After dropping their world-changing 1991 self-titled (which pursists still complain about 34 years later), Metallica took an even harder turn with Load and Reload in 1996 and 1997. They cut their hair, they tuned differently, they wrote big groovy, bluesy rock tunes. But if you ask Kirk Hammett, he’ll tell you that people are super into it now.
“It’s not a bad idea,” said Hammett in an interview with the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “We haven’t said that to each other yet. And you know, it’s interesting because when Load and Reload came out, there was was a lot of derision. There was a lot of backlash. There it was like, too much change. We changed our appearance. We changed our sound. We changed the way we we recorded. I was even playing different guitars and fucking tuned into E flat and listening to a lot of blues and jazz.
“So all those factors came out on Load and Reload to make what Load and Reload are. Load and Reload are so, so different from anything that came before it. It’s interesting, because like nowadays I run into fans and they love that era. They love Load and Reload. But when those albums first came out it was like ‘fuck Load, fuck Reload, fuck Metallica.’ Nowadays we play ‘Fuel’ and people go nuts.”
Hammett later compared Load and Reload to the Led Zeppelin’s fairly different Led Zeppelin III, released in 1970.
“When I was a teenager, I listened to all the Zeppelin albums except Zeppelin III because it was more acoustic, and I just wanted the bang high energy aggressive stuff because that’s what I loved when I was a kid. But over time, I really came to embrace Zeppelin III and how wonderful it is, and now I fully understand it and its
place in Zeppelin’s catalog. I think a similar thing kind of happened with Load and Reload after people got over the initial shock and the challenge. People sat down and gave an honest list and said ‘oh, you know? It’s not really that bad at the end of the day.'”
And who knows – maybe all this Load and Reload talk and play means those reissues Metallica talked about in 2022 are finally coming?
Want More Metal? Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter
Enter your information below to get a daily update with all of our headlines and receive The Orchard Metal newsletter.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings