Metallica’s Short Haired ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ Era: Does It Deserve That Much Hate?

It’s not a great band unless a bunch of people hates it.

The change that came in the 1980s with countless bands pushing the rock music to the extreme can still be felt today. Countless subgenres emerged and it seemed as if there was one huge competition of who would make the most shocking music. Glam/hair metal, thrash metal, speed metal, black metal, death metal – there was something for everyone. However, some of it didn’t age so well and those who wanted to survive the 1990s had to adapt and change their style. Such is the case with Metallica.Metallica entered the 1990s with a huge self-titled album, known as “The Black Album,” topped all the charts and gave metalheads worldwide a hope in fighting against those new alternative genres. As everyone was being converted into grunge, Metallica managed to make a good old metal record and one of the best selling albums of all time, with a staggering 16 million copies sold in the US alone.

Metallica, is that you?

However, as the 90s progressed, Metallica had no other choice but to change. The band took a short break and then released an album the new album in 1996, titled “Load,” that left some of their fans in shock. The first noticeable change was their hair. Or lack of hair. No matter how much metalheads would deny it, at that point it was clearly obvious that superficial stuff like the looks is important even in a genre like metal.

But as it seemed to everyone that James, Lars, Jason, and Kirk all went to cut their hair at the same time, Lars revealed last year in an interview that this was not the case. According to his words, they all “got haircuts at various times between ’93 and ’96.” This was a time when there was no social media and the only way for the fans worldwide to see this was when they finally released the album. There was this photo of Metallica on the back side of the album:

And the front side had its own shock as well with the picture of actual blood, urine, and semen, done by Andres Serrano. Besides the hair and piss and semen, the album featured the most shocking visual change of them all – the new logo.

This… This sounds different

Besides the appearance, the album featured some significant musical changes. Opening up with the controversially named “Ain’t My Bitch,” you could still recognize Metallica, but there were still some new and different elements to it, including Kirk Hammett’s slide solo.

The album featured 14 tracks in total, including “Until It Sleeps,” “Bleeding Me,” “Hero of the Day,” “Cure,” “Wasting My Hate,” and weirdly enough a country-rock ballad “Mama Said.” Now, if some fans were not that shocked by their new visual style and a different musical direction, they were certainly confused by this track. Was this the same old band that made “Damage Inc.” or “The Four Horsemen” or “One”?

Needless to say, the album received some mixed reviews and some fans even refused to listen to it. According to Lars Ulrich, some didn’t give “Load” a fair chance since they “couldn’t get beyond Jason Newsted wearing eyeliner.” But despite all the criticism, the record charted pretty well.

Reload

One year later, Metallica released another record as sort of a continuation of this style, titled “Reload.” Yes, the hair was still short, James Hetfield still looked like a truck driver, but at least there was less eyeliner.

Just like the previous one, this record was produced by the legendary Bob Rock. There were 13 new songs, including one co-written by Jason Newsted. The reception was still mixed but slightly more positive compared to “Load.” Not to mention that “Fuel” and “Memory Remains” became achieved the classic status. Besides those, fans got the chance to hear stuff like “The Unforgiven II,” “Devil’s Dance,” “Carpe Diem Baby,” “Fixxxer,” and other songs.

Considering the fact that it sold around 436,000 copies in the first week, debuted on No. 1 on Billboard 200, and remained on this chart for 75 weeks – it was pretty much a commercial success.

So what now?

Yeah, you could still hear this was Metallica, but the songs were different in style compared to the stuff they did in the 1980s. Is that bad? Certainly not. Almost every rock/metal band out there changed their style as the time went on. And that’s completely fine. After all, if you really want to progress as a musician, there is no way to do it by regurgitating the same old stuff over and over again.

“Hey, but Metallica sold out…”

…is what you would hear from an average old school metal fan back in the 1990s. But the thing is, they were labeled as “sellouts” even with the release of their second record “Ride the Lightning.” Apparently, some metalheads were dissatisfied with Metallica’s use of acoustic guitars and even called the album “Ride the Lightbulb.”

Like it or not, if you want to survive as a band you need to change. Yes, it’s a double edged sword, but if done right it can literally save the band. All the way from “Ride the Lightning,” over “Load and “Reload” and “St. Anger,” to the infamous “Lulu,” Metallica was slammed for trying to do something new. Yeah, they probably went too far with “Lulu” but this just shows how open they are for experimentation. And, honestly, that’s never a bad thing.

And that Napster thing that Lars did – it just confirms that they were ready to move on with the times. Sure, they overreacted and approached the thing in a bit aggressive manner, but they were one of the first musicians to address these issues and think about the future.

Is the damage done?

And yet when they released “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired,” they were once again attacked for milking their old style. Was the damage already done? Did they open the Pandora’s box with “Load” and “Reload” and just exposed themselves to future criticisms? If this mid-90s era was slightly less experimental, maybe they wouldn’t get so much hate for an album like “St. Anger”?

At the end – who cares? They’re still one of the biggest bands out there, and besides Iron Maiden probably the main thing that’s keeping metal alive these days. Metallica fans will constantly complain yet they’ll continue to listen to all the new material the band releases.

Some may not like what I have to say, but here it goes anyway: Metallica could fart in a box for half an hour and they’d still make a good album. Or at least a decent one.

What’s your opinion about this era? Are these two albums good? Or was this the point where they sold out and ruined metal forever? Feel free to discuss this in the comment section below.Check out Ultimate Guitar Official merch line. Stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, drawstring and tote bags, spiral notebooks, pillows, mugs. All profits from sales go to Save The Music Foundation.