Was this album really that bad, or was all the hate just butthurt mealfags having a chimpout?

Was this album really that bad, or was all the hate just butthurt mealfags having a chimpout?

As much as TBA was maligned, Metallica during that time still felt like themselves. Load however is when they stopped even pretending to be a metal band and became lighter-waving Bud Light stadium rock. The late 90s was when they start wearing mud-splatted wifebeaters onstage and referring to themselves as 'Tallica, and James Hetfield would open shows by reciting scripted generic arena rock cliches. TBA still has obviously metal-flavored lyrics, it's just a simplified, more radio-friendly version of their classic sound. Load/Reload have a bunch of pseudo-alternative ditties and generic redneck rock.

Also James trashed his voice during the 92 tour and never really recovered from it, you can hear the difference on Load versus five years earlier. Lars and Kirk's playing, while never amazing, becomes truly pitiful here--they've devolved to a club level.

it was that bad
[spoiler]hero of the day is an okay song[/spoiler]

Load [Elektra, 1996]

The good thing about being old is that I'm neither wired to like metal nor tempted to fake it. Just as I suspected, these Johnny-come-lately-meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss-es can no more do grunge than they can double ledger bookkeeping. Grunge simply isn't their meter. So regardless of what riff neatniks think, this is just a metal album with the tempos slowed and the songs shortened, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and bad because it also means more singing, which they can't. C+

>Until It Sleeps
Oh my god James, I get it. Your mom had cancer. You already told us many albums ago.

This album and how Metallica turned out to be is honestly jarring to me.

They were influenced by GOAT bands like Diamond Head, Mercyful Fate, Motorhead, and even classical. Like it or not they were one of the leaders of heavy metal in 80s and Kill Em All and Ride the Lightning are irreplaceable classics.

Then they suddenly stop putting out albums for years to come and this radio rock is what they shat out and haven't changed since. Why?

>Johnny-come-lately-meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss-es

Was it autism?

>Bleeding Me and The Outlaw Torn
>radio-friendly/radio rock
wew

I'm sure it was much more intense and brootal than Fight Fire with Fire or Metal Militia

It doesn't matter how intense it is (unless you're getting into straigh noise territory of course), a 4-5 minute track is much more likely to get airplay than an 8-9 minute one

Ok I actually went out of my way to listen to those tracks and it was honestly fucking sad. To hear a band that was once full of vigor and potential devolve into some emo slipknot bullshit was very disheartening.

>if it's longer it's better

Well the Four Horsemen is 7 minutes and it's infinitely better than those two, or the album for that matter.

>if it's longer it's better
That's not what I said idiot, I said it's less radio friendly

I don't think it was that bad, its way two long and load/reload should have been whittled down into one album. If you think of it as not trying to be metal and more trying to be a lighter version of kyuss or corrosion of conformity then it makes a bit more sense.

I heard that it originally was written in a lower tuning or something and was a little bit more stoner rocky, i dunno why they didn't just go all out with that.

I saw Metallica in the 90s and they sucked ass. Korn opened and completely blew them away.

Either way those two songs you listed is still more radio-friendly. It's softer and less intense. You don't hear Call of Ktulu on radio but if there's Metallica on the station it's always Enter Sandman.

It's the fault of Bob Rock for encouraging James Hetfield to sing about his feels instead of cool metal shit.

Load and ReLoad have some okay listenable tracks, but they're pretty shitty albums overall. Not because they stopped being metal, but just because they were shit. Their later albums where they went back to being metal were terrible also.

I WAS BORN ON THE CEMETERy

Het singing about how he wanted to die after someone stole their gear back in '84 is a classic though.

You shouldn't chase after inspiration. They should come to you.

Just look at Mustaine. Got kicked out and sent on greyhound and had to walk 3 blocks to his mom's house. Years of inspiration. Maybe James could've wrote about the drunk driver that killed Cliff or something.

>It's softer and less intense.
That doesn't mean shit when it's 8 minutes long, no mainstream radio station is gonna play that. I'd say the 2 songs you mentioned earlier are much more radio friendly by the standards of radio when Load was released.

I WAS MADE A MERCENARY

INVISIBLE KID GOT A PLACE OF HIS OWN

You're acting like being played on the radio is the red flag for bad songs or something.

When I said radio-friendly, I meant that it was more similar to generic emo shits you have junior high girls rave about.

TL;DR Load sucks ass

Didn't listen to Load as much but listened to Reload as a metalfag kid because of songs like Fuel

ReLoad has great songs like Fixxxer, Where the Wild Things Are and Low Man's Lyric

>You're acting like being played on the radio is the red flag for bad songs or something.
I'm not, you stated they were radio-friendly and part of your argument seemed to hinge on that
If you wanna say the album is shit I'm not gonna stop you, but saying it's radio rock is just plan untrue.

Objective rankings
RTL>MOP>KEA=TBA>Shit>DM=HTSD>>>>>cancer>everything else

RtL>KeA>MoP>AJFA>>>>>>>>>wall of Jericho>>>>>>black album

Nobody needs any Metallica after "The Black Album"

>cancer that low
Pleb, cancer is a true patrician way to die

I mean, it was pretty dumb for metalfags to keep expecting MOP over and over and over. If Metallica kept trying to act like 1985 in 1996, they would have ended up at the county fair circuit with Quiet Riot, Styx, and all the other has-beens from past decades.

RTL>MOP=KEA>AJFA>Lulu>>TBA>>>everything else

It was alright, they definitely got a lot worse

Don't let your friends let friends get haircuts.

And, you know, encouraging James to actually sing.