"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire"
Oh yeah, these guys are huge, almost as big as Led Zeppelin,
so it's hardly a wonder they've often been hailed as their successors. And of
course, they have one thing going for them, they're Americans, which can prove
to be quite important. For example, German bands like Primal Fear, no matter
how good they are, simply can't reach stardom. Perhaps that's partially because
of the dying of the metal scene (which actually is getting stronger, but it's
nowhere near the golden eighties era), but it's common knowledge that if you're
from America you really have a certain edge before the competition. However,
that edge don't means shit when you're a struggling new band in California,
although it will be a neat circumstance when it's time to broaden your market
to Europe and Asia. Luckily, Metallica knew exactly what the wanted and were
capable to carry it out even though the odds at first seemed to be against them.
They builded up their fan base by touring, and their raw, but later on surprisingly
complex approach to metal insured they'll get a decent shot at the mainstream
audience, which is nowadays commonly known under the expression "selling
out".
Indeed, the increased sales later on persuaded the band the go away from trash
metal and take their clue from the likes of Sabbath and Zeppelin. The long-time
fans really hated the change and the band is constantly trashed because of that,
as well as some other matters like the free distribution of MP3's from Napster
where Metallica felt the sudden urge to drag the whole thing in court. That
action alienated their fan base some more, but they're still the biggest metal
band around, except maybe for the NWOBHM procreators Priest and Maiden. Besides
that, Metallica also became probably the only band who's name and image is forever
bonded with the term heavy metal, as for most people, Metallica are what metal
is all about, or perhaps, what it should be about. Personally I don't mind one
bit their change of focus from the brutal fast approach to a mid-tempo grind,
as I was a fan of similar bands long before I got into Metallica. And besides,
they really are good songwriters, as well as interesting, but somewhat orthodox
lyricists.
I guess I'll ignite with a useless history lesson now, but I know you really
don't need it. Well, expectedly enough the band started out in L.A. and moved
on to San Francisco in order to incommode their new bass player Cliff Burton.
By the time they hooked up with Burton they've already sacked one of their guitarists,
notably Dave Mustaine who went on to form yet another quintessential trash band
Megadeth. He was replaced with the former Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett and
the original lineup was completed. Heavily influenced by the NWOBHM the guys
thought they can do it better, or at least differently, so true trash metal
was born (or exposed to the public) with the release of their debut album Kill
'Em All on the Megaforce label. They didn't use any glamour or glitter like
contemporary bands Motley Crue or Poison, and they chose to make up for it with
blistering musicianship and daring songs. Also, it's well known that when they
took part in the rock festival at Donington Castle Hetfield said something along
the lines of "if you came here to see makeup and mascara, and to hear the
words 'oooh baby' in every fucking song, we're not your fucking kind of an band!".
After their second album they switched to the Elektra label and soon had massive
success with the next album Master Of Puppets so their 1986 tour with
metal's godfather Ozzy Osbourne was the last one in which they served like somebody's
opening act, and Ozzy himself admitted that he had trouble with playing after
them since they were so darn energetic. Unfortunately, bass player Cliff Burton
died when one of their tour buses flipped over on an icy road in Sweden and
was replaced by Jason Newsted. They were also nominated for a Grammy award for
best metal performance but the award was snatched from them by the British rockers
Jethro Tull (and their quite crappy album Crest Of A Knave). In return,
when Metallica got a Grammy in 1990 they gallantly thanked Jethro Tull for not
releasing anything that year. Anyway, the turning point was their God-knows-in-how-many-millions-sold
self-titled album (or The Black Album) when they abandoned the speedy
approach and "sold out". The following album further solidified the
band's mainstream appearance and the final blow for the fans happened in 1999
when they hooked up with composer David Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra in order to record the double live album S&M.
The lineup: James Hetfield – vocals, guitar; Kirk Hammett – guitar, Cliff Burton
– bass, Lars Ulrich – drums. As stated earlier, Cliff Burton was replaced by
Jason Newsted.
- LOAD
- RELOAD
Patchy, gruesomely patchy throughout. Eh, as every metalhead
on this planet knows this is probably the most important metal release in the
eighties since it began the whole trash-speed-death-black metal hype that still
lasts. And incredibly enough, for such an influential album there's plenty of
pretty simplistic rockers featured here, and if it wasn't for them and that
lousy, well, maybe "unexperienced" is a better world, Hetfield character this
could have been a darn great recording. This disc is mostly pretty average,
certainly not up to the standards the band will set on their next record, but
I think it does have enough of redeeming points. The highlights are the faster
songs all containing some decent slabs of rawkin' power, but sadly they're usually
spoiled by the utterly rednecky performance of James Hetfield. To be fair, while
Hetfield's not a terrible singer, way back when this was recorded his voice
seemed to be going through puberty so at times he comes across as plain atrocious,
straining his voice too much and sometimes even battling with some poorly-written
chorus lines. Quite frankly, Hetfield's not the only weak link here, in fact,
the lyrics are an equally big problem, even if it's very understandable that
they came out the way they did. Really, these lyrics are a truly sad affair
since they're almost exclusively filled with naive juvenile stories about partying,
rocking out, getting laid and so on (plus some spooky fantasy rants in the grand
tradition of Uriah Heep). Sure, that's the typical metal lyrics of the era so
why do I complain? I don't know really. Probably because this band progressed
so much by the next album that I kind of expect to discover some more subtle
values in this stuff, you know, something more serious. But it's not just the
lyrics and the vocals that should be touched upon, while there's plenty of fresh
ideas presented it seems that they're not sure how to build up on them so as
a result this stuff often lacks something, like a more refined or even complex
approach on the more epic tracks, or some better vocal arrangements in the rip-roaring
rockers. As it is, most of these roughly-written tunes are accessible and crowd-pleasing,
but I don't feel all that ecstatic about them since they're stylistically quite
dated and besides that, from my standpoint it seems that they were strongly
influenced by punk rock cause they can sound a bit too half-baked.
Yet another in the long line of problems is the partially inadequate production,
which is both good and bad. Sometimes it does represent a problem when the drums
are poorly tracked or the guitar tones murky, but it's also that un-polished
production that makes Metallica's debut such an intriguing document of its epoch.
The fact that the guitars are so unexplainably aggressive and gritty easily
saves this album from obscurity, and even helps it to age better than most of
the albums of the era. Sure it's not produced as good as the first Iron Maiden
album, but it sounds less dated than Maiden's Number Of The Beast or Dio's Holy
Diver. It must have been impressive to hear such ferocious performances 20 years
ago, it's pretty bland for today's standards, but then... well, it was really
something else back then.
"Hit The Lights" is a typical thrash metal shredder but with its pedestrian
melody it simply doesn't justify the fact that it was released under the Metallica
moniker. After all, frantic soloing and breaknecky speed doesn't make a decent
Metallica number, especially when it's filled with nothing more than pointless
aggression and zero artistic value. It's fun, but hardly quintessential. Plus,
Hetfield's annoying yelps just aren't what I'm looking for so I'll rather pass
this one up, thank you very much. However, it's "The Four Horsemen" that really
lets it rip in a complex and intelligent way, worthy of the numbers on the next
albums. It's quite amazing if you give it a fair chance and it's obvious they
actually had to bother themselves with some songwriting, instead of just belting
out some speedily played raw noise. This is probably the centerpiece of the
album since it has that well-structured epic feel and it's clocking around seven
minutes quite graciously. The chugging catchy riffs are especially ingenious
here and as far as I know the band should be grateful to Dave Mustaine for them,
and of course the slower middle section is unusually profound with those beautiful
chorus lines underlining it, er... I meant, tolerable chorus lines underlining
it. Ah, I might as well admit it, the lyricism here is actually a pretty soothing
change from their usual cock rock gibberish, although it's not quite up to date
with their later efforts. Meanwhile, Hetfield continues to amaze me with his
poor vocals on "Motorbreath" and the lyrics are banal like always, but that
ain't the point, cause this is one of the best balls-to-the-wall shredders here.
No doubt, viciously and capably played this is certainly one of the highlights
with Hammett adding some flashy but memorable solo lines. "Jump In The Fire"
is, I guess, the closest they got to making a groovy mid-tempo song and as such
it ain't bad, with some acceptable but slightly rehashed hooks and a tiresome
old melody that probably sounded fresh to them, but I consider it to be plain
pesky nowadays. Next is the simplistic bass-driven instrumental "Anesthesia
(Pulling Teeth)" which basically consists of some distorted bass soloing by
Cliff Burton. I guess it's good too, especially since it's obvious that Burton
was after all a pretty talented player, despite the fact he kept the low profile
in the band. It ain't the best jolly solo you've ever heard, but it ain't the
worst pile of low grade cacophony either. And you just got to love when Ulrich
jams his way into the track near the end.
I also kind of enjoy the master of all cornyness, "Whiplash", because it's rapid
and filled with primitive old-fashioned rock ‘n' roll fun with over the top
lyrics and everything. "Phantom Lord" is a mindless plodder and it's forgettable
both in the arranging and kick-ass way, and while "No Remorse" does have some
shining moments in the riff department Hetfield's attempt at singing those painfully
clichéd lyrics wholeheartedly ruins it. The ballsy mid-tempo "Seek And Destroy"
is often sluggish, but threatening with fine time shifts throughout and it gets
a tad faster near the end. Oddly, it's still very energetic despite the fact
it's kinda dragging, which is probably the question of the overall atmosphere.
There's a couple of fine groovy moments and the bass work is fitting, but you
already know what I think about the chorus lines. Then we have "Metal Militia"
with its onslaught of speedy riffing and a pack of stupidly written and overly
cheesy lyrics that Hetfield drops on the song like a napalm bomb. Strangely
enough, it's only now that Metallica completely slumps in their final niche,
a totally laughable metal monster driven by pure venomous attitude and not by
much else. Thankfully, the band quickly learned their lesson, showed some much
needed good taste and by the next album departed from this insipid style to
some more promising stuff. Regardless, this is solid thrash metal even if it
is a bit immature, with the lowest point being Hetfield's godawful croaky voice
which even manages to go off key sometimes (granted, not too often), and he
mostly just screams in a higher pitched manner so it's almost unbearable. It's
obvious that they're placing the emphasis on kick-ass aggression more than on
the melodies or the progressive edge so the tunes aren't nearly as epic as they
will be soon enough. Not a bad start, all in all.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
It's rather useless to write a review of this album since
it's obviously revered as Metallica's finest hour anyway. Now there are some
people who don't believe this is their best, but of course they're deadly wrong.
There's not a single truly weak number here which is rarely the case with Metallica
albums (they're usually chock full of them - the later ones, I mean) and the
tracks are usually lengthy and well-structured. As Mark Prindle rightfully noticed
this album came across as something more than the band originally planned and
they've been trying to reconstruct it again on both Master Of Puppets and ...And
Justice For All, but as any police detective knows, it ain't easy to reconstruct
a crime - especially when you don't have a clue how it happend. And really,
I don't think that the band knows what exactly did they do to make this album
sound so good so they can hardly do it again. As far as the guitars are concerned
the distortion is more present here than it was on most contemporary metal albums
and the drums are incredibly fast and furious (for 1984). However, the poor
production made quite a mess of this offering so the bass is just barely noticeable,
the drums are a little thin and the guitars lack the sharpness of their later
efforts. Still, I'd be lying if I said that I don't enjoy that vintage vibe
of the eighties that's splattered all over this disc since it makes a very unique
atmosphere.
The raging opener "Fight Fire With Fire" immediately shows some progression
from the blatantly simplistic and dumb feel of Kill 'Em All since the acoustic
guitar gracefully plays a beautiful gothic melody and the song soon bursts in
flames as they ignite with a bunch of thrashing ferocious riffs. And this brutal
track is actually aptly titled since Hetfield sings those passable lyrics in
a weird stop-and-go manner against the flashy bottom-heavy riffing so it appears
that the vocals and the music are dueling against each other. There's a marvelous
guitar solo somewhere in the depths of this number and when I found it I was
pleasantly surprised since it's a gigantic step up from the utterly pointless
screeching of old. Elsewhere, the speedy title track may seem pretty bland and
unmemorable even though the riffs aren't exactly bad, but hey, these are some
good lil' riffs! Well, truthfully, the main riff is kinda lame but it rocks
nevertheless and the bridge part sounds downright brilliant. Also, the amusing
lyrics are superbly written and appropriate (but not really intelligent) as
they deliver a story about a man who's sentenced to die on the electric chair.
Thankfully, although it's passing the six-minute mark this number isn't overlong
cause the sound is varied frequently and there's enough of tempo shifts and
nifty guitar lines to keep you busy, even if the track doesn't have much vocal
hooks.
One of the most famous and fan-appreciated tracks would certainly be "For Whom
The Bell Tolls" with its mystic church bells in the intro, backed up by an impressive
bass line and a fine all-around guitar work. The slow grinding main riff isn't
exactly the most original one you've ever heard but it's surely catchy and ominous
enough. In fact, the whole number is actually remarkably intense and atmospheric
so I wouldn't dare to go around saying it's too slow or dragging. Oddly enough,
the lyrical part is also quite coherent (and dare I say it, intriguing?) with
a superb sing-along vocal melody. Anyway, it's much superior to their aggressive
and pretty corny ramblings on Kill 'Em All, but when you have Hemingway for
a role model you can't actually write some dreadful lyrics, right? And hey,
what about that next track? The famous "Fade To Black" is their very first stab
at emotional balladeering and what a mighty fine stab it is! Magnificently bleak
with lyrics about suicide it shows some unexpected depth as the band moves through
various moods easily shifting from hard ‘n' heavy riffage to bright acoustic
parts and rising the tensions throughout. The riffing is especially impressive
even though I can't vouch that they didn't rip it off someone, but the soloing
in the outro part isn't nearly as solid as it should be considering how good
the rest of this tune is. Speaking of "Fade To Black" I'm rather surprised that
everyone says it's a ballad since it obviously isn't mellow enough for such
an exaggerated statement. It's a semi-ballad at best with lots of excellent
and (probably) original riffage, undoubtedly worthy of the heaviest numbers
here. The acoustic intro backed by the keyboards and some disposable soloing
features soft vocals and as such leaves nothing to be desired. It's all followed
by plenty of crunchy moments and if it wasn't for the more or less frequent
use of acoustic bits I'd easily forget it's supposed to be a power ballad. Eh,
funny thing, Alice Cooper actually used that moody intro on his Brutal Planet
album (for "Pick Up The Bones", to be more exact) and I only noticed it just
now... I guess it's time for me to carefully re-listen all of those old Metallica
albums, then.
The lethal "Trapped Under Ice" is memorable since it's thrashy and boasts a
bunch of typically infectious chorus lines, although the lyrics are slightly
dumb... something about some man who got stuck under ice and now he's freezing
to death.... ehm. Weird. Other than that this relatively short number is just
conventional speedy metal with some great drumming and exceptional guitar work.
However, it's overly reminiscent of those raw compositions they peddled in the
beginning. You know what I'm talking about, those old songs filled with enjoyable
professionally played riffs and gruesomely primitive rednecky lyrics. Eh, and
I guess that nobody noticed that the riff which pops up in the climatic middle
part of "Trapped Under Ice" is painfully similar to the opening riff of Iron
Maiden's "Run To The Hills" with the exception that it's played with a whole
lot more distortion than in the original. Then there's the mid-tempo-ish "Escape"
which has a thoroughly catchy chorus produced in a fine poppy mold. Yeah, so
it's dumb and predictable, but dumb and predictable numbers can still be good
melodic songs, can't they? The following epic track "Creeping Death" is simply
a devastating combo of gripping riffage, bible-inspired concept lyricism about
an angel of death who unleashes the tenth plague on the Egyptians, and lots
of other well-developed hooks. Let me repeat, the energetic opening riff is
friggin' awesome and it gets even more exciting as you dig deeper into the song.
For many, this song is exactly the thing thrash metal is all about, progressive
and still aggressive enough that you can bang your head... but intelligently.
The complex final track "The Call Of Ktulu” is almost my favorite here as it
goes on for nine minutes but it never loses me in the process cause this piece
is constantly building, developing and going through various transformations
in melody as well as in atmosphere. I'm probably the only person who actually
thinks that it's not overlong in any way since I can't get enough of those superbly
played growling riffs and dramatic shifts of pace. I'll also tell you one more
thing, from all of the symphonic instrumentals that I've heard from Metallica
this is the only one that I can really love, and not just barely tolerate.
Finally this outing leaves me no other choice but to insist on such a high rating
cause it seems only fitting that this sucker bares the well-deserved tag of
Metallica's most confident and plainly consistent release up to date. And hey,
if you don't like the music you'll at least be left with a cool album cover
ripped off directly from Nazareth's Razamanaz, with that electric chair added
in just for kicks.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
When the Black Album was released, many people thought that the
change was a good one, which made the album a success. Sure, some didn’t like
it, but for the most part everyone was happy with the new sound, or they at
least didn’t mind it. At the time of Load’s release, opinions were much different.
Many thought that this new sound Metallica unleashed to the world was a big
mistake, and that the band should have just called it a day and ended their
career with the Black Album instead of releasing this horrible hunk of junk
album. And at the time, I saw exactly where these people were coming from. This
album isn’t nearly as fast and ferocious as the first four Metallica albums,
and even the Black Album to some extent. The songwriting changed to a more simplistic
style. “This just isn’t Metallica!” many people were saying. But did the quality
of Metallica’s music drastically drop? In my opinion, oh hell no!
Sure, this album is no Ride The Lightning or Master Of Puppets (doesn’t even
come close to those albums), since this album doesn’t have the same extremely
powerful and in-your-face style of thrashy progressive heavy metal that made
the band so popular in the 80’s (and legendary today), but that’s okay by me.
For better or for worse, at least you can tell it’s the same band, which leads
me to another point- this album doesn’t really sound like an alternative rock
album. I hear many fans complaining that Metallica sold out with this album
(the Black Album gets accused of this too) but here’s the thing, they are still
writing relatively complex music here, combined with the fact that many songs
on here still kick a ton of ass, just not in a “fast” ass-kicking way. I still
hear plenty of traditional Metallica features, and these features are done well.
Let me state, however, that I’m not very familiar with alternative rock. I have
heard some albums by Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Smashing Pumpkins,
along with older bands such as the Smiths and REM, but that’s about it. But,
compared to those bands, I think what Metallica is doing here is much different.
It rocks more then those bands anyway, and only two or three songs on this album
could pass for alternative rock.
Despite the fact that this album as a whole sounds different than the five Metallica
albums before it, there are still plenty of interesting riffs to get excited
about, along with plenty of outstanding vocals. As a matter of fact, every single
song on Load has at least one good vocal melody, or a melody that you won’t
mind at all hearing (as long as you’re a heavy metal fan that is) even if it
might not really excite you. Playing this album three times so far, I can still
find something to remember in every song. And get this, some of the songs found
here even slightly resemble AC/DC in their early 80’s days. Like “Ronnie” for
instance. Two neat riffs can be found in this song, and they both sound very
much like AC/DC around the time of the For Those About To Rock album. Quite
different than the stuff I’ve heard from Pearl Jam (not that I should be comparing
the two), and distinctly different than the stuff the old Metallica was doing.
A welcome change if you ask me.
Now let’s talk about the classic songs on here (along with the other songs that
should have been classics). I have to start off with the first song, because
it’s a winner. “Ain’t My Bitch” has really good vocals at every turn. That’s
right, EVERY vocal melody in this song is good. Riffs are great too. Now that’s
how I like my heavy metal! “2X4” is another dose of brilliance (well, brilliant
for Metallica anyway). Even though the first and most memorable vocal part sounds
quite similar to Aerosmith’s “Same Old Song And Dance”, that’s not a bad thing.
I mean, they could have thrown a Poison rip-off in there or something and had
us all running to the toilet to throw-up. And besides, another part of this
song gets very heavy in a Black Sabbath Master Of Reality kind of way, so there’s
a fresh chunk of classic Metallica for ya!
As for some of the alternative-sounding numbers, “The House Jack Built”, which
is overlong by a minute or two, is saved with some passable vocals, though I
just know that the band could have made it even better. It drags just a bit
too much to be truly good. “Hero Of The Day” is the song I remember being played
to death on 98 Rock (my local radio station) when this album first came out,
but it got played to death for a very good reason, because it has one of the
most striking and somewhat disheartened main melodies I have ever heard from
a Metallica song. The way it builds to the rocking part, it’s great! It gives
off a feeling of watching a sunrise on a warm spring morning, and I’m somewhat
surprised Metallica was capable of producing something so extraordinary there.
I will even go so far as to say that I enjoy it more than “Nothing Else Matters”.
Unfortunately, the rocking part sounds severely out of place. Well, maybe not
“severely”, but it does sound strange hearing the soft and rocking parts go
back and forth. Sometimes writing a song that way works wonderfully, while other
times it sounds awkward. In this case, it’s awkward. If they would have just
stayed with the softer vocals and threw away the harder section (or put it somewhere
else on the album) it would have been a perfect song! But the rocking part isn’t
bad or anything, it’s just strange to hear after the beautiful first couple
of minutes. I hate to say this (I really do!) but, as much as I like the main
melody, the Moody Blues “Meet Me Halfway” instantly comes to mind because I
think the two songs do sorta have the same melody. No big deal though! I love
the Moody Blues by the way. They’re my favorite band ever!
“Bleeding Me” is really too long. Chop that baby down a few minutes! I also
don’t think the slow, quiet vocals can compete with that loud and intense chorus.
“Mama Said” is touchingly beautiful, “Until It Sleeps” is hauntingly beautiful,
and “King Nothing” and “Poor Twisted Me” have very simple yet likable riffs
that appear to mark the way towards the new Metallica sound that us fans have
no choice but to deal with because it doesn’t look like the band is going back
to their thrashy, energetic early days anytime soon. But that’s okay, as long
as they continue writing effective riffs like on this album! The only bad point
is “Outlaw Torn”. I think this song is considered by many to be a high point
on the album (it’s on the S&M album after all), but I just don’t hear why. All
I hear is one excruciatingly simple riff repeating off and on for 10 minutes
throughout this messily arranged song, along with some very average vocals.
I hear no hook in that loud mess. The soft vocals in the beginning are cool,
but definitely not the loud vocals that take up most of the song. It’s just
a big, long, sloppy do-nothing thingy! Certain parts of this song lead me to
believe that the band was aiming for there own Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks”,
but the aim was off by a good 20 miles.
Soooooooo… this album is pretty good, despite a noticeable repetitiveness throughout
the whole thing, the fact that it totals over 70 minutes of music, and most
importantly, the guitars are just not as fast and ear-pounding as the Metallica
of old. So it’s not easy sinking in all these songs in one play, unlike the
other Metallica albums where you can play them over and over and never feel
like hitting the stop button on your CD player (or the stop button on your computer).
Overall, not as bad as you might have heard. Check it out after checking out
the previous five Metallica albums, and you might just like it.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Metallica strikes back with an album heavier, louder, faster, and overall crazier than Load. This is more like the Metallica you’d think many hardcore fans would greatly admire, since it’s heavier than the Black Album and Load. But unfortunately many people still don’t like this album. Even though many elements that made Metallica so incredible in the 80’s can be found here, the overall sound of the album is heavily stuck in the 90’s time period of Metallica’s new direction (or “selling out” direction, if you wish), so don’t expect to hear the band completely let loose and kick your ass up and down the dining room wall. Song after song, you just wanna scream “Rock my ass harder dammit, I know you can do it!” because, even during the heaviest moments on here, you can’t help but notice the slightly watered down sound. Grab a hold of that imaginary kick-ass heavy metal knob in the sky and turn that sucker a few more notches clockwise, and you’d be all set! You want it turned all the way up to 10, but it’s sittin’ there at a 7, and it ain’t budgin’! The band just never reaches that extreme heavy point. It’ll still kick your ass, but just like the Black Album and Load, you’ll hear a specific perfect-for-hard-rock-radio sound which, at first, isn’t something to be really concerned about, but after the 4th or 5th song, it starts bugging you. That’s a bad thing if you dig the way Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets were recorded. But what the hell. Turn it up loud and you’ll never even notice! That’s what I always do when I come across an album that sounds like it was recorded weirdly and/or wrongly.
There’s nothing really groundbreaking on here either. It’s a different direction for Metallica, but they aren’t doing anything special on here unlike on the classic albums (Ride and Master) where you just can’t believe music played with that much intensity came out in the 80’s. Nothing out of the ordinary on Reload. Other bands at the time were doing the same thing basically. Basically, you can’t help but think the band is holding back a little. Because of the friendly intended-for-radio sound, an album like this might sound quite dated years later. It doesn’t sound dated now however, 6 years after its release. But maybe in 20 years you’ll be thinking “What was Metallica thinking in 1997 when they made this album?” Unless you don’t care how much they rock, then you’ll be all ready to dig the great riffs and choruses in dang near every song! But thanks to the way this album was recorded, it doesn’t rock your ass nearly as much as the classic stuff. I wanna make sure you’re completely aware of that incase someone tries to tell you this album kicks as much ass as those older Metallica albums. Oh no it doesn’t! It’s just fun hard rock, with Metallica taking their style to a different level. Not a heavier level, not a more groundbreaking level, just a “different” level.
Anyway, those are minor complaints about Reload, because this album still rocks pretty hard. Don’t forget the first sentence in my review, it’s still very true! The songs on here are still written like only Metallica can write them. Only one bad song can be found, and its located towards the middle of the album. It even has the word “bad’ in the song title. “Bad Seed” is a bad song. Everything about this song feels like nothing at all. It really makes you wonder why a song that has nothing interesting going on anywhere is even on here. But let’s skip that. Let’s talk about the best two songs on here, because these two songs are right up there with my favorite songs from my favorite artists (such as any Moody Blues song, but don’t push it!) “The Memory Remains” is one of the songs I’m talking about. But there’s a big reason why I feel so strongly about it. It’s the “nah nah nah nah naaaah nah nah” (or is it dah dah dah?) melody that appears twice during the song. This particular part of the song is really interesting. I have never heard Metallica do anything like it before. Imagine the “lie lie lie” part of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”. Metallica is basically doing the same thing, and dare I say, Metallica is doing it even better? It’s just the kind of thing you’d never expect to hear in a Metallica song, so it’s a pleasant change. I also think it’s neat how that part of the song comes out of nowhere. You think you’re getting a nice typical Metallica song and SMACK, there’s this really tasty melody that doesn’t sound anything like the rest of the song! It could even bring me to tears, if I let it. The rest of the song ain’t bad either. The next song that makes warm tingly feelings rush through my body (I guess that’s what love feels like) is “Low Man’s Lyric”. It doesn’t rock, so if you don’t mind taking a break from all the crunchy and crazy riff-rattling of the rest of the album, then get ready for some magnificent and sad vocals in one of the finest Metallica songs ever. It might get a little tiring for you around the 4 minute mark (because, let’s be honest, not many ideas went into this song) but I like hearing it go on for the entire 8 minutes. Oh wait, this is my second favorite song on here. I LOVE hearing it go on for the entire 8 minutes! I guess if there was more to the song it would please more people. I like it just the way it is (almost sung a Billy Joel song there, which coincidentally, I’m listening to a Billy Joel song now! A song called “Running On Ice”) Makes you wonder what Billy Joel thinks about Metallica. I should type “Billy Joel and Metallica” in a search engine and see what kind of results come up. But not now, I’m typing out a review 6 in the morning!
“Where The Wild Things Are” is very much like the classic “Wherever I May Roam”. They both have the same spooky kind of vocals, both songs pretty much progress the same way. They are great songs, so it’s okay! “Better Than You” has a big mean truck-driver-like riff. Come on, can’t you just picture a skinny truck-driver dude wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and looking at people with a bad-ass look on his face while driving down the road playing this song really loud? I can! Those truck-driver people can be really scary when you’re on the highway too. And what about “Prince Charming”? It might seem like a perfect waste of time to some people, but to me the nice second vocal melody is enough to make the song an achievement (definitely not the first set of vocals, which don’t do a darn thing, same goes for the guitar riff playing with that vocal melody). I might be giving it too much credit, but whatever. It’s much better than “Slither” and “Carpe Diem Baby” (what does that even mean?). Those two songs are far from bad… but far from good either! Nah, they have there moments… but they aren’t good moments! Kidding kidding, they’re good songs! Just not as nice as the first five songs on this album, which might be the best set of first-five songs on a Metallica album since And Justice For All. Speaking of those excellent first five songs, I didn’t even mention the two popular songs radio stations couldn’t stop playing at the time of this albums release! “Fuel” rocks! At first I thought Metallica was trying to do a rap song, and maybe they were, I don’t know. All I know is that the vocals in this song work better than the new, sturdier swimming pool pump my dad hired two guys to install two weeks ago. Much better than the other pump. Our older pump didn’t really do a good job gathering the bugs and leaves and pine needles into a neat little pile in the middle of the swimming pool, which is what a good, forceful pump is supposed to do.
“The Unforgiven II” isn’t as good as “The Unforgiven I” but that does not by any means mean the song’s a failure! The vocals are more straightforward than the version on the Black Album, which makes the song less interesting to me. I wanna hear Metallica play complex music, even though “The Unforgiven II” isn’t really simple. Only Metallica could create a song like that anyway, so let’s move on to the album closer. I didn’t like the album closer on Load very much, but the one on here is a big step up. Instead of plodding the same simple riff over and over, this number has a more interesting riff repeating over and over. And the vocals are much better. It took me a while to realize this song (“Fixxxer”) is really great, but give it time. Some things just take time!
This album is quite good darn it! I despised this album at first, thinking that the band completely ran out of ideas, but as early as the second listen I began to notice certain things that I had never heard Metallica do before. And I hope you notice these things too! I’m gonna go ahead and rate this album a little higher than Load because it’s closer to the Metallica of old. The Metallica of old is the Metallica most people like, including me, so I don’t think the rating I’m about to give it is too extreme.