Metallica: Load (2LP) [BLACKENED]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set on the band's own Blackened label comes in a gatefold jacket with lyric inserts. Load spent four straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, went 5x Platinum, and "Until It Sleeps" gave Metallica their first US Top 10 single.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Lyric inserts

About the album

After the colossal Black Album, Metallica did what bands rarely do at the top: they changed the haircuts and the sound at the same time. Load was recorded between May 1995 and April 1996, mostly in Sausalito, California, with Bob Rock back in the producer's chair. The sessions were so relaxed and productive that the band came out with almost 30 songs, and split them across Load and the following year's Reload.

The thrash gave way to big, swinging hard rock with Southern rock, blues and country in the mix. Kirk Hammett played rhythm parts for the first time, and James Hetfield wrote his most personal lyrics yet. "Until It Sleeps" broods beautifully, "King Nothing" stomps, "Hero of the Day" builds from a gentle start, "Mama Said" is a full-on country ballad, and "The Outlaw Torn" closes things out as a slow-burning epic.

It topped the charts in over 15 countries and the band toured it on the Poor Touring Me tour. Thirty-odd songs from one set of sessions is the sort of productivity most of us save for tidying the garage the week before a move.

Also at Kops: more Metallica on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Blackened (cat# BLCKND011-1), a reissue of the 1996 album.