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Load is the sixth album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released in 1996. (See 1996 in music).

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For many longtime fans of the band, Load (as well as its 1997 companion, ReLoad) marked the end of Metallica. It was felt that the songs were not, in fact, heavy metal songs, but instead resembled the then-popular Grunge and Alternative styles of rock. (Metallica's decision to participate in the 1996 Lollapalooza tour — arguably the symbol of alternative rock during the 1990s — only solidified those opinions.) The album also marked the first appearance of a new Metallica logo, rounding off the stabbing 80's edges of the band's earlier logo. All members of the band had cut their heavy metal long hair prior to the release of the album. Adding to this was a series of "Calvin Klein"-style photographs in the album's booklet, showing the band swilling brandy and smoking cigars while fashionably dressed, all in a dramatic departure from their usual street image.

Due to the stylistic changes and the songs' structures, one could understand the disappointment of fans who had hoped for some return to the style of songs written before The Black Album of 1991. Hetfield's riffs dispense almost entirely with most of the sonic markers that characterized Metallica's sound in the 1980's, and he actively incorporates a more traditional bluesy feel, foregrounding components such as pentatonicism and double-stopped bends, and doing away with things such as phrygian or locrian modalities. More generally, the songs incorporate a much greater range of mood and feel than had their previous offerings, many written to capitalize on the contrast between clean, melodic, almost pleasant sections on the one hand, and grinding, mid-tempo alternative metal on the other. Whereas Hetfield's vocals had previously been distorted high-pitched barks, Load mixes in equal parts bluesy wailing as well as not insignificant moments of soft and clean.

The cover of the album is original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III". It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas.

While this album stands as the symbolic point of departure from Metallica's roots, and will forever be the album that "killed" the band in the eyes of many fans, it also simultaneously forged a replacement fan base that has been just as faithful (or fanatical) in the years since. Many of the converts who were attracted by the new style preferred it, and while many came to respect and even love the older music of the band, some remained as distasteful of that music as much as old fans could be distasteful of the new. If one were to seek out opinions of Metallica in the mid- to late-1990s, more often than not one would enjoy a scathing critique of the heroes who had "sold out." But as time passed, numbers equalized, and proponents of alternative metal became just as common as, if not more common than, disappointed headbangers. In completing the aesthetic changes initiated by The Black Album, Load represents for many fans Metallica's worst and saddest offering; for others, though, it is their best.

Track listing

1. "Ain't My Bitch" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:04
2. "2 X 4" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:28
3. "The House Jack Built" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 6:39
4. "Until It Sleeps" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:30
5. "King Nothing" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:28
6. "Hero of the Day" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:22
7. "Bleeding Me" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 8:18
8. "Cure" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:54
9. "Poor Twisted Me" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:00
10. "Wasting My Hate" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 3:57
11. "Mama Said" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:20
12. "Thorn Within" (Hammett, Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:52
13. "Ronnie" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 5:17
14. "The Outlaw Torn" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 9:49

Personnel

• Kirk Hammett - guitar
• James Hetfield - guitar, vocals
• Jason Newsted - bass
• Lars Ulrich - drums

Production

• Producers: Bob Rock, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich
• Engineers: Brian Dobbs, Randy Staub
• Assistant engineers: Brian Dobbs, Jason Goldstein, Kent Matcke
• Mixing: Mike Rew, Randy Staub
• Mixing assistant: Curry
• Mastering: George Marino
• Digital editing: Paul DeCarli
• Digital editing assistants: Mike Gillies, Chris Vrenna
• Programming: Chris Vrenna
• Design: Andie Airfix
• Cover Design: Andres Serrano
• Photography: Anton Corbijn

Charts

Album

Singles

• Metallica albums
• 1996 albums
• Heavy metal albums
• Elektra Records albums