Back in the mid-’90s and following the immense commercial success of their critically-acclaimed “Black Album,” Metallica did something of an about face in terms of their style and sound. In the midst of the alternative and grunge music movements, the band cut their hair, changed their logo and took a slicker, less-metal approach to things with the “Load” and “Reload” albums. While both records are generally well liked today, at the time they were polarizing to the band’s longtime fans and the heavy metal community.
On a new episode of “The Metallica Report,” the band’s former longtime producer Bob Rock talked about both albums and explained the approach behind them.
“Well, the big change in ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ was that because of the influences of other bands — I don’t know whose idea it was; maybe it was Lars, because he is kind of this guy that thinks big and looks at music kind of maybe like I do,” Rock explained. “All of a sudden he said, ‘Well, I like these bands like Aerosmith, The Stones, Guns N’ Roses.’ There’s two guitar players. Before ‘Load’, James did all the rhythms. So the idea is Kirk was gonna play rhythms along with James, and that changed everything. And some people don’t like it.”
Rock continued: “I don’t follow the rules of metal, which is probably wrong, and I’m sorry. Because, really, my relationship with Metallica is that I’m a song person, and so it matter however you style it. I mean, I still f*cking listen to ‘Led Zeppelin I’, and I’m going, ‘There’s nothing better than this.’ And that’s not true, but it’s just the songs and how they play it. And so when they switched, I wasn’t opposed to it. I wasn’t the guy that said, ‘No, we’ve gotta copy the Black album.’ I was glad we weren’t copying the Black album, ’cause you can’t make the Black album again. When you make albums like that, it’s everything coming together — where I was, where they were, where culture was, where music was. And so I embraced the fact that they wanted to be a little freer and all these other influences rather than just metal bands that they grew up on started to come in into the picture. So that’s that album. So we ended up in New York discovering what was there, ’cause it was just the basic tracks.”
Rock also explained that “Load” sounds sonically different to other Metallica albums because of the recording console they were forced to use. “I’d like to remix ‘Load’ [laughs], but that’s never gonna happen,” Rock said. “Anyway, so that’s a big difference. So, basically, you make a record in the surroundings that you do, and that’s what ‘Load’ is. And ‘Load’ is a great record. Actually, my kids like ‘Load’ better than ‘Reload’. They love’Load’, for whatever reason. But when you put ‘Fuel’ on, off ‘Reload’, you go, ‘Oh.’ Sonically, it’s more aggressive. It’s more like them. That’s critical thinking, so to speak. ‘Cause I was shocked. I listened to both albums and I’m going, like, ‘What the f*ck?’ Anyway, there you go.”
