Load: 27 Years Ago Today

Alberto Cabello / CC

Remember back in the late 90’s when Metallica stopped being Metal, cut their hair, and became a Rock band?

The first recorded example of their change was the album, “Load.” It’s having it’s 27th birthday.

Keep in mind, 1996 was a bad time for metal. Thrash and hair metal had already been overshadowed by alt-rock and grunge, and nu-metal bands including Korn, Deftones and Coal Chamber were filling a space vacated by kingpins such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. It wasn’t the ideal moment for Metallica to try to regain their place at the top of the metal hierarchy, and it didn’t help that there were rampant rumors that the band would return to their thrash roots (which didn’t happen until 2008’s Death Magnetic).

“At that time we did Load, writing that kind of stuff wasn’t exciting to me anymore,” James Hetfield told me in 1997. “None of us were writing that stuff, and when you write, that’s really telling your story about how you feel. It was more exciting for us to figure out more fucked up chords and dissonant things that grind than to go really fast.”https://loudwire.com/metallica-load-album-anniversary/