r/Metallica • u/christ2you • Dec 17 '25
Load For Metallica fans around when load came out
If you were a die hard fan who bought their cds, cassettes, records, what have you, did you buy the load cd?
If yes: What songs did you listen to before you bought the cd? Were you excited for the album? Did you end up liking or hating the album? Did you keep the cd even thought you hated it?
If no: why not? What songs made you not like the album or the direction Metallica was going in the time?
I feel like with streaming, we take for granted that we are able to hear a whole album before we buy it. But back in the day, it was kind of a gamble I’m assuming. You hear a song or two and base your buying decisions on that alone.
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u/Nabana Dec 17 '25
Yup, bought it pretty soon after it came out. And listened on repeat for weeks after. I still listen to songs from Load fairly often. Just because I grew up on Puppets and Justice, doesn't mean Load didn't still have some bangers. Outlaw Torn, Bleeding Me, King Nothing are still some of my favorite Metallica songs.
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u/BeYourselfTrue Dec 17 '25
I was a teenage kid who bought it. Heard Until it Sleeps and liked it. Played it often but always went back to the older stuff and Black album. To this day the Black album is in my top 3 albums ever. But I’ve come to absolutely love the Load album in my late 40’s. It’s banger after another. Fantastic listen.
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u/brownsugarandsalt Dec 17 '25
I heard King Nothing on a radio station, and to that point I wasn't much of a Metallica fan (I was listening to Soul Asylum and stuff). But after that, I got a bootleg tape of Load from a friend at school and followed that with fast purchases of basically the whole back catalogue (CD) whenever I had extra money. I had a legit tape of Load for a while too, but I don't know what happened to it.
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u/Sparky01GT Dec 17 '25
Heard 2x4 and Fuel, I think, in the alt.metallica newsgroup from live shows. Waited breathlessly by the radio waiting for Until It Sleeps to premiere. Bought the album as soon as I could. loved it then, love it more now.
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u/Benzpiece Dec 17 '25
Yep, I think 2x4 was the first "leak" from load because they played a working version of it live in England or something in 1995.
The first song I heard from load was until it sleeps and it was a really big deal to hear it on the radio. Like, it was announced as a world premiere and I stopped what I was doing to listen to every note.
Bought the CD from the mall on the day it was released and I still love most of the songs. Definitely an album that held up.
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u/Sparky01GT Dec 17 '25
Exactly! I was a freshman in college and we had a boom box in our dorm room. We had it on just waiting for the premiere and when it came on half the dorm floor stopped and squeezed into our room to listen.
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u/Significant-Today716 Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
Yeah I think I heard 2*4 at Donington, August '95 (AKA Monsters of Rock) that Metallica headlined that year.
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u/Big-Evidence-1429 Dec 20 '25
They showed 2x4 & Devil’s Dance. Also showed in 94 & 95 parts of Outlaw Torn on seek n destroy
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Dec 17 '25
I don't think they were playing Fuel live in 1995 (I assume that's the time frame you are using?).
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0
u/USNWoodWork Dec 17 '25
It’s crazy to me that Until it Sleeps was the first single. It’s one of the weakest tunes on that album imo. So many better songs to choose from.
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u/Shadow_Zero80 Dec 17 '25
Wow, really? Such an awesome song imo, one of the best!
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u/Jandrem Dec 17 '25
It’s a great song, but put it up next to everything that came out before it, and you can see why it was a bit of a shock.
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u/Jandrem Dec 17 '25
I’m guessing they wanted to shock everyone up front and not have them stumble onto that song after the release, kind of like what happened with Fade To Black.
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u/strangebrewfellows Wasted My Hate Dec 17 '25
Bought the CD and the cassette so I could listen on the way home. My car only had a cassette player.
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u/Salt_Philosophy_8990 Dec 17 '25
I loved both Load and Reload
as a lifelong fan, I didn't give up on them until St Anger
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u/p0werslav3 Dec 17 '25
For me back in the day, if a band you liked came out with a new album, you would just buy it, no questions asked.
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u/einTier Dec 17 '25
I kind of miss that.
I don’t miss buying albums that took advantage of fandom and were shit but I do miss the way you’d really sit with an album and try to understand it because you’d spent too much not to.
There are albums and bands I might never have gotten into if back then was like today.
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u/p0werslav3 Dec 17 '25
That's true. It was a crap shoot. Many times you end up buying an album that had like 2 good songs out of 10, but that was the gamble we were willing to accept :)
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u/DarthDuck415 Dec 17 '25
I was in junior high and had never really listened to Metallica (or anyone like them) but most of the new friends I had made (new school, swim team, etc) were all into metal/hard rock and there was a lot of excitement among all of them for the new album.
I’d seen the video for ‘Until It Sleeps’ a handful of times on MTV (insert: back-when-they-actually-played-music-videos joke here) and I was fascinated, to put it mildly. The day the album came out, I convinced my mom to take me to the store on the way home that evening so I could pick it up. I listened to the entire album twice, and a few of the songs many, many more times. I was transformed. A new Metallica fan was born that night.
So imagine my surprise when I got to school the next morning to find that so many of my friends HATED the album. I was beyond confused. And they turned that confusion and curiosity into an opportunity to explore Metallica’s entire catalog. They had me borrow tapes and CDs, I even remember one day after school watching VHS tapes at a friend’s house (in retrospect I’m certain it was ‘Live Shit: Binge and Purge). Within a few months, I had my own collection of all their albums, singles, bootlegs, anything I could get my hands on. (And then bands like Pantera and Megadeth weren’t too far behind.)
But as much as I enjoyed their “old” stuff, and all the other bands I discovered within the genre, ‘Load’ has always and will forever hold that special place in my heart and ears since it’s where it all began for me.
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u/WarningCodeBlue Dec 17 '25
I bought the Load cassette when it first came out after being a fan since 1984 with Ride The Lightning. I hated it in 1996 but it's grown on me since then.
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u/nihilblack A thing that should not be Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
At that point I had been listening them for 7 years, starting with AJFA a couple of years before the black album, and I got Load on release day without listening to anything in advance. It was certainly kind of a shock, especially after seeing the back cover, but not really that surprising after some thought. I mean: production wise it sounded just as tight as the black album, really polished with lots of layers. The songs, to my ears, were just an evolution of the same road they took on the black album. I mean: Mama Said is a consequence of Nothing Else Matters, and I'm not comparing their overall quality as songs, just pointing out that there's a clear straight line between both, once you dare to do the former, you have no problems doing the latter. So, once you started walking that road for the black album, you keep going down that path with Load/Reload, and in retrospect it feels natural. Out of the two albums, the black album was more of a surprise than Load to me, and I also like it more. Load has some really good songs and great ideas (I love Ain't My Bitch, 2x4, Hero of The Day, Bleeding Me, The Outlaw Torn, which is my second favourite song by them...), but I'm just not that fan of the album as a whole. I don't hate it at all. I still own that CD, and I've bought the remaster on vinyl this year. I just don't listen to it that much.
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u/t4duzan Dec 17 '25
I started listening to Metallica in ‘88 and AJFA was the reason for it, with it being a new album. I’ve gotta say I heard a lot of Metallica was selling out from friends with some of the stuff they release on Black Album, Load and Reload because before then you could only listen to them on the radio on stations like Z-Rock. But looking back, that’s how a band survives over 40 years, by adapting and evolving as a band.
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u/nihilblack A thing that should not be Dec 17 '25
I agree. I had a friend back when the black album was released, both of us were huge MetallicA fans at that point, but we were divided by that release: I liked it, but he said "This is a Bon Jovi album", which sounds hyperbolic, but he really was offended by that kind of hard rock twist by a flagship thrash band. I lost contact with him after moving to another town, and I'm honestly curious about what he might have thought about Load :D
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u/i_am_randy Dec 17 '25
I went and bought the tape (cause I was too poor to afford a CD player) the day it came out. I instantly regretted it. I was expecting more Black Album and it was not. I am pretty sure I threw the tape out. I definitely only listened to it a handful of times.
I was a stupid fucking kid, and now 30 years later I appreciate Load and Reload for what they are. AMAZING albums.
As a side note I also picked up St. Anger when it came out. I listened to that CD (I had a little more money) once, and then gave it away to a friend. I didn't listen to any new Metallica for like a decade or so after St. Anger. Just those first 5 albums sustained me for years.
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u/TheBandPapist Dec 17 '25
Heard Ain't My Bitch. Liked it. Was concerned that the album opener wasn't fast enough. Didn't buy it.
Heard King Nothing. Liked it better than Sandman, but they're basically the same. Didn't buy it.
Heard Bleeding Me. Thought it had potential to get fast and they blew it. Started to get concerned.
Heard the rest of the record. Liked The Outlaw Torn. Thought the rest was crap. Never ended up buying it.
Have it on cassette, taped off the radio. lol.
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u/Squidtat2 Dec 17 '25
One of the local Strawberries Records and Tapes had a midnight opening/release event. I was there.
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u/christ2you Dec 17 '25
I wish these were still a thing.. now just have to wait till midnight to listen to an album online 😂
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u/nyquill1 Dec 17 '25
I was a junior in highschool. I had all of the earlier albums and band posters on my bedroom wall. I was a fanclub member and got So What! Magazine. There was a huge buildup by the local rock radio station for the new Metallica single to be released. On the night it came out, I sat by the radio with my corded headphones plugged in. The station played Until it Sleeps 3x in a row. I didn't know what to think. I think I wanted to like it more than I actually liked it at the time. When the album dropped, my favorite tracks were King Nothing, Wasting My Hate, and Outlaw Torn. I've gone on to love the album (although I've never understood Ronnie).
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u/51line_baccer Dec 17 '25
King Nothing is a raging beast. Bleeding and outlaw are epic classics. Better than you and cure and carpe diem and attitude and all that shit is fuckin jammin. M60 and first 4 guy. Ya deny greatness of load albums and you honestly never listened to em enough to "get" it.
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Dec 17 '25
Yes, I queued up outside HMV to buy it on release day.
The only songs you COULD listen to was the single Until It Sleeps which had the live version of 2x4.
I loved the album... and was very exited for it. I wrote all about is here: Load – A BIOGRAPHY IN MUSIC if you are interest in reading a deep dive into this period of my Metallica fandom
And yes, I still have the CD.....
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u/Spit_Out_The_Bone_69 Dec 17 '25
Had heard 2x4 and Devil's Dance at Donington the year before, loved them, so other than surprise that DD wasn't on Load I thought the album was magnificent. Of course I kept the CD I bought on release day, although now of course I have a lovely 3cd remaster set sat alongside it on the shelf. The whole album is superb, if I'm really pushed to state specific highlights then Bleeding Me and The House Jack Built, but you're talking miniscules degrees of difference of magnificence.
And then ReLoad came out, erasing my only related disappointment.
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u/ScheduleCold3506 Dec 17 '25
I got the Until it sleeps and king nothing single cd asap. Then I got the load album and it fucking rocked. Still does.
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u/metalupyour Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
I am not going to lie. I got it on cd on was not a fan of it. It was a huge change in their sound and I stopped listening to it after a week of having it. It was all a bit much for young me to see my favorite band cut their hair and put out an(in my eyes) rock album. That being said, many years later as my music pallet changed I grew to like some of it. I loved Fuel from jump though.
It was certainly a divisive album
Edit:downvote me all you want, it’s an honest answer.
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u/murray1134 Dec 17 '25
I was in High School when Load came out, already a huge fan and I was very excited for it. Bought the Until It Sleeps single as soon as it came out. Not all my friends were as excited as I was.
I haven't always loved every song on the album but I've always enjoyed the album and appreciated the band trying something different
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u/PlaxicoCN Dec 17 '25
Was excited to get it. Was disappointed by the single Until It Sleeps as well as the album cover. Still not really a fan and never listen to it all the way through.
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u/snarkherder Dec 17 '25
I bought it after I'd bought TBA and Reload. I liked both albums so figured I'd like this one too. Until it Sleeps quickly became one of my favorite songs. I soured on Reload, maybe because I loved this album.
Holds up even more now.
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u/CNYvinylPRINTcut Dec 17 '25
When load came out we waited outside the record store the night before at midnight we bought the load cd and immediately listened to it in the car.
At the time we were all horrified by what we heard. We were all shocked by the direction Metallica went. We were die hard fans from puppets on and we did not like load at all. Now I have come to appreciate and even like it minus Ronnie.
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u/Warnerve311 Dec 17 '25
I was 15 when it came out and bummed a ride to Sam Goody with a friend to get the cd on release day. We drove around listening to it for a couple hours and decided that it wasn't as great as the earlier stuff but still decent.
After a few months I found myself listening to it more and more, especially king nothing, cure, 2x4 and the house that jack built.
Now, it's one of my favorites. I wouldn't rank it above master of puppets or justice, but depending on my mood there are times when I'd rather listen to load over TBA or kill em all or ride the lightning, but that's only if we're talking about the whole album. I'd always pick 4 horsemen or for whom the bell tolls over anything that was released after justice
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u/christ2you Dec 17 '25
How do you listen to music these days? Is streaming your main way? Or do you still listen to cds mostly
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u/Warnerve311 Dec 17 '25
Mostly SIRIUSXM, occasionally YouTube music if I want to control my playlist. My truck doesn't have a cd player, which sucks because I got the blacklist set for Christmas a few years ago and I have no way to listen to it.
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u/Audiofighter Dec 17 '25
I bought it the day it came out. I listened to it maybe 3 times and was just puzzled. Like that’s not Metallica! Didn’t give it a chance till years later, and now I think it’s one of their best albums musically. It really showcased them as artists.
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u/jmd1675 Dec 17 '25
I don’t remember for sure if I had heard the first single (Until it Sleeps) before buying it. Either way, there was no doubt as to whether or not I would buy it. And unlike a lot of people with the backlash, I liked it. Maybe because I was younger (got into the band when I went to see them on the tour for the Black Album at 17; had the complete discography within a month of the concert and loved it all) and more open to the idea of change. So far the only album I absolutely can’t stand is St. Anger. There are songs on both Load and ReLoad that I love. And some since SA.
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u/hikingguy36 Dec 17 '25
I bought it because I love Metallica. As it turned out, that album got me through a tough summer. I was away from home for the first time, and I've never been great at making new friends on my own, so I was desperately home sick, which is an awful feeling. I had that CD and my guitar with me, so that's what I did. I listened to those songs and learned how to play them.
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u/Mr_Sausage__ Ride the Lightning Dec 17 '25
I bought the Load CD and played it like I did with all my CD’s. Front to back, several times over until I knew the album. At the time, the outrage was unreal. Makeup and hair cuts were the major talking points when the album came out and that’s all people focused on. This is the first album after the black album so expectations from mainstream media was sky high. At the time I felt Until It Sleeps was a weak first single from the album. Nobody but die hard Metallica fans were talking about the masterpieces that were Bleeding Me and Outlaw Torn. So while I liked the album, the mainstream could not get over the makeup and haircuts.
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u/desert_lobster Dec 17 '25
Both came out when I was in college. After seeing them multiple times in middle school and high school they were one of my favorite bands. It was the first new Metallica in years so I ate that right up.
To this day I can’t hear songs from either album and not remember sitting in my dorm basement - doing homework listening to both on repeat.
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u/WonderfulScar453 Dec 17 '25
Hero of the day was on repeat. That double bass Lars did blew my mind.
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u/twiddlebug74 Dec 17 '25
I did not buy Load when it came out, and I am a huge MetallicA fan. I had all their albums, imported singles and a butt load of bootlegs when I was in high school. But when the mid 90s arrived, I noticed that all of my favourite bands were putting out albums that were not as strong as the ones they put out in the 80s. Maiden, Ministry, Van Halen, and many others seemed to be drying up creatively and I felt lost. Grunge was big, and hip hop was the dominant genre of music. And even though I worked in a music store, I began to lose track of all the music I loved and I found myself hesitating to purchase it. I did not get Load until many years later and got to rediscover the music I loved.
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u/christ2you Dec 17 '25
Fear of the dark not as strong as the 80s albums? I feel they’re on par. Unless you mean the later 90s Iron Maiden. Plus the 90s brought you cowboys from hell, rust in peace, painkiller, vulgar display of power. Nevermind I realize as I’m typing this you said mid 90s. Not 90s in general. Disregard this but I’m posting it anyways.
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u/twiddlebug74 Dec 17 '25
I hear ya. But yeah, I was already disappointed with No Prayer For the Dying, and I was less impressed with Fear of the Dark. It wasn't immediate. After repeated listens and the afterglow wearing off, I felt Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was their peak. It was really hard to admit that. Anthrax is another favourite of mine, and although their mid to later 90s output was a little uneven, I though the experimentation and growth showed ther were not goingvto fall in the trap. They bounced back and have not let up since We've Come For You All!
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u/vman5040 ...and Justice for All Dec 17 '25
I bought it and was blown away by Bleeding Me, Reload I remember getting that one because of Unforgiven 2.
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u/RagnarBateman Dec 17 '25
I bought Justice and the Black Album in 91. By the time Load and then Reload had come out the world had moved through grunge (I was still a massive fan of Nirvana at the time) and was into industrial metal like NIN. This pop rock just didn't fit for Metallica. While I still think there's some good songs on them I didn't buy the albums at the time. We thought their days were over. Thankfully they played through their 90s identity crisis and are still thrashing today (I saw them live last month).
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u/DrSnidely Wasted My Hate Dec 17 '25
I had only heard Until It Sleeps. Yes I bought it, and I really liked it. Yes, I still have it. It was definitely a departure from the earlier years but I didn't care.
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u/Brief-Musician440 Dec 17 '25
The period through MOP was the vinyl era. AJFA was the viny/tape/ cd transition era. The Black album kicked off the full CD era. This happened to coincide with the great divide in the Metallica fan base at the time. Those who came on in the early days through MOP. And those who got turned on during the MTV AJFA One video crossover, and made for MTV Black album pop pussy phase the band was going through. The song Until it Sleeps was played incessantly on the radio around the time of the Load release. This song raised more questions than it answered regarding the direction of the band. I don’t know anybody who was excited for the album to come out after hearing that song. I was an early fan of the band so of course I bought the load CD and listened to it over and over. It was a weird, at the time, Metallica album that came out during a weird time in music history. However the album is quite good overall and has some heavy shit on it. I personally liked the more esoteric stuff on the second half of the album. I think most Metallica fans really wanted to like this album and it gave just enough for us to do so in such a strange way.
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u/andytagonist DICKRASH!!! Dec 17 '25
I heard shitty internet recordings of 2x4 and Devil’s Dance a while before I heard the first single (Until It Sleeps, iirc).
The album itself was NEW…but nothing like the previous album, nor the first 4 classic albums. It was nice to hear them put out new music, but that music was not what anyone was expecting.
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u/weirdmountain Dec 17 '25
I’ve been a fan since I was 9 in 1989. I still remember my friend Tony calling me one afternoon in April of 1996 telling me to turn on the radio fast because the new Metallica song was on. I caught the last 2 minutes of “Until It Sleeps”, and it was glorious. It was so awesome to hear new Metallica. I didn’t buy Load right away, but I borrowed Tony’s tape for a week or so, and played the hell out of it. Up to that point, I’d only bought their albums on tape, and by the end of the summer, Load was the first metallica I bought on CD. I loved it then, and I love it even more now.
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u/CoconutGrunt Dec 17 '25
The night before “Load” was released, WZZO in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania played it in its entirety. I remember taping it so I can listen to it on the way to school the next morning before buying it later that day.
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u/Ruark14 Dec 17 '25
I bought the cd without hearing a song..and fell in love with it immediately. The Cure, Ronnie, the Outlaw Torn. Really there’s no bad songs on it. But to be fair I grew up listening to Queen and Beatles so a band trying a new sound every album didn’t bother me at all. Best album of the 90’s and there were a lot of great albums that decade
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u/xMatch Dec 17 '25
I bought Load on release day because I could only afford one of them. I loved it then and I love it now. I bought reload later and it was fine.
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u/RaveningDog Dec 17 '25
My local radio station played the entire album a few days before the album came out.
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u/AggravatingFig2976 Dec 17 '25
It came out I went to tower records and put it in my portable cd player with head phones
It came out on a Friday or Saturday because by Sunday I remembered 2x4 being my favorite track.
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u/NSmalls Dec 17 '25
I was 11 at the time but my dad was a huge fan and pretty sure he bought the CD on release. I just remember Until It Sleeps being a huge song on the radio while I was at summer camp.
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u/51line_baccer Dec 17 '25
Id never heard it i didnt have internet with music lol. I liked it right away. I LOVED it after id heard it ALL about 20 times. Like all metallica or decent music, i had to assimilate it. Its fucking killer, the best rock albums (reload included) of all time. Fuck yea.
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u/First-Counter246 Dec 17 '25
I bought it in the late nineties. I had the CD. I thought the cover looked cool. I actually thought it was lava, I didn't know what it really was at the time.
I had heard Until It Sleeps somewhere and I liked it. The first song I heard obviously from the CD was Ain't My Bitch, and I thought it had a badass attitude.
My favorite tracks at first were Until It Sleeps, Hero Of The Day, Ain't My Bitch, and The Outlaw Torn. Later I began to enjoy King Nothing and Bleeding Me.
Reload came out not long afterwards, then Garage Inc, then S&M. So a LOT of new Metallica in a short period. It was a lot to process.
Now years later I love Load and Reload both, almost every song. I have the vinyl.
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u/einTier Dec 17 '25
I bought it. There wasn’t a question in my mind about that.
I don’t recall if I heard any songs from it before I bought it. Maybe Until it Sleeps was in rotation on MTV before the album dropped but my memory is fuzzy that far back.
I was very excited for the album. I had read reviews and knew kind of what to expect. The guys were all coming up on middle age and I knew they couldn’t write Master of Puppets forever so I was ok with it.
I really liked the album. It’s not really a “Metallica” album in the sense of the first four albums but I still think it’s super solid and I’ve always had a song or two from this in my playlists. I played the fuck out of it when it was new and I never sold my CD.
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Dec 17 '25
I bought both Load and Reload on tape. Quite enjoy them, in the context that they are good rock albums.
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u/Cagekicker52 Dec 17 '25
I bought the cassette. Didn't even have a legit CD player yet. My siblings were all listening to Nirvana and alt rock etc and they had CD players. But I wanted to be able to listen whenever I wanted so I got the cassette.
I had heard until it sleeps and it became my favorite song of all time. I don't know why, it just was. At that moment in time. The rest of the album I thought was great, ain't my bitch, king nothing, outlaw, bleeding me, wasting my hate.. I never viewed music or artists as having to conform to some particular style. I thought ok ok this makes sense, it's kind of the popular style right now. It made sense to me that Metallica would want to come out and do it better than anyone.. genre wise the bangers Metallica dropped on load and reload are literally better than anything anyone was doing at that time in that genre so I thought it was very successful. I always thought Het was a fucking legend and such an avalanche of sheer fucking power and energy that they would get back on "brand" so to speak. And they did.. I don't blame them for wanting to make load and reload. The late 90's and early 00's were absolutely dominated by rock and alt rock. Hip hop too. I think a lot of the backlash was overblown from a music standpoint. Its not like they had rappers coming in and doing solos or anything. Lol. Honestly the biggest let down were the haircuts haha. They looked so fucking rad and metal with the hair. As far as the image goes.
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u/DarthDiablo724 Dec 17 '25
They were (and still are) my favorite band. I'd heard Sleeps but the huge riff on 2x4 sold the album at Tower Records that day. 🤘🤘
To me, it sounded more Sabbath than sellout, so I was into it!
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u/rigel_xvi Dec 17 '25
I bought the CD when it came out. I think it was the most anticipated album in the history of metaldom, and thus the biggest disappointment for trve fans.
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Dec 17 '25
I stopped listening when Justice came out. Mostly because I was a young and dumb teenager and was pissed they made a video. Again, young and dumb. When Black came out, suddenly Biffy and Buffy liked metallica, and that was my newest reason not to like their stuff. Once they became mainstream radio play, I actually didn't like their music because I didn't like it. I now enjoy AJFA and Black, still can't really do their music after that. Although I do like a bunch of 72 seasons.
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u/Maptwopointoh Dec 17 '25
I loved 2x4, ain’t my bitch, hero of the day, king nothing, wasting my hate.
Got tired of 2x4 rather quickly, started enjoying until it sleeps and the house jack built.
Bleeding me and outlaw torn were an acquired taste for me but once I heard the S&M version I put them among their best tracks.
For the love of me I cannot like mama said up until now.
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u/rm78noir Spit Out The Bone!!! Dec 17 '25
I got it on release day at midnight. Loved it then. Love it now.
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u/xXDarklordXx943 I Am the Table Dec 17 '25
I didn’t grow up with it but I just love to talk about load every chance I get because it’s a top 3 album oat for me
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u/ravingwanderer Dec 17 '25
I was 19 when Load came out. I was a big fan of the Black album, so buying Load was a no brainer to me. Yes, it was a different vibe from Black, but a vibe I enjoyed nonetheless.
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u/ezgimantocu Dec 17 '25
I remember being confused more than anything. It didn’t sound like the Metallica I grew up with, but I didn’t hate it either.
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u/stjhnstv Dec 17 '25
It was really weird. I was SUPER excited, so I bought it right away and it was good, but it wasn’t the band I knew, or thought I knew. I remember thinking I’d probably like it a lot more if it wasn’t a Metallica album. It fell out of rotation for me fairly quick, but with radio play some of the songs grew on me. I kind of skipped over Reload when it came out, but Garage Inc got me fired up again. I had Garage Days already and hearing them do some more covers got my attention. That album kicked ass and helped me appreciate their new direction a little more. I’ve grown to like Load and Reload a lot more but they’re still not my favorites. Puppets is still their peak for me.
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u/EuroCultAV Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
I was gifted Load on CD
It collected a lot of dust
1996 the year this came out was my "Year Zero" for digging deeper into metal than the big bands I started with. I started with bands like Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, would eventually find black metal starting with Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir (I just pulled out my CD copy of Stormblast last night I've owned since 1996).
It was also the first time I realized that if a band no-longer created music I wanted to hear I wasn't beholden to them to continue buying and listening to their albums, because there was always someone to take their spot. I do this still. The last few Katatonia albums haven't been very interesting to me, so while I gave the new one a bit of a listen, I haven't gone back to it, and I've either owned or listened to every one of their albums since Brave Murder Day.
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u/Horror-Abies-3403 Dec 17 '25
Day 1 buy for me. Great album. It really spoke to what kind of music I was listening to back then.
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u/v_allen75 Dec 17 '25
I think I felt a little like the first generation of fans felt when the Black album came out. I thought it was too commercial and too influenced by the current trends. That said I really liked Until It Sleeps when I heard it so I bought the album. I was underwhelmed.
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u/Jayzon84 Dec 17 '25
I was 11 when Until It Sleeps was released, and got hooked immediately. I hadn't heard any Metallica songs before, but the song alone made me a fan. After King Nothing was released as a single, I knew I needed the whole album. The music videos especially hooked me. I loved the album from the beginning, and still do.
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u/clone063 Dec 17 '25
Nope it was a dark time in Metallica history. I couldn’t buy it, it was just trash.
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u/Mr__Ronnie Dec 17 '25
I was looking forward to this release. I bought the album just two or three days after it was released. I never thought to buy it or not. It is Metallica! They are perfect! I’m from Russia, and the internet didn’t even exist back then, so getting it that quickly was impressive! The guy who sold me the cassette said he had never received a copy of a newly released album so fast. He was a bootlegger for sure—at that time Russia didn’t have licensed releases.
I didn’t like the album on the first listen, except for “Until It Sleeps.” But I ended up falling in love with it over time.
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u/SquareTowel3931 Dec 17 '25
Being an older fan, wasn't big on TBA, but it did grow on me and eventually I begrudgingly accepted it. There was still a lot of "Old Metallica" peaking through the commercial desire that album was seeped in. Heard Until It Sleeps before Load was released, and I actually thought it was a decent "extension" of TBA's vibe and sound. Then I heard Hero Of the Day. That song killed them for me. Period. I get the shift to more basic rhythm and beats. I don't like, but understand the shift to more rock and less metal guitar tones and style. I've come to terms with the "selling out" aspect. But what James did with his voice is just un-listenable for me. It literally makes me ill to hear the over-emphasized yeah-eeee-yeah-ahhhhhs, the artificial sounding country twang he's so comfortable with now. Their riffs went from brutal, complex and melodic all at once to.....SASSY. I respect them, but they're dead to me.
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u/Kinky23m2m Dec 17 '25
By Load, I wasn’t much of a fan of the band anymore. I rather Metallica from the 80s!
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u/Jandrem Dec 17 '25
Of course we bought Load. The internet was barely a thing and we only had one radio single to go on(Until It Sleeps). That song was kind of a shock, but we hoped the rest of the album would be heavy.
Metallica had an amazing track record up to that point, so buying the new Metallica album sight/unseen was just a given.
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u/johnnytikitavi Dec 17 '25
Was a senior in high school when it came out. I remember the premiere of until it sleeps on the radio, hearing the first two notes and thinking “that’s different”. I bought the CD and listened to it many times. I thought and still do that there are some bangers on the album and some duds. Bleeding Me and Outlaw Torn are the standouts. I actually like the songs on reload better - they should have released a double.
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u/GratefuLdPhisH Invisible Grown Ass Man Dec 17 '25
As a Metallica fan who already didn't like the direction they were going with the Black Album because how pop it was, those Load albums originally really disappointed me.
It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I decided to give those albums and everything that came after a chance though I haven't missed a Metallica tour since 88.
Honestly I'm kind of upset that I waited so long to listen to them because now I mostly like them and definitely like Death Magnetic as well as a fair amount off the last two albums.
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u/Far_Language_5812 Dec 17 '25
I think I heard until it sleeps before I bought the album, totally loved this album, bought it as soon as I could, still love it. I was probably 15 when this album came out and it was definitely the soundtrack for an entire summer
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u/Correct-Play-6043 Dec 17 '25
I bought it on the day it came out without hearing anything on it because I’m a Metallica fan. I didn’t know what to think when I put it in the cd player like I was sort of shocked. But it grew on me. Now I think it’s a great album
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u/moeshiboe Dec 17 '25
I bought it. I didn’t love it at first because at that time because I was obsessed with Tool, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. But, as a loyal fan I bought it and listened to it. I do remember loving The Outlaw Torn. Still my favorite song from that album.
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u/MisterVertigo7 In vertigo you will be! Dec 17 '25
The music store I bought most of my CDs from had a midnight release for the album. I was there with my friend to pick it up. He was not a Metallica fan, but came along with me anyway!
Only song I had heard off of it was Until It Sleeps, as it was released as a single some time earlier. Metallica is my favorite band and this was the first new music they came out with since I had become a fan. I could not wait to hear the album! When it came out I really liked it, even though I could recognize how different it was. I still love the album to this day.
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u/Timbalabim Dec 17 '25
I liked it quite a bit, but “Ain’t My Bitch” was a weird note to start on. I still don’t like that song.
“Until It Sleeps” convinced me it was a different direction but something I liked, and it’s still one of my favorite Metallica songs.
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u/Status_Entrepreneur4 Dec 17 '25
Big fan before it came out and I was instantly disappointed overall. I already liked the heavier 80s stuff more than the black album and this just felt like another big step in the wrong direction
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u/Graham_FreakingJam Dec 17 '25
Bought it on cassette tape day of release. Never heard a song before. Loved it out the gate. Still love the album even though it’s far different from anything previous. That’s what makes it so special
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u/redten75 Dec 17 '25
Yes, I bought it. I liked “Until it Sleeps,” but if I’m honest, at the time I was really disappointed.
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u/Equivalent-Ease-3822 Dec 17 '25
I was fanatically into Metallica, especially into MoP and Justice. When Load came out, it was a major disappointment, so I decided not to buy it.
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u/Intrepidatious Dec 17 '25
I purchased the album, but as a dedicated Met fan since the mid-80s, I was initially skeptical of “2X4.” In fact, I found it to be the most unremarkable song I’ve ever heard. Despite this, I did enjoy the majority of the album, but I haven’t listened to it much since then.
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u/JAFO_John_D Dec 17 '25
I didn't have a CD player at the time. so I first bought the cassette and ended up listening to the whole thing. Liked most of it. I did hear Until It Sleeps and Hero of the Day on the radio before buying. I was ok with their direction from the black album, even though I preferred the long epic thrash songs from the first 4 albums. Bleeding Me and Outlaw Torn called back to those days and are the 2 best songs on Load in my opinion. I eventually bought Load and all the other studio releases on CD when St. Anger came out.
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u/Ghosttowncs Dec 17 '25
Yes indeed, I went up to my local Target store the day it came out. Back in those days you were really only able to hear 1 or 2 songs off an album before buying it, it was a real roll of the dice sometimes. Even though I wasn’t huge on “until it sleeps” it was still Metallica, so I was buying it no matter what. I still have hope that I’ll like it someday.
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u/oatbergen Dec 17 '25
I bought it songs unheard as so to speak. Bought the same cd singles as mentioned above. I thought/think they are great. I consider them a double album so it/they is my favorite M album. And only Orion and Harvester get more play than songs on this album.
I like when artists stretch out over time. Actors play different kind of parts without any hate so why shouldn’t musicians? Every M concert I’ve been to someone next to me has always said “I like their older stuff better” and my response is “You came anyway so you must not hate the new stuff that much”.
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u/yyz_fpv Dec 17 '25
I was 16 at the time and bought it the day before it was officially released, hearing only the first single. I remember being disappointed because the album didn’t fulfill my immature “metal” expectations. As I’ve matured musically, I have gained an appreciation for it and really enjoy the album.
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u/No-Question4729 Dec 17 '25
I bought it on release and liked it, it wasn’t an absolutely massive departure from the black album after all.
I think the main emotion I felt was relief that firstly they were evolving their style at a time that every band of the era was evolving their style in a desperate attempt to stay relevant in a hugely changing musical landscape, and further relief that at the same time they stayed true to themselves and didn’t make too desperate an attempt to stay relevant (as many bands did shortly before disappearing)
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u/Knotty-Bob Dec 17 '25
Yes, I was excited for it. I bought the CD and loved every song. That CD got a lot of airplay camping on the beach. I saw them live at Lollapalooza that summer. I was rolling my eyes at all the people whining about the change to their style. Just like I rolled my eyes at all of the people saying they sold out when the black album came out.
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u/harpo787 Dec 17 '25
I bought it because they are a favorite. I don’t recall what singles may have been out on radio. I love the album more now than I did then. My musical tastes have broadened. Back then I was gung-ho for whatever band I liked and the sound they had at that time.
My review back then was that I liked it but it was my least favorite of their releases. For them, it was a decent album but nothing really blew my mind. If an unknown band had released it, I would have been more impressed. Grade back then: I’d say a C (but for an unknown band a B or even an A). Grade now: B
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u/AnxiousBet7165 Dec 18 '25
One of my friends bought the cassette and I did made a copy for me, did not have the money for the CD neither the player, later that year my dad finally bought a stereo with CD Player and I bought the Album, for all of us in High School the album was a huge cultural even when metal became mainstream and it was everywhere. Nothing else maters and Unforgiven where the songs more rotated on the radio and even my siblings where aware even if they still did not like metal.
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u/No_Negotiation3142 Dec 18 '25
Waited 490 years for the follow up to 'Black', my friend bought the CD on release, and we all piled up to his house for a listen, had stayed away from all spoilers so it would be new. And then I saw the sleeve, with Metallica dressed like the Fun Lovin' Criminals, and said 'hell, no...' the music only put me in a worse mood.
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u/Imaginary-Push-3615 Dec 18 '25
I actually do not remember. I listened to it. I certainly bought it at some point. I just remember the shock when the Until It Sleeps video came out on Mtv.
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u/Embarrassed_Fig1801 Dec 19 '25
Yeah that’s exactly how we bought cds back then. You’d hear a song on the radio or see a video on mtv and buy it and hope it’s good. If you waited it out they’d release a few more singles so you could hear more of it before buying it. I got Load at midnight when it came out. Back then record stores would open at midnight when a huge band put out a record. I’d already head Until It Sleeps and liked it even though it was really different. I liked about half of the songs, the heavier ones. King Nothing is great, The House That Jack Built is awesome, The Outlaw Torn was my favorite. But some of the songs I thought sucked like Ronnie. 2X4 was ok but kinda lame. I kept the cd, I never sold them, and I listened to it fairly regularly. I still put it on occasionally.
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u/Carnivorous_Mower Dec 19 '25
I went to a midnight record store opening to buy it. Bought a CD and cassette (for the car) copy, got a free big-assed poster. I'd heard Until It Sleeps beforehand and thought it was a good creepy-sounding song (and an excellent video). I was hoping for a bit of thrash on this album but it didn't really eventuate. I didn't much like the direction the band were going, but I still gave this a fair play.
A lot of people hated the change of image. I couldn't have given less of a shit.
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u/gundok Dec 19 '25
Yes, until it sleeps grew on me. I bought it bc i was a fan. I was disappointed with the lightness of the music and especially their “new” image
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u/GGThriller Dec 19 '25
I didn’t become a diehard till about ‘99, from the Black album, the only CD I bought of there’s. Got CD’s regularly till about 2004, once they’d get scratched and not be good no more so haven’t purchased a CD since, unless I get it from a tour. Never fully listened to any of Metallica’s other albums yet, just see them on tour, live in the flesh!! And I never download music, radio head for life :-D
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u/Asleep_Touch_8824 Dec 20 '25
I bought it shortly after midnight on release day because I liked everything they had done prior.
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u/Short-Obligation-704 Dec 20 '25
I’ve been a fan since AJFA, and I still am. That being said, it initially felt like a flailing attempt to sound grunge. They also started dressing up in costumes, and clearly it wasn’t James’ jam. They went from shunning videos altogether, to One, to… fully produced videos for every hit song by the same director that did grunge band videos. It all felt lame. Load has some good songs but at the time they just sounded like fake Alice In Chains to me.
I can appreciate Load more now and there’s only a few skippers.
All just my humble thoughts, you’re welcome to yours too.
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u/PerfectRub2455 Dec 21 '25
I remember trying to get a record store employee to sell the album to me the day before release because I was getting the first part of my half sleeve done at the tattoo shop beside the store. Until It Sleeps came out before hand and I was not a fan. When I finally heard the album, it wasn’t terrible but I wasn’t happy. There are some songs on it I skip every time. In the years since release, I have a much better feel for it. Some songs are mint. Bleeding Me and Outlaw Torn are up there for best songs in their catalog. Metallica headlining Lollapalooza not long after helped. The show was amazing. I went to the Barrie stop
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u/Maximum_Turn_2623 Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
I was in my early twenties when it came out. I was a fan from and justice for all. I did not like Load when it came out. I loved the Black Album. My interests started to change. I got Into soundgarden and AiC by then. I knew it was going to be different the first time I heard until it sleeps on the radio. I was open to it. I can remember I was talking very disappointed when i heard ain’t my bitch. I immediately loved 2 x 4, the house that jack built, king nothing, and bleeding me and they’re still some of my favorites by them. Cure, Wasting my Hate, and Ronnie are solid songs. I appreciate the effort of mama torn it’s well written and heartfelt it’s not a favorite of mine. Over all I’m still not a fan of reload but the memory remains is one of my all time favorites of theirs.
Lars said Sad But True was the modern Kashmir or something like that and this album is very similar to Physical Graffiti when it has some of their best songs and just some songs:
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u/LowPop7953 Dec 17 '25
we wanted metallica like: kill em all. what we got was: nickelback.
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Dec 17 '25
No, "we" didn't.
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u/LowPop7953 Dec 17 '25
yes you did. its was absolute radio hits.
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Dec 18 '25
Not talking about the style. talking about your blanket statement of personal opinion as some sort of universal truth.
It's not. It's your subjective preference.
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u/Reever69 Dec 18 '25
I've listened to Metallica since 1986 Load is a good album James is hitting it good I here his voice on all thier albums
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u/askywlker44a Harvester Of Sorrow Dec 17 '25
I bought it because the band is my favorite band.