Load is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on June 4, 1996, through Elektra Records in the United States and Vertigo Records internationally. It was recorded between May 1995 and April 1996 primarily in Sausalito, California, with additional sessions in New York City. Bob Rock returned as producer, having previously produced their fifth studio album, Metallica, in 1991. Compared to previous albums, the recording sessions were more relaxed and productive, resulting in almost 30 songs being recorded. While a double album was considered, the band decided to split the material into two albums; half appeared on Load, and the other half was released as Reload the following year.
For Load, Metallica strayed away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound. The band members became influenced by non-metal artists during the writing process, resulting in an array of musical styles such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, alternative rock, and grunge. The band also changed up their playing styles, with lead guitarist Kirk Hammett playing rhythm guitar parts for the first time. Compared to previous albums, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, resulting from lead singer James Hetfield's internal struggles and personal life. The cover artwork is an abstract painting by artist Andres Serrano, created by mixing blood and semen.
Metallica adopted a new image during the period, which included short hair, leather jackets, and make-up. The new look and change in sound were criticized by many fans before Load release. Nevertheless, Load was a commercial success, topping the charts in over 15 countries and spending four consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was certified 5× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2003. Four singles were released: "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", "Mama Said", and "King Nothing"; the first became Metallica's first and only US Top 10 hit. The band supported the album on the Poor Touring Me tour (1996–1997).
Load received mixed reviews from music critics. While some critics praised the band's performances and welcomed the new sound, others felt that the album's direction was uninspired and lacked innovation. Retrospective reviewers generally describe Load as overlong and believe it and Reload could have been condensed into a single album. A super deluxe reissue was released in June 2025.
Background
Metallica released their fifth studio album, Metallica, in August 1991. A major commercial success, it debuted at number one in the United States and the United Kingdom, among others, eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time with estimated sales of 30 million copies worldwide. With the album, Metallica became one of the biggest rock bands in the world. From 1991 to 1993, the band toured to promote Metallica, performing 266 concerts across three concert tours. Another tour followed in mid-1994 to promote the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993).
Throughout early 1994, the band members spent time away from each other: lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield devoted time to hunting; lead guitarist Kirk Hammett studied film, jazz, and Asian arts at San Francisco State University; bassist Jason Newsted created his own recording studio, The Chophouse; and drummer Lars Ulrich took the band's label, Elektra Records, to court in hopes of breaking their contract following a disagreement with the label's new management.
Metallica worked for most of the next year, with a break for the summer festival season. A short tour commenced in August, during which the band debuted two new songs, "2 X 4" and "Devil's Dance". In November, Hetfield learned of his father's cancer diagnosis and briefly departed for Wyoming to be with him, using the time away to write lyrics.|source=—Lars Ulrich on Load exploratory nature, 1996|width=25em|align=right | style=padding:8px;
Load represented a stylistic departure for Metallica Metallica had listed several artists and bands they were inspired by while writing Load and Reload that took them away from their thrash roots, including Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, Ted Nugent, Oasis, and Alanis Morissette, among others; the songs "Mama Said" and "Wasting My Hate" were inspired by Hetfield's friendship with Waylon Jennings. Hetfield described Load as "the U2 version of Metallica".
Load was Metallica's first album on which all tracks were down-tuned to E♭ tuning. Hammett said it was his attempt to play like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Thin Lizzy. Hetfield liked the change, believing the semitone drop in pitch gave his voice a "break". According to McIver, allowing Hammett to play rhythm guitar led to a looser, less "metal" and more "rock" sound, a result of Hetfield's growing maturity and the band's "desire to move forward". The band members also utilized more experimentation in their playing styles. Jon Pareles describes Ulrich's drumming as "land[ing] with brutal certainty a nanosecond behind the beat, letting the guitars and bass claw each power chord unencumbered". with lyrics about the death of Hetfield's
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Compared to previous albums, which touched on themes of confronting a frightening outside world, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, influenced by topics such as neurosis ("Thorn Within", "Poor Twisted Me") and psychotherapy ("Until It Sleeps"). He appreciated the collaboration and believed it would help expand his audience. Due to the band's differing views, a compromise was reached wherein the artwork's title would not appear in the album's liner notes, but Serrano remained credited as the cover artist.
Load featured a new Metallica logo that simplified and modernized its appearance, going from "metal" to "alternative". The album booklet featured photographs of the band by Anton Corbijn, a former collaborator of U2 and Depeche Mode. With Load, the band adopted a new image that strayed away from their metal roots. They wore short hair, tailored shirts, leather jackets, and make-up. In 2022, Rock commended the band for not caring what the fans think and doing "what they feel is right for them".
Load was released on June 4, 1996,
Load received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the band's performances and welcomed the change in sound. Rolling Stone David Fricke believed that longtime fans should get over the change in image and appreciate the band's growth with "easily the heaviest record of the year". Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald felt that Load sounded "tame" compared to Metallica's previous records, which Browne attributed to the "clean but parched production". In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said "this is just a metal record with less solo room, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and more singing, which isn't because they can't." Many commentators agree that Load is bloated The author Paul Stenning wrote that several songs sound like extended jams rather than having coherent structures. Metal Hammer Paul Brannigan said that Load main fault was "quality control", containing tracks that can be considered "throwaway" and "mediocre". The following year, Loudwire Jon Wiederhorn argued that the songs on Load are "solid and well-composed" and the album rewards repeated listens. Hetfield also believed that former bassist Cliff Burton, if still alive, would likely have disapproved of the direction the band took for the two albums. When interviewed in 2002, Ulrich said he liked some of the material from Load and Reload and was more disappointed that fans reacted poorly to the music based on the band members' new image rather than the music itself. By 2003, Ulrich agreed that the two albums could have been condensed into one, but felt that at the time, he and Hetfield wanted to release all the newly-written songs and lacked "an edit button on our instrument panel".
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Load was reissued as a super deluxe box set on June 13, 2025. Described in a press release as "an ambitious and comprehensive time capsule of 1995–1997 era Metallica", the super deluxe set includes previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, videos, live recordings, and more. The physical release is spread across 15 CDs, six vinyl records, four DVDs, a 128-page hardcover book, and additional materials. The reissue also includes a new remaster of the original album by Reuben Cohen and the original extended version of "The Outlaw Torn", which was edited down due to manufacturing limits.
Reviewing the deluxe box set for Pitchfork, Drew Millard enjoyed the live material, believing the Load tracks blended seamlessly with Metallica's older material. He also praised the addition of the band's 1995 live Motörhead covers performed at the Whisky a Go Go for Lemmy's 50th birthday. except where noted.
Metallica
- James Hetfield – guitars, vocals
- Lars Ulrich – drums
- Kirk Hammett – guitars
- Jason Newsted – bass
Additional musician
- Jim McGillveray – percussion (all tracks except "Until It Sleeps", "Poor Twisted Me", "Wasting My Hate", and "The Outlaw Torn")
Production
- Bob Rock – production
- James Hetfield – assistant production
- Lars Ulrich – assistant production
- Randy Staub – recording (The Plant), mixing
- Brian Dobbs – recording assistant (The Plant), additional recording engineer (Right Track)
- Kent Matcke – recording assistant (The Plant)
- Jason Goldstein – assistant engineer (Right Track)
- Mike Fraser – additional mixing
- Matt Curry – mixing assistant
- Mike Rew – mixing assistant
- George Marino – mastering
- Reuben Cohen – 2025 remastering
- Paul DeCarli – digital editing
- Mike Gillies – digital editing assistant
- Chris Vrenna – digital editing assistant
- Andie Airfix – design
- Anton Corbijn – photography
- Andres Serrano – cover art
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Weekly chart performance for Load
! scope="col" | Chart (1996)
! scope="col" | Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Canadian Albums (RPM)
| 1
|-
! scope="row" | Czech Albums (IFPI)
| 1
|-
! scope="row" | Danish Albums (Hitlisten)
| 1
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Estonian Albums (Eesti Top 10)
| 1
|-
! scope="row" | Europe (European Top 100 Albums)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Icelandic Albums (Tónlist)
| 1
|-
! scope="row" | Irish Albums (IRMA)
| 2
|-
! scope="row" | Italian Albums (FIMI)
| 2
|-
! scope="row" | Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 3
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Portuguese Albums (AFP)
| 1
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
| 2
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Zimbabwean Albums
| 8
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ 2025 weekly chart performance for Load
! scope="col" | Chart (2025)
! scope="col" | Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Croatian International Albums (HDU)
| 7
|-
! scope="row" | Danish Vinyl Albums (Hitlisten)
| 5
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | German Rock & Metal Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 1
|-
! scope="row" | Greek Albums (IFPI)
| 3
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 34
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Norwegian Physical Albums (IFPI Topplista)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Swedish Hard Rock Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
| 4
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 64
|-
|-
! scope="row" | US Top Rock & Alternative Albums (Billboard)
| 14
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ 1996 year-end chart performance for Load
! scope="col" | Chart (1996)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Australian Albums (ARIA)
| align="center" | 21
|-
! scope="row" | Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| align="center" | 6
|-
! scope="row" | Canadian Albums (RPM)
| align="center" | 9
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| align="center" | 33
|-
! scope="row" | European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media)
| align="center" | 10
|-
! scope="row" | French Albums (SNEP)
| align="center" | 17
|-
! scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| align="center" | 6
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| align="center" | 17
|-
! scope="row" | Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
| align="center" | 29
|-
!scope="row" | Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
| align="center" | 8
|-
! scope="row" | Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| align="center" | 23
|-
! scope="row" | UK Albums (OCC)
| align="center" | 59
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| align="center" | 14
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ 1997 year-end chart performance for Load
! scope="col" | Chart (1997)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Canadian Hard Rock Albums (Nielsen Soundscan)
| align="center" | 18
|}
Decade-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ 1990s-end chart performance for Load
! scope="col" | Chart (1990–1999)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| style="text-align:center;" | 81
|}