Worth noting is that "The Outlaw Torn" had to be cut down by about 4 minutes because they ran out of room on the CD. It is 9:52 on the CD, but the full, "unencumbered" version is over 14 minutes long.
Also worth noting is that a video called Cunning Stunts was release of a concert on May 9th and 10th, 1997 in Ft.Worth, Texas. This is from the Poor Touring Me tour that Metallica went on after releasing Load. I saw this tour and it was very good. I also own the DVD and it is entertaining. You can get it as either VHS or DVD.
Alas, the very attributes which used to define Metallica as poignant and powerful
have now become business- as- usual. Today the world is all too familiar with
Hetfield's growl, Lars' scowl, and the other stern Metallica trademarks that once-
upon- a- time seemed to indicate integrity and purpose.
Granted, Load possesses a few redeeming moments: "Hero of the Day" injects an
iota of uplift amid the rampant sturm und drang, and "Mama Said" provides a
desperately needed peek behind Metallica's armor. But all other potential escape
routes from the dungeon are blocked by trudging tunes, stale riffs, and Hetfield's
neo- gregorian recitation of gripes.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Metallica would collapse under the weight of their own
dour pretension. Rather than indulge in a glimmer of mirth, they avoid humor as if
it were the ebola virus. Hetfield & Co. prefer to proudly wear their angst like an
endlessly dripping red bandage of courage-- encrusted with blood and bile-- on
their deeply furrowed brows.
My Rating: 8.5
Track list & Lyrics
Fan-voting of album's best song
Cover Art
Audio from the album
My notes/review:
I think that this is a great album. No one can deny that the first 7 songs of this album
are great ("Ain't My Bitch", "Hero of the Day", "Until it Sleeps", "King Nothing", "2 x 4", "Bleeding Me", and "The House that Jack Built"). Even after the first seven songs, the album is great. Other notable songs include "Cure", "Ronnie", "Wasting My Hate", "The Outlaw Torn", and "Thorn Within". The only downside to this album are "Poor Twisting Me" and "Mama Said". "Mama Said" sounds like a country song and gets annoying very quickly. This is a great album no matter what any critics may say.
From Rolling Stone:
If heavy-metal fans are supposed to be such hard-core
loyalists, what is it about a few haircuts, some eyeliner and
a little songcraft that throws 'em into such a dither? "Load"
- Metallica's very long (78 minutes and 59 seconds on the
nose) goodbye to the moldy stricture and dead-end Puritanism of no-frills
thrash - is easily the heaviest record of the year, a seething beast of meaty,
focused guitar dynamics, taut art-pop drama, unexpected vocal-harmony
kicks and intensely personal lyric aggression. You've got to be dead from the
neck up and the waist down not to swing with the tangled riffing and blastoff
choruses in "Ain't My Bitch" and "King Nothing." Singer, guitarist and attitude
captain James Hetfield has, with the advent of middle age, exchanged his
original cannonades of adolescent distemper and CNN-inspired vitriol for
more intimate disclosures of anger, loss and retribution. But he's done so
with undiminished venom, proud authority and even the occasional
self-deprecating giggle. As Hetfield snorts at one point against the black-lava
ooze of his and Kirk Hammett's guitars, "Oh, it's too good to be/That all this
misery/Is just for oh, poor, twisted me." Get over your "Master of Puppets"
fixation, and twist with this.
From Jon Levy (CDNow):
In the five years since the release of their last album,
Metallica has corroded beyond recognition.
Their 1996 opus, Load, not only ranks as one of this year's biggest
disappointments, but comes across as a parody of the intelligent, brooding hard
rock which made Metallica's eponymous 1991 disc a watershed.