Load is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on

June 4, 1996, by Elektra Records in the United States and by Vertigo

Records internationally. The album showed more of a hard rock side of Metallica
than the band's typical thrash metal style, which alienated much of the band's
fanbase.[7][8][9] It also featured influences from genres such as Southern rock, blues
rock, country rock,[2] and alternative rock.[10] Drummer Lars Ulrich said
about Load's more exploratory nature, "This album and what we're doing with it –
that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things. The minute you
stop exploring, then just sit down and fucking die."[11] At 79 minutes, Load is
Metallica's longest studio album.

Load received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, debuting
and spending four consecutive weeks at number one on the
US Billboard 200 chart. Load sold 680,000 units in its first week, making it the
biggest opening week for Metallica as well as the biggest debut of 1996.[12] It was
certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for
shipping five million copies in the United States. Four singles—"Until It Sleeps",
"Hero of the Day", "Mama Said", and "King Nothing"—were released as part of the
marketing campaign for the album.

Background
[edit]
Load, released approximately five years after the commercially successful
album Metallica, saw the band shifting toward hard rock and further away from
their thrash metal roots. As on previous releases, the album's fourteen songs began
as rough demos created by principal songwriters James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in
Ulrich's basement recording studio, "The Dungeon". In early 1995, the band took
over thirty demos into The Plant Studios, where they would work for approximately
one year. Metallica worked with producer Bob Rock, who had been at the helm
during the recording process for Metallica.

The songwriting dispensed almost entirely with the thrash metal style that
characterized the band's sound in the 1980s. Metallica had listed several artists and
bands from which they took inspiration while writing Load and Reload that strayed
from the types of bands that influenced them for their earlier albums,
including Kyuss, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, ZZ Top, Pantera, Corrosion
of Conformity, Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, and even more mainstream acts
like Oasis, Alanis Morissette, and Garth Brooks, among others.[13][14][15] This resulted
in Load having a much more mid-paced, groovier sound that verged on hard rock. In
place of staccato riffs, Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett experimented
with blues rock-based tones and styles. Additionally, Ulrich adopted a minimalist
approach to his drum recording, abandoning the speed and complex double bass
drumming patterns of previous albums, and using simpler techniques and playing
styles.

The album's lyrical themes show a striking departure from Metallica's previously
social and politically charged subjects; many of Load's tracks discuss themes of
depression, including "Bleeding Me", "Mama Said", and "Until It Sleeps", all of which
are about the death of Hetfield's mother, and "The Outlaw Torn", which is said to be
about the band coping with Cliff Burton's death. Other songs, such as "The House
Jack Built" and "Cure", discuss themes of drug and alcohol addiction, and "Thorn
Within" and "Poor Twisted Me" reflect James's struggles with depression.

Hammett, encouraged by producer Bob Rock, also played rhythm guitar on a

Metallica album for the first time, having previously only played lead parts with
Hetfield playing all the rhythm parts to achieve a tighter feel, in contrast to the looser
feel they were looking for here.[16] Hammett continued playing rhythm until Death
Magnetic when Hetfield once again played all the rhythm parts.[17]

At 79 minutes, Load is Metallica's longest studio album. With the CD length at 78:59,
initial pressings of the album were affixed with stickers boasting of its long playtime,
simply reading "78:59". "The Outlaw Torn" had to be shortened by about one minute
to fit on the album; the full version of the track was released on the single "The
Memory Remains" as "The Outlaw Torn (Unencumbered by Manufacturing
Restrictions Version)", with a running time of 10:48. An explanation on the single's
back cover stated:

When we were doing the final sequencing of the 'LOAD' album, the record company
told us that we couldn't go a second past 78:59, or your CD's wouldn't play without
potentially skipping. With our 14 songs, we were running about 30 seconds over, and
something had to give, so the cool-ass jam at the end of 'Outlaw' got chopped.[18]
Load was Metallica's first album on which all tracks were down-tuned to E♭ tuning.
Hammett states:

I started tuning to E-flat for my riff tapes because I copied a lot of the Hendrix stuff.
You know I used to try to figure out Jimi Hendrix solos, Stevie Ray
Vaughan solos, Thin Lizzy solos and those three bands tune to E-flat. And so a lot of
my riffs were in E-flat, and I guess when James would hear the riffs tuned in E-flat
and he'd try to sing to 'em, I think he kind of liked it. He liked the break it kind of gave
his voice. He didn't have to pitch that extra half step. And that's also why on
both Load and Reload the primary tuning is E-flat rather than E.[19]
The band had recorded songs on earlier albums in tunings lower than E: "The God
That Failed" (Metallica) was in E♭, and "Sad but True" (Metallica) and "The Thing
That Should Not Be" (Master of Puppets) were in D tuning. Hetfield also felt that the
change to E♭ was a bonus, as it was easier to perform string bends in the riffs.[16]

The Australian CD release of Load includes a bonus interview CD that is unavailable

elsewhere.[20] 10 songs from the album have been played live including "King
Nothing", "Until It Sleeps", "Ain't My Bitch", "Bleeding Me", "Wasting My Hate", "Hero
of the Day", "The Outlaw Torn", "2 X 4", "Poor Twisted Me", "Mama Said".[21] Songs
that have not been played live in their entirety are "The House Jack Built", "Cure",
"Thorn Within", and "Ronnie".[22]

Artwork
[edit]
The cover of Load is an original artwork titled "Semen and Blood III". It is one of
three photographic studies that Andres Serrano created in 1990 by
mingling bovine blood and his own semen between two sheets of Plexiglas.[23] The
liner notes simply state "cover art by Andres Serrano" rather than listing the title of
the work. Hammett learned of Serrano's work from Godflesh frontman Justin
Broadrick when he was shown the music video Serrano had directed for the
Godflesh song "Crush My Soul". Broadrick claimed that no one in Metallica knew
about Serrano before the "Crush My Soul" music video.[24]

In a 2009 interview with Classic Rock, Hetfield expressed his dislike of the album
cover and its inspiration:

Lars and Kirk were very into abstract art, pretending they were gay. I think they knew
it bugged me. It was a statement around all that. I love art, but not for the sake of
shocking others. I think the cover of Load was just a piss-take around all that. I just
went along with the make-up and all of this crazy, stupid shit that they felt they
needed to do.[25]
Load also marked the first appearance of a new Metallica logo that rounded off the
stabbing edges of the band's earlier logo, greatly simplifying its appearance. The M
from the original logo was used to make a shuriken-like symbol known as the "ninja
star", which was used as an alternate logo on this and future albums, and on related
artwork. The album featured an expansive booklet containing photographs by Anton
Corbijn. These photographs depict the band in various dress, including white A-
shirts with suspenders, Cuban suits, and gothic. In the aforementioned 2009
interview, James Hetfield said:

Lars and Kirk drove on those records. The whole 'We need to reinvent ourselves'
topic was up. Image is not an evil thing for me, but if the image is not you, then it
doesn't make much sense. I think they were really after a U2 kind of
vibe, Bono doing his alter ego. I couldn't get into it. The whole, 'Okay, now in this
photoshoot we're going to be '70s glam rockers.' Like, what? I would say half – at
least half – the pictures that were to be in the booklet, I yanked out. The whole cover
thing, it went against what I was feeling.[25]

Reception
[edit]

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source Rating

[2]
AllMusic

Drowned in Sound 9/10[26]

[27]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Entertainment Weekly B[10]

 [28]
Los Angeles Times

NME 7/10[29]

[29]
Q

[30]
Rolling Stone

[31]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

The Village Voice C+[32]

Load received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rolling Stone said, "The
foursome dams the bombast and chugs half-speed ahead, settling into a wholly
magnetizing groove that bridges old-school biker rock and the doomier side of post-
grunge '90s rock."[33] Q enthused, "These boys set up their tents in the darkest place
of all, in the naked horror of their own heads... Metallica make existential metal and
they've never needed the props... Metallica are still awesome... What is new is
streamlined attack, the focus and, yes, the tunes."[citation needed]

Melody Maker expressed reservations about Load's heaviness compared to its

predecessors: "A Metallica album is traditionally an exhausting event. It should rock
you to exhaustion, leave you brutalised and drained. This one is no exception. It is,
however, the first Metallica album to make me wonder at any point, 'What the fuck
was that?' It's as if the jackboot grinding the human face were to take occasional
breaks for a pedicure."[34] AllMusic considered Load repetitive, uninteresting and
poorly executed.[2] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said "this is just a metal
record with less solo room, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and
more singing, which isn't because they can't."[32]

"Some of that stuff was pretty cool," remarked Lars Ulrich of the album and its follow-
up. "With Load, it was disappointing that some people's reaction to the music was
biased by how they dealt with the pictures – the hair and all that crap [see Artwork,
above]. People have come up to me years afterwards and said, 'I never gave the
record a fair chance because I couldn't get beyond Jason Newsted wearing eyeliner.'
But 'The Outlaw Torn', some of that shit is pretty fucking awesome."[35]

Track listing
[edit]
All lyrics are written by James Hetfield, music as noted

No. Title Music Length

1. "Ain't My Bitch"  Hetfield 5:04
 Lars Ulrich
2. "2 X 4"  Hetfield 5:28
 Ulrich
 Kirk Hammett
3. "The House Jack Built"  Hetfield 6:39
  Ulrich
 Hammett
4. "Until It Sleeps"  Hetfield 4:28
 Ulrich
5. "King Nothing"  Hetfield 5:30
 Ulrich
 Hammett
6. "Hero of the Day"  Hetfield 4:22
 Ulrich
 Hammett
7. "Bleeding Me"  Hetfield 8:18
 Ulrich
 Hammett
8. "Cure"  Hetfield 4:54
 Ulrich
9. "Poor Twisted Me"  Hetfield 4:00
 Ulrich
10. "Wasting My Hate"  Hetfield 3:57
 Ulrich
 Hammett
11. "Mama Said"  Hetfield 5:20
 Ulrich
12. "Thorn Within"  Hetfield 5:52
 Ulrich
 Hammett
13. "Ronnie"  Hetfield 5:17
 Ulrich
14. "The Outlaw Torn"  Hetfield 9:49
 Ulrich
Total length: 78:59
Personnel
[edit]
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[36][37]

Metallica

 James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar on "2 X 4", "The House
Jack Built", "King Nothing", "Thorn Within" and "The Outlaw Torn"[19]
 Kirk Hammett – lead and rhythm guitar[19][38]
 Jason Newsted – bass
 Lars Ulrich – drums
Production

 Bob Rock – production

 Brian Dobbs – engineering, mixing
 Randy Staub – engineering
 Jason Goldstein – assistant engineering
  Kent Matcke – assistant engineering
 Mike Fraser – mixing
 Matt Curry – mixing assistant
 Mike Rew – mixing assistant
 George Marino – mastering
 Paul DeCarli – digital editing
 Mike Gillies – digital editing assistant
 Chris Vrenna – digital editing assistant
 Andie Airfix – design
 Andres Serrano – cover design
 Anton Corbijn – photography
Charts
[edit]
Weekly charts Year-end charts
[edit] [edit]

Weekly chart performance for Load 1996 year-end chart perfor

Peak Chart (1996)

Chart (1996)
position

Australian Albums (ARIA)[62]

Australian Albums (ARIA)[39] 1

Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[63]

Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[40] 1

Canadian Albums (RPM)[64]

Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [41]
1

Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[65

Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[42] 2

European Top 100 Albums (Music

Czech Albums (IFPI)[43] 1

French Albums (SNEP)[67]

Danish Albums (Hitlisten) [44]
1

German Albums (Offizielle Top 1

Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [45]
1

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[69]

Europe (European Top 100 Albums) [46]
1

Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitpara

 Weekly chart performance for Load 1996 year-end chart perfor

Peak Chart (1996)

Chart (1996)
position

Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[47] 1

UK Albums (OCC)[71]
French Albums (SNEP) [48]
1

US Billboard 200[72]
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[49] 1
Decade-end charts
[edit]
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[50] 1
1990s-end chart performan
for Load
Irish Albums (IRMA)[51] 2

Chart (1990–1999) Pos

Italian Albums (FIMI)[52] 2

US Billboard 200[73] 8
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[53] 1

Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[54] 1

Portuguese Albums (AFP)[55] 1

Scottish Albums (OCC)[56] 1

Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[57] 2

Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[58] 1

Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[59] 1

UK Albums (OCC)[60] 1
 Weekly chart performance for Load

Peak
Chart (1996)
position

US Billboard 200[61] 1

Certifications
[edit]

Certifications and sales for Load

Certificatio
Region Certified units/sales
n

Argentina (CAPIF)[74] Platinum 60,000^

Australia (ARIA)[75] 5× Platinum 350,000‡

Austria (IFPI Austria)[76] Platinum 50,000*

Belgium (BEA)[77] Gold 25,000*

Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[78] Gold 100,000*

Canada (Music Canada)[79] 4× Platinum 400,000^

Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[80] Platinum 94,384[80]

France (SNEP)[81] Gold 100,000*

Germany (BVMI)[82] 5× Gold 1,250,000‡

Greece (IFPI Greece)[83] Gold 31,000[83]

 Certifications and sales for Load

Certificatio
Region Certified units/sales
n

Hungary (MAHASZ)[84] Gold

Japan (RIAJ)[85] Platinum 200,000^

Netherlands (NVPI)[86] Gold 50,000^

New Zealand (RMNZ)[87] Platinum 15,000^

Norway (IFPI Norway)[88] Platinum 50,000*

Poland (ZPAV)[89] Platinum 100,000*

Spain (PROMUSICAE)[90] Platinum 100,000^

Sweden (GLF)[91] Platinum 100,000^

Turkey (Mü-Yap)[92] Gold 5,000*

United Kingdom (BPI)[93] Platinum 300,000‡

United States (RIAA)[95] 5× Platinum 5,400,000[94]

Uruguay (CUD)[96] Gold 3,000^

Summaries
 Certifications and sales for Load

Certificatio
Region Certified units/sales
n

Europe (IFPI)[97] 2× Platinum 2,000,000*

*
Sales figures based on certification alone.
^
Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.