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. The two parties eventually reached an agreement, with Metallica staying with Elektra under a new contract.
Recording Beginning in May 1994, Hetfield and Ulrich worked as a duo in the latter's basement recording studio, The Dungeon, observing the band members' demos recorded on the road over the past two years. Full-band rehearsals began in October and finished in January 1995. At this point, the band members' influences ranged outside of heavy metal: Hetfield immersed himself in songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave, and American folk and country music; Hammett grew interested in David Bowie's works with Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, and the blues music of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Howlin' Wolf; Newsted grew fond of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More, particularly the bass playing of the former's Flea; and Ulrich was enjoying Britpop groups such as Oasis. The wide range of influences proved productive for the band. By the time the proper recording sessions began, they had almost 30 completed songs. These included "Streamline" ("Wasting My Hate"), "Load" ("King Nothing"), "Devil Dance" ("Devil's Dance"), "Fixer" ("Fixxxer"), and "Mouldy" ("Hero of the Day").
The recording sessions for the new album began on May 1, 1995, at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California. The sessions reunited Metallica with producer Bob Rock and engineer Randy Staub from Metallica. Despite having clashed during the production of Metallica, the band and Rock had settled their differences in the following years while on tour and decided to work together again. Hetfield explained that Rock "tends to help us dig deeper. We tell him what we're after and he tries to help us achieve that". He credited Rock with helping him deliver stronger vocal performances. The recording atmosphere was productive, and the band's songwriting process became looser and more relaxed compared to previous albums. Hetfield attributed this to the band members taking a break from each other, allowing each member to mature and return with more respect for one another. Newsted agreed: "The studio thing has definitely gotten more comfortable. ... I think since everybody has their own life [that is] really strong in its own way with their own set of friends, I think we're really comfortable when we do get together and things like this."
Encouraged by Ulrich, Hammett played rhythm guitar for the first time on a Metallica album, having previously only played lead parts while Hetfield played all rhythm parts. Hammett said this was done to achieve "a looser sound". He ultimately became more influential in the songwriting process, sharing co-writing credits with Hetfield and Ulrich on seven of the final album's fourteen tracks. Newsted, on the other hand, felt isolated as his song ideas were dismissed by the other band members, particularly Hetfield. He also believed that the band's fanbase was not "ready to hear [them] sounding like more typical hard rock and roll music". Newsted felt trapped within Metallica and began working on side projects such as IR8. An IR8 demo tape ended up being played on a San Francisco radio station, which angered Hetfield and Ulrich. Newsted nevertheless did not want bad blood between them, acknowledging Metallica as Hetfield and Ulrich's band and a carefree attitude towards songwriting credits, because "I still put my signature on it". At Rock's insistence, Newsted changed his bass playing to his own style rather than doubling the guitar parts; he had begun to perform this way on Metallica but fully embraced it for Load.
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. The following month, Metallica made an appearance at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub, honoring the 50th birthday of Motörhead's singer Lemmy, performing several Motörhead covers. In January 1996, with so many new songs recorded, the band decided to scrap the idea of a double album and release the material as two separate albums. This was decided for multiple reasons. Firstly, the band would have had to back out of the 1996 Lollapalooza festival to complete production of the double album. Secondly, a double album only counts as one album on your contract, according to Ulrich, so "this way it counts as two [and] we get the pot of gold at the end even quicker!" Lastly, the workload tired the members out. Hetfield said at the time: "As time went on we realized that we couldn't tackle all of it at once; we were like nine months into the recording and weren't even done with half of the songs. It was too hard to focus." So, half the songs would be released first as Load and the other half as Reload the following year.
Concerned about the long recording process, Elektra Records set May 1, 1996, as the mastering date for the upcoming album. From March to April 1996, the band was in New York City recording overdubs and commencing mixing at Right Track Studios, with further mixing being done at nearby Quad Recording Studios. The band invited local journalists to these sessions to hear previews of the new album. Hetfield's father died in late February 1996, after which Hetfield returned to New York to finish recording. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he stated that he "went back to when [former Metallica bassist] Cliff [Burton] died" and "got some of the feelings out through the music".
Load is Metallica's longest studio album at 78 minutes and 59 seconds in length, the maximum duration a single CD could be. The long length was marketed by Elektra through advertisements on MTV and stickers affixed to initial pressings of the album itself. "The Outlaw Torn" had to be shortened by one minute to fit on the album; the full version of the track was released on the Reload single "The Memory Remains" as "The Outlaw Torn (Unencumbered by Manufacturing Restrictions Version)", with a running time of 10:48.
Composition Music
Load represented a stylistic departure for Metallica away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound. While the band had already taken a step away from thrash metal on Metallica, they went further on Load, resulting in a "cleaner" sound. At the time of the album's release, thrash metal had been on a decline amidst the rising grunge and alternative rock movements. The authors Joel McIver and Paul Stenning argue that with Load and its follow-up Reload, Metallica recognized and adapted to a changing music scene, compared to other metal bands such as Slayer, who stuck to their formula.
Primarily a hard rock and heavy metal album, Load features a variety of musical influences from genres such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, alternative rock, and grunge. Numerous critics have compared the music to 1970s-era hard rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. 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".