METALLICA — ReLoad (review)

Album · 1997 · Heavy Metal

1.5/5 · 2020-08-16
Vim Fuego

“ReLoad” at first sight? Hey, at least this one doesn’t have jizz on the cover like “Load” did! It looks like an egg yolk, or perhaps an embryo. Wonder what the cover image is called? "Piss and Blood XXVI"? Well, fuck...

So, yeah. Like Metallica’s previous instalment in the series “How to Disappoint Long Time Fans, but Sell Millions Anyway” (more commonly called “Load” and released in 1996), this album is covered in bodily fluids. But then, should anything different have been expected? Originally intended to be released as a double album, “Load” and “ReLoad” were recorded in part at the same time. That even Metallica got bored and couldn’t be arsed to hang around in the studio to finish this off in one go is an indicator of what’s going to be offered up here.

Like “Load”, “ReLoad” is too long. Listening to it is a chore. However, it does have a couple of points of interest, but these really aren’t enough to redeem the album.

First track “Fuel” is a silly, double-entendre-laden cock rock parody. While it might be the closest thing here to Metallica’s thrash roots, the riffs are second rate and forgettable, and it is painfully infantile.

Second track and first single from the album “The Memory Remains” is the strongest song across both Load albums. It features a broken, despairing vocal from Marianne Faithful, representing a fading star lamenting a career which is slipping relentlessly from her grasp. This is pretty much as good as it gets as good as it gets. “Devil’s Dance” actually lets Jason play. Pity he’s restricted to a simplistic pulse under an unremarkable song.

“The Unforgiven II” is an unnecessary reworking of “The Unforgiven” from the 1991 self-titled album. Yes, it’s a ballad. Yes, it’s got loud and quiet bits (but in the reverse order! How thrilling!). Yes, it’s got abstract lyrics. Yes, it’s long and boring.

“Better Than You” demonstrates one of the big problems here perfectly. It’s a big, fat sounding rocker, with Bob Rock’s big, fat, comfortable sounding production stamped all over it. And that’s the problem. Rock is a well… rock producer. It’s just not metal enough. See, this band has “metal” in it’s name – the first five letters – so is it really that unreasonable to expect the band to maybe please, play metal? Oh, for Fleming Rasmussen’s sharper, crisper production style from the past!

“Slither” is filler. The first riff sounds like a truncated “Smoke on The Water”. And the vocal effects are annoying. “Carpe Diem Baby” starts off slow and pedestrian. “Carpe Diem Baby” finishes slow and pedestrian too. Another six minutes of your life you won’t get back. “Bad Seed” is sort of bluesy and bouncy, but it’s more filler.

“Where The Wild Things Are” is a bit more metallic, and has a memorable vocal melody. But those double-tracked vocals? Awful! Yuck! It’s also the last Metallica writing credit for Jason Newsted. “Prince Charming” starts off promisingly with a jamming riff, and an uptempo vibe, but at it’s core, it’s Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” forced through a Metallica filter.

“Low Man’s Lyric” however, is a revelation. A ballad that’s not your traditional power ballad, it features a hurdy gurdy and violin, giving it an almost folk rock feel. And there’s no amplified power to it. Just when you expect everyone to stomp on the effects pedals and rock out, the music pulls back from the brink again. Kirk Hammett weaves some subtle solos over this, and James Hetfield’s heartfelt vocal creaks with heavy emotion.

And then the mellow, melancholic feel of “Low Man’s Lyric” is stamped all over by “Attitude”. Nope, it’s not a Misfits cover, more’s the pity. It’s another five minutes of turgid, bland rock.

Then “Fixxxer” sneaks in at the end. Finally, something hard driving and compelling to listen to. No, not very metal, but this song is heavy in other ways. There’s some raking slide guitar, with clean solo counterpoints, a throbbing bass line, oblique lyrics, and some reptilian vocal effects. Yes, it’s similar in formula to several other tracks on the album, but for some reason which is hard to fathom, it actually works this time, after half a dozen previous fails.

This was the third album in a row Metallica had fashioned using the same safe but ultimately tedious formula with Bob Rock twiddling the knobs at the soundboard. It took them a few more years, and a disastrous attempt at changing the formula (yes, the dog turd on a putting green that is “St. Anger”) before they gave Rock the boot. While Metallica’s output since has been inconsistent to say the least, there have been no more of these flaccid monstrosities inflicted upon the metal world, so maybe it was ultimately Bob Rock’s doing? More than likely though, it was just the band’s mindset at the time. “ReLoad” may have left a lot of long-time fans feeling disillusioned and disappointed, but it was still a success in it’s own way. It didn’t chart or sell as well as “Load”, but that’s relative – it still went triple platinum in the United States, and sold multiple millions of copies worldwide. However, success isn’t a synonym for interesting.