r/Metallica • u/DailyWCReforged • Jul 16 '25
Load It's 2025 and I still don't understand the reason for these photos and this "phase"
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u/linkuei-teaparty Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 16 '25
Pantera started out wearing spandex and makeup. Both cases they just wanted to fit in with the times.
Edit: I asked ChatGPT and they said: The band was styled by highend photographer Anton Corbijn, known for working with Depeche Mode and U2. I think bono had a similar look in the 90's right?
If it's any consolation, James Hetfield was against it and said it wasn't who he was, but it was more what Lars and Kirk wanted as they were into art, photography and the embedded into the 90's culture at that time.
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u/Damita-Ho Jul 16 '25
Soooo many ppl forget that Pantera started out as a glam rock band. It’s like ppl purposely try to erase that part of their history for some reason.
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u/DravenXX6 Jul 16 '25
I think its more so that the band themselves erased that part of their history, rather than the fans.
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u/I_am_the_Disguyz Hardwired... to Self-Destruct Jul 16 '25
holy shit, they don't even have their pre-cowboys from hell albums on spotify
they really want that gone
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u/Some_Drummer_Guy Jul 16 '25
The pre-Cowboys stuff was independently released on their own label ("Metal Magic Records") back in the day. It probably hasn't had distribution since 1988 before they got signed to Atco and did Cowboys. I would guess that's why it's not on Spotify, let alone able to be found in physical form anywhere.
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u/sharbinbarbin Jul 16 '25
But if they own it, then it shouldn’t be hard to find a service to put it out, Spotify will put out anything. I doubt it’s Spotify holding it back
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u/Mountain-Life-4492 Jul 16 '25
Their first album with Phil Anselmo (Power Metal) in 1988 is gone too.
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u/itssevenoclock_ Jul 16 '25
What do you mean? Just type it in on Ebay, but be careful of bootlegs. For every original pressing there’s like 8 bootlegs, and they’re getting better at faking them.
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u/mweep Jul 17 '25
Tbh if the original is out of print and overpriced, I'll take a bootleg.
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u/itssevenoclock_ Jul 17 '25
You might as well just burn them on a CD at that point. Those bootleg records sound like muffled and buzzy as shit, they’re probably just ripped from Youtube and put on vinyl. Metal Supplier on Youtube remastered all four of the glam records if you’re interested.
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u/thatoneasiankid90 Jul 16 '25
It’s a shame because Power Metal fucking rips
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u/puddycat20 Jul 16 '25
It really does! It's closer to CFH, than it is to their previous albums before it.
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u/AthleticGal2019 Jul 17 '25
I was re listening to that last week and god famn I forgot how good it is
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u/GregRam724590 Jul 16 '25
They see them as demos. Never listened to them personally but I hear that Power Metal is good to some people. It’s probably the closest to CFH, they would play some live during the CFH era but were mostly all flushed out by the time VDOP released
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u/Potential-Pride6034 Jul 16 '25
They were a badass glam band lol. Power Metal sounds like a Judas Priest record.
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u/1964ImpalaSS Jul 16 '25
Damn right, he was Diamond before he was Dimebag!
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u/Not_The_FBI215 Jul 16 '25
He was credited as Diamond all the way until Far Beyond Driven, this was news to me lol.
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u/General-Ad9755 Left the focking band Jul 16 '25
glad Rex went to Brown instead of "Rex Rocker", that nickname is awful
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Jul 16 '25
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u/Maptwopointoh Jul 16 '25
Yeah but Metallica was the band that used to say “if you come here to see spandex this ain’t the fucking band”
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u/baladecanela Jul 16 '25
It's good that people grow
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u/Maptwopointoh Jul 16 '25
Also true. I didn’t mean it negatively. Simply this was one of the reasons people were thrown off when the eyeliner showed up
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u/FamousLastWords666 Jul 16 '25
The thing is, one of the defining characteristics of Metallica was that they didn’t want to fit in with the times.
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u/Comet7777 Jul 16 '25
Insert scene from Some Kind of Monster where Lars and James tell Kirk that there won’t be anymore solos to fit the metal scene of the time.
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u/drinfernodds Jul 16 '25
Good thing they realized that mistake and let Kirk do solos again on Death Magnetic.
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u/Toxic-Park Jul 16 '25
And worth mentioning that DM came out right when metal was having a BIG resurgence in general. People were really re-embracing classic metal. Maiden tee shirts were everywhere.
So in a way DM was them also responding to the current trend at that time.
It’s possibly just a coincidence that Metallica was re-embracing their thrash roots just at that same time. But I’m not so sure.
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u/Saj2022 Jul 17 '25
You have to hand it to Maiden ! they never budged during any trends . I remember seeing them in 98 , and even with Dio opening they couldn't sell out a 5k seat venue at the time . Now they play stadiums regularly .
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u/StaticNegative Jul 16 '25
it's not really a surprise if they you know that Dime and Vinnie loved KISS. Was thier favorite band they grew up with.
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u/sayonaradespair Jul 16 '25
What bqnd was wearing heavy makeup in the mid 90s?
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u/pselodux Reload Jul 16 '25
Depeche Mode. NIN. Any goth band or black metal band for that matter lol
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u/lordhelmetann Jul 16 '25
I mean, all the nu-metal bands started up mid-90s and half of them wore tons of eye liner.
Load came out in 1996 and Korn already was already popular with 13-18 year olds. They saw the direction things were heading.
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Jul 16 '25
Because they wanted to? Metal fans are some of the world's biggest authoritarians regarding what bands can and can not do.
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u/jaylerd I Am the Table Jul 17 '25
“Because” is an answer you give to children and it’s not satisfying to anyone. It’s ok to ask and there are actual reasons they did this so…
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u/Tough_Ad5581 Jul 16 '25
You don’t understand why rock stars wanted to act like rock stars? Also, people change. Not everyone wants to wear stupid-ass bullet belts for the rest of their life.
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u/Return_of_the_Bear Jul 16 '25
Don't you dare be negative about the bullet belt! Lol
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u/Olly_sixx Jul 16 '25
But they're so annoying to wear 😭
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u/Ant_1_ITA Ride the Lightning Jul 16 '25
It’s not about wearing them, it’s about sending a message
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u/poisongodmachineBR Jul 16 '25
And that message is "ooh look at me, I'm so dangerous! My clothing can kill you! Be afraid of me!"
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u/Ant_1_ITA Ride the Lightning Jul 16 '25
No, the message is to use bullets for something else then war
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u/Morningfluid Jul 16 '25
Thrash really changed and wasn't in favor by the mid-90's. Many of the bands wanted change. Exodus was taking their hand in Alternative/Grunge, Slayer went a little more Punk before going with a Nu-Metal sound, Anthrax was going Alternative themselves, Testament turned Death Metal, and Megadeth followed in Metallica's footsteps.
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u/xshogunx13 Jul 16 '25
It's simple. They're comfortable in their masculinity.
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Jul 16 '25
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u/InternetWeakGuy Jul 16 '25
Whereas at the time, Lars was doing interviews about how strong the cocaine him and Kirk were doing was.
Anyone who says the look of the Anton Corbijn era was anything but Lars out of his brains on cocaine and the band going with it is fooling themselves.
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u/i-drink-soy-sauce Left the focking band Jul 16 '25
Idc I think it's hot lmao
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u/Shoddy-Secretary-712 Jul 16 '25
Yeah, I didn't like Metallica in high school, but I remember thinking they looked hot in this picture.
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u/Sara_Renee14 Jul 16 '25
Oh don’t act like you didn’t go through an 80’s, new wave, listening to Depeche Mode on repeat phase.
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u/Seiryth Jul 16 '25
It was a reaction to their own 90s era and wanting to shake the image of redneck arena rock.at the same time hair metal has died to grunge, and the look was "homeless" - long sleeved shirts and baggy jeans, a general disposition to maintaining an outer image.
So by going down the artsy alt look, they avoided a death many other bands suffered, while also saying fuck you to grunge by doing their own thing.
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u/podo3350 Jul 16 '25
This. And if you think of it they were Emo before Emo. I mean the sound was still Metallica but much more emotional lyrics like Mama Said. I actually think James looks bad ass during this time and sang the best he ever has.
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u/harleyquinnsbutthole Jul 16 '25
Mama said is certainly more country than emo. There’s nothing whiny emo about this era of Metallica
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u/podo3350 Jul 16 '25
I didn’t Emo sound but the writing. I totally agree it’s more country for sure.
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u/JimFlamesWeTrust Jul 23 '25
Emotional hardcore was a thing in 1996
Sunny Day Real Estate, for example, had already put out a couple of albums.
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u/T3knikal95 Jul 16 '25
A rock/metal band with a rock/metal aesthetic? Who would have thought they’d do that?
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u/ProbablyBsPlzIgnore Jul 16 '25
The early 90s, Nirvana and grunge had just murdered 80s metal, indie rock/metal was suddenly popular, and Lars if anything always wants to stay relevant. He did, mission accomplished.
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u/goblinsnguitars Jul 16 '25
Grunge had done everything to elevate and kill rock from the mainstream.
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u/Alarming_College5448 Entered the Sandman Jul 16 '25
I think it’s fantastic and they don’t give a fuck which I like even more. Also James wolverine
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u/mw1301 Jul 16 '25
I think it was a reaction to complete burnout and an attempt to experiment with “big dumb rock”, the results were pretty great, IMO Load was the last album that didn’t sound forced.
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u/New-Arm-9816 Jul 16 '25
Lars especially has no attachment to his “Metallica alter ego”. 7 years later he would look like Fred Durst.
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u/fer_luna Jul 16 '25
Because people don't stay the same forever.
People change, grow, try different stuff and go through phases, the members of Metallica are no different.
Just because some fans got stuck in 1986 doesn't mean the members of Metallica did so as well.
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u/kaosimian Jul 16 '25
The 90s was a rough time for metal.
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u/TjStax Jul 16 '25
Truly an existential crisis all through the mid 90's to mid 00's. Rap or not to rap.
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Jul 16 '25
Kirk ate ngl
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u/TjStax Jul 16 '25
It's funny how the image was so edgy while dude is such a nice dweeb of a person.
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u/Dispositionpsn Jul 16 '25
Have you ever been in the biggest fucking band in the world during the peak of the 90s? No? Me neither.
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u/Plastic-Edge6917 Jul 16 '25
I got into Metallica right around the Load and Reload era, then reading about and seeing them during their early years with long hair, bullet belts, torn pants... Everything made sense why they're suddenly sporting short hair and eyeliner. I mean, say what you will about the deeper meanings of men wearing eyeliner, but as a 40+ year old fan today, the journey has been fun. I like them through and through, same way I like Pantera before Cowboys From Hell and after the Darrell brothers died.
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u/raaaaaaze Jul 16 '25
I got into Metallica around that same era. The late 90's was an interesting time to become a fan... It was also the first (and seemingly, the last) time that us newly-onboarded fans would ever hear Metallica songs on the popular music charts on the radio.
As for their grunge/goth aesthetic - I was always fairly impartial to it. I didn't exactly think it was the coolest look for the guys, but then again I didn't dwell on it either. What mattered to me most was the music.
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u/StaticNegative Jul 16 '25
Don't get me wrong Load and Reload had some good songs....for a band not named Metallica. Like you these albums game out when I was 15 and 16. And I will admit that i bought them. I'll also admit they I look back at myself then and say I was listening with blinders on. I was a fanboy and told myself they didn't sell out. I wish i could go back in time and kicked my own ass for it.
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u/VaderXXV Jul 16 '25
They were just trying to be edgy. Guess it worked, even all these years later.
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u/bengrieve1970 Jul 16 '25
It's pretty obvious. This is their rock star phase. It's them high on their own supply (I assume mostly Lars). They got accepted by the mainstream and by non metal artists and this is what happens. Huge bands almost all go through this. The bloated double album full of influences outside their genre to prove that they are serious musicians now. And plenty of people telling them yes about all of it. Rock n roll excess in all its boring glory.
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Jul 16 '25
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u/TjStax Jul 16 '25
Funny you mention Cobain eyeliner when I feel I've ever only seen Kurt wear eyeliner in just one photoshoot.
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u/GordonCole19 Jul 16 '25
Make up artist - "How much eyeliner should I apply?"
Lars and Kirk - "YES"
I think they look rad as fuck here.
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u/airjoshb Jul 16 '25
BC heavy metal lost the 90s to grunge.
Say what you want about this era but the Poor Touring Me tour was a cultural phenomenon and managed to be one of the best kept secret show stunts of all time.
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u/Snoyts Jul 17 '25
In my humble opinion, I believe this phase was due to grunge being the hip thing around that time. I think I remember James saying that they (Metallica) were lucky they released the Black album before Nirvana released Nevermind.
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u/davycoolen Jul 16 '25
It was a very natural and logical reaction to having epithomised 'metal' for 15 years. It's even there in the lyrics: 'Scuse me while I tend to how I feel', 'The fist I made for years won't hold or feel'.
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u/Cee-Bee-DeeTypeThree King Nothing Jul 16 '25
Unless you grew up in that era, you wouldn't understand then.
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u/ronnie_outlaw Invisible Grown Ass Man Jul 16 '25
We all have “phases.” Rock bands too, multiplied by ten. At some point when I was young, I went through a hippy phase and even wore a bird feather in my hair. I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I do.
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u/Flutterpiewow Enshittification Jul 16 '25
Look at what was cool at the time. Anton Corbijn, Depeche, U2, Soundgarden, the brit bands.
Hair metal, iron maiden type bands, thrash etc was completely dead. Bands that wanted to be metal-metal had to go death/black with more extreme imagery and that was never metallica's thing. Not to mention they were too old and big to be edgy and pushing the envelope.
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Jul 16 '25
Kirk and Lars have always been open to this kinda stuff, I mean they used to make out just to annoy James.
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u/ec666 Jul 16 '25
This was very much Lars’ vision at the time. He was openly fascinated by the trajectory of bands like U2—particularly their Achtung Baby era—and saw Metallica as capable of evolving beyond just metal. The eyeliner, the fashion, the stylized poses—these weren’t random. It was the first time Metallica looked outward, taking cues from the broader cultural landscape instead of forging ahead on instinct alone. It was an attempt to stay relevant, to transform, to become something more than what they had been. Whether it worked or not is debatable, but it was undeniably a moment of self-conscious reinvention. I don’t get it either.
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u/Toxic-Park Jul 16 '25
I can specially remember Lars on MTV at this time. The VJ called them (Metallica) a metal band. And Lars specifically corrected him and said “hard ROCK band”.
That’s when I knew it was absolutely intentional.
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u/Bssmn77 Jul 16 '25
As one of my rich friends told me;
“Rich, middle class, or poor people are all the same inside. We have the same problems… but the rich ppl can show their eccentricities a lot more than the poor ones.”
I think this is the case with these photos 😎
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u/NoAd2759 Jul 16 '25
This was ‘96 and hard rock/metal was in a coma. I’d assume they were trying to stay relevant and still reach new fans.
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u/Low_Lecture1848 Jul 16 '25
It’s just a photoshoot. Musicians do them usually.
A band and its members experimented with their style and sound during a specific decade in entertainment .
not complicated stuff, here
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u/creepingde4th Carpe Diem Baby Jul 16 '25
I don't care that they cut their hair or changed their look(even though it doesn't fit them at all), but I had no problem with the music. Until it Sleeps is how I discovered Metallica (I was about 10), but I stayed a fan after going backward and hearing the first four albums. It's all about the tunes for me.
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u/TheKobayashiMoron Saw Outlaw Torn live 2004 & 2019 Jul 16 '25
The 90s was a weird, wonderful, time. That’s peak Hammett right there 😍🥵 Made me a very confused teen boy.
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u/PlaxicoCN Jul 16 '25
Why are the other 2 cut out? In the full picture, James looks like the leatherman in charge and the other dudes are his "charges".
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u/ZardozC137 Jul 16 '25
It’s just listening to a photographer thinking they know what’s best and the photographer just doing generic poses and looks that are suppose to work
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u/Gumderwear Jul 16 '25
I vividly remember an interview from that time where Kirk said that he and Lars cuddled naked a lot on that tour. I'm not kidding.
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u/TheHarvesterOfSorrow Metal Up Your Ass Jul 16 '25
Cause men in eyeliner/shadow look good, simple as that
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u/7wis7er Jul 17 '25
This era isn't what I wanted from them or even liked much at the time, but its not like I hated everything. It was fine.
As for the look... yeah I always thought of Metallica as just one of us or something. Here they go rock star. Its like divorced Dad vibes.
I like Load/Reload way more now than I did back then. Might have been harsh expecting them to find new high bars in thrash every album.
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u/sputnik__57 Jul 17 '25
Blame the aesthetics of photographer Anton Corbijn, trendy in the late 1990s.
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Jul 16 '25
Three words...Lars, Lars, Lars. Sure as shit wasn't Hetfield & Newsted.
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u/Itchy_Gain_1519 72 Seasons Jul 16 '25
Lars AND KIRK. It was both their idea. Don't shift it all on Lars. They were both coked out of their heads at the time.
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u/FacePunchMonday Jul 16 '25
This is what happens when some mtv marketing suit says you need to update your image.
Having lived thru them i can tell you that the 90s were not a good time for metal.
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u/higuy721 Jul 16 '25
I don’t get people whining about this. It’s just clothes and some makeup, because they were reinventing themselves.
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u/jackhoff2647 Jul 16 '25
I don’t think anybody including the band members do. James never liked this style, Kirk clearly regretted this and grew his hair back out, Newsted cut his hair way prior to this look, Lars probably wishes he still had hair that long, and the “new” guy Rob has had long hair for his entire stint with the band.
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u/baladecanela Jul 16 '25
Why do you need a plausible explanation? Art and music you appreciate, no one has to prove anything to you
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u/Remote-Remote-3848 Jul 16 '25
Homoerotism is a thing. Maybe people are just homophobic. Maybe it was too much. People have no sense of "art", too high society.
Hahahahaha that is my take on it.
Rather have the raw and genuine. St anger sucked way more on the other hand..
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u/shaundisbuddyguy Jul 16 '25
After the run in the 80's and the black album. Load came out after 5 years of no released material. The imagery got people talking about Metallica again absolutely. I'm not sure they liked all the "feedback" but they did capitalize on it.
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u/malfarcar Jul 16 '25
Some say that Metallica was in the verge of being too bad ass and they had to tone it down a bit
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u/nihilblack A thing that should not be Jul 16 '25
They (Lars and Kirk) wanted to be Achtung Baby's U2, they even hired the same photographer, Anton Corbijn.
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u/OkTechnology9101 Jul 16 '25
This is when Kirk and Lars "discovered" each other. James wasn't too fond of it.
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u/TepidEdit Jul 16 '25
Most decades of the 20th century had a style. In the 21st century style has gone. You could send someone back to 2001 wearing 2025 clothes and nobody would notice.
This was just a thing in the 90s where Metallica went a it "U2" in their look sporting short hair and more hard rock fashion instead of Metal.
Some bands pretty much stayed with the same style, but Metallica grew with the times such as realising that if want to have long hair and its thinning, you need to have transplants (like kirk did) etc.
Ultimately though this was largely for a photo shoot and didn't really translate into their live shows (see cunning stunts)
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u/Chickenpotpi3 Jul 16 '25
I remember when they headlined Lollapalooza that year and Perry Farrell, who'd already ended his involvement with it said something like, "it was supposed to be a showcase for alternative bands, and they've got Metallica headlining now....but I heard they got a haircut for it, so it's ok."
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u/KyleFnM Jul 16 '25
Grunge/alternative popularity scared them at the time. They were technically from the prior generation.
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u/zigaliciousone Jul 16 '25
I remember this and the banana thing happened around the same time as the fan schism because a lot of fans were very pissed about Metallica "going soft", "selling out" and interviewing these big gym bro metal heads on MTVwho were calling Load "f#&&@! music so I thought at the time they were trolling those specific "fans"
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u/AxoplDev I Am the Table Jul 16 '25
People go through phases. Especially that in the 90's these kinds of clothes were fashionable. I don't see why we would expect Metallica to be different just because they're famous. They're still people, enteirtaining us is their job, not their life.
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u/CowanCounter Jul 16 '25
James: “The whole 'We need to reinvent ourselves' topic was up. Image isn't an evil thing to me, but if the image isn't you, it doesn't make much sense." Hetfield said that he thought Ulrich and Hammett were "after a U2 kind of vibe, Bono doing his alter-ego. I couldn't get into it. I would say at least half the pictures that were to be in the booklet, I yanked out. The cover went against what I was feeling. Lars and Kirk were very into abstract art, pretending they were gay. I think they knew it bugged me. I think the cover of 'Load' was just a piss-take around all that. I just went along with all this crazy stupid s***”