Elektra Records - 1996
7.5/10
If you thought touching the hour mark was a lot, wait ‘til five years of live recordings and touring stretches that standard another fifteen minutes. Load would be Metallica’s largest leap in this direction, and they’ve never looked back. Much like its predecessor, it becomes a game of extracting the good songs from what is otherwise an overwhelming amount of music; thus, this is equally as prone to filler as any other post-Justice disc. Yet, I tend to lend it more sympathy than the “black album” for two reasons. For one, its personality is far more defined, and secondly, it derives itself more refreshingly from the “hard rock but also kinda thrash” awkwardness that made much of the 1991 filler tunes.
In layman's terms, Load managed to feel even more consistent across the board, not relying on Bob Rock to stitch it together, instead writing music that all contains the same feeling. Granted, this is one of the things people often complain about, and we certainly could have taken a good twenty-five minutes off of this and still had a strong(er) album. But proportionally, the good songs are not only more sturdy, but their construction makes the entire experience worth it. Few songs as a whole feel like they could be cut out (ok, maybe we could do without “Ronnie” altogether), some just may go on a little longer than what’s necessary.
Despite being a record that’s produced well and had loads (ha) of time to perfect everything, there’s a dry feeling here that works its way into every emotion, enhancing it to a level that feels more human. “The House Jack Built” immediately comes to mind, being a slow trudger that cakes on grungy layers that are aided by dreary vocal tradeoffs; God, the slow ascent after the chorus hits is timed so wonderfully. All the same, harder songs like “Ain't My Bitch” or the infamous “King Nothing” suck out all the proverbial moisture in the rhythms, creating feelings as fierce as earlier thrash tunes without being thrash tunes. The bassline in the latter is probably one of my favorites Jason licks of any.
And then there’s the soft side, balancing the aforementioned heavy desert of riffs. The most obvious instance is “Mama Said,” a refreshing acoustic ballad that not only brings in the purest emotion Metallica has shown to date, but works it in with the same vocal and guitar layer types used in “The House Jack Built.” Others like “Until It Sleeps” rely on Jason’s thicker foundation blending with Kirk’s “Unforgiven”-esque leads to create a melancholic build-up. You could say the same about “Hero Of The Day,” though I’d argue the softness here is channeled into a warmer, welcoming aura rather than a depressing one. If nothing else, this only proves my point further that James and co. were able to bring up so many different tactics to weave together an identity removed from anything before.
But of course, I haven’t forgotten the fact that at least a third of this is filler. Thankfully, all of it still fits in with the general vibe, and nothing is criminally bad; some just extremely boring or long. From the gate, I’ll admit I have a massive hard-on for “Wasting My Hate” and “2 x4 ,” two that spark less innovation in comparison to the others but nonetheless conjure up really confident attitudes. Otherwise, we’re left with overblown tracks like “The Outlaw Torn” or the aforementioned “Ronnie.” I’d even say “Bleeding Me” could have been strong if it was half its length, fitting in with the grungy, dry atmosphere that I won’t stop mentioning. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as a good thing overstaying its welcome.
We could conclude that Load is very top-heavy, as the better songs get fewer and further apart the deeper you get. I see zero errors in the first six songs, with plenty worth digging up onwards. Regardless, though the band’s second ‘90s effort is objectively no better than their first, I hold this one ever-so-slightly closer to my heart. It’s flawed; some songs are too long, and others have less muscle than is desired. At the same time, over half of these songs are what I would regard as memorable. They have more personality than they have any right to, the vibe fits the entire run, and despite well-deserved reservations, I think everyone should give this album a try if they haven’t.
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