metallica

I remember being like 14 or 15 when the load album came out.  I was the first one at the record store to buy it from them. I had only heard one track off the album Until it sleeps.  Which I thought pretty good nothing amazing but it was the new Metallica.  And I wanted  to hear more.  but, in the weeks previous to its release the DJ's at the local radio station where I lived in Jacksonville, Florida were complaining about playing the Black album.  They were considered an alternative rock station so I guess they felt like Metallica was too old.   Which I did not understand because I thought the black album was great.  But this was the nineties and flannel shirts were every where and grunge was big.  There just wasn't a lot of  heavy stuff on the air waves back then.  So when they actually started playing this style of music I was naturally ecstatic.

So of course the first thing I do is go home and play the album.  I was really blown away.   These guys had figured out a way to blend the mainstream type of  alternative music and the heavy stuff.  They came back with hair cuts gave the songs almost a blues type feel and took out all the major guitar solos, which were not popular for some reason back then.  It seemed to me that they had brought metal back into the mainstream.  Whether you agree with me or not that is exactly what they did.  You just weren't hearing that kid of music on the radio stations then.  In a way that had done exactly what they did with the black album.

But still everyone called them sellouts.  Say what you will about them, their lawsuits their haircuts, their loss and changing of band members.  No matter what you say about them they found a way to evolve and they still kept it heavy.  Granted sometimes it was heavier than others, I still give them the props they deserve.  So I think you should to go listen to it again.  By the way track 3 "the house that Jack built"  maybe the best song on the album.

1. "Ain't My Bitch" James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich
2. "2 X 4" Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett
3. "The House Jack Built" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
4. "Until It Sleeps" Hetfield, Ulrich
5. "King Nothing" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
6. "Hero of the Day" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
7. "Bleeding Me" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
8. "Cure" Hetfield, Ulrich
9. "Poor Twisted Me" Hetfield, Ulrich
10. "Wasting My Hate" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
11. "Mama Said" Hetfield, Ulrich
12. "Thorn Within" Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett
13. "Ronnie" Hetfield, Ulrich