anger" and, thinking they had brought out a new "And Justice for All" (given the intentionally lousy sounds), they tried to win back the fans but only received loads of new insults. A new album should be coming out soon, but from the band's statements, I suspect that I will have a good laugh upon listening... but anything is possible...