Load (album)

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 from Metallica (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 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 his own 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 was criticized by many fans before LoadTemplate:'s 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. 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 ten 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 experimentation made them less forward-thinking and conventional, failing to push the band creatively forward. 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.Template:Sfn A major commercial success, it debuted at number one in the United States and the United Kingdom, among others,Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn From 1991 to 1993, the band toured Metallica, performing 266 concerts across three concert tours. Another tour followed in mid-1994 to promote the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993).Template:Sfn

Throughout early 1994, the band members spent time away from each other: lead vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield devoted time to hunting; 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The two parties eventually reached an agreement, with Metallica staying with Elektra under a new contract.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Recording

Beginning in May 1994,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Full-band rehearsals began in October and finished in January 1995.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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 interest 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The wide range of influences proved productive for the band. By the time the proper recording sessions began, they had almost 30 completed songs.Template:Sfn These included "Streamline" ("Wasting My Hate"), "Load" ("King Nothing"), "Devil Dance" ("Devil's Dance"), "Fixer" ("Fixxxer"), and "Mouldy" ("Hero of the Day").Template:Sfn

First we chose riffs that were great, and Lars and I would go jam on them. Then, instead of trying to force one riff with another riff, it was like, 'Let's jam on it,' and we'd see what came out of that. ... It was more of a feel thing when we were writing this stuff. So the songs kinda started writing themselves, in a way, which was a little more fun than just trying to stick a bunch of riffs Template:No wrap

—James Hetfield on LoadTemplate:'s songwriting process, 1996

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.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn He credited Rock with helping him deliver stronger vocal performances. The recording atmosphere was productive,Template:Sfn and the band's songwriting process became looser and more relaxed compared to previous albums. Hetfield attributed this to the break the band members took from each other that allowed each member to "grow up on our own and come back with a little more respect for each other".Template:Sfn Newsted agreed: "The studio thing has definitely gotten more comfortable. ... I think since everybody has their own life, separate life 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."Template:Sfn

Kirk Hammett playing guitar in 2017

Guitarist Kirk Hammett (pictured in 2017) played rhythm guitar parts for the first time on a Metallica album.

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.Template:Sfn Newsted, on the other hand, felt isolated as the other band members, particularly Hetfield, dismissed his song ideas.Template:Sfn He also believed that the band's fanbase was not "ready to hear [them] sounding like more typical hard rock and roll music". Nevertheless, 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 the insistence of Rock, 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.Template:Sfn A short tour commenced in August, during which the band debuted two new songs, "2 X 4" and "Devil's Dance".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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 Whisky a Go Go honoring the 50th birthday of Motörhead singer Lemmy, performing several Motörhead covers.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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!"Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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,Template:Sfn 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;Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Composition

Music

This album and what we're doing with it – that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things. The minute you stop exploring, then just sit down and fucking Template:No wrap

—Lars Ulrich on LoadTemplate:'s exploratory nature, 1996

Load represented a stylistic departure for Metallica away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound.Template:Sfn While the band had already taken a step away from thrash metal on Metallica, they went further on Load, resulting in a "cleaner" sound.Template:Sfn At the time of the album's release, thrash metal had been on a declineTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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,Template:Sfn and grunge.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hetfield described Load as "the U2 version of Metallica".Template:Sfn

Load was Metallica's first album on which all tracks were down-tuned to E♭ tuning. Hammett said it was his attempt to play like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Thin Lizzy. Hetfield liked the change, believing the semitone drop in pitch gave his voice a "break". According to McIver, allowing Hammett to play rhythm guitar led to a looser, less "metal" and more "rock" sound, a result of Hetfield's growing maturity and the band's "desire to move forward".Template:Sfn The band members also utilized more experimentation in their playing styles. Jon Pareles describes Ulrich's drumming as "land[ing] with brutal certainty a nanosecond behind the beat, letting the guitars and bass claw each power chord unencumbered". Hammett used slide guitar on "Ain't My Bitch" and various amplifiers to create different textures and soundscapes on "Hero of the Day"; Hetfield used a Talk box to perform the guitar solo on "The House Jack Built";Template:Efn and Newsted played a fretless bass on "Until It Sleeps" and used different amplifier effects to achieve his bass sound on "Thorn Within".Template:Sfn Hammett described his guitar solo on "Bleeding Me" as a summation of all his influences, "with a good dose of my own style".Template:Sfn

Lyrics

Compared to previous albums, which touched on themes of confronting a frightening outside world, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, influenced by topics such as neurosis ("Thorn Within", "Poor Twisted Me") and psychotherapy ("Until It Sleeps"). Hetfield maintained that he wanted the lyrics to be vague to allow for listener interpretation. Nevertheless, the lyrics are amongst the band's most personal yet, with the author Mick Wall stating that they offer insight into Hetfield's psyche; several songs are addressed at himself.Template:Sfn "Bleeding Me" was an "intensely personal" song about some of Hetfield's biggest internal struggles.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He explained that "I was going through therapy at the time and I was so unwilling... it was like the therapist had put leeches on me just to get it all out. There was a lot of secret pain, so that song came from me experiencing therapy for the first time."Template:Sfn "Mama Said" and "Until It Sleeps", are about the death and relationship, respectively, of Hetfield's mother,Template:Sfn while "Hero of the Day" offers "estranged youth" and "mother-and-child" themes.Template:Sfn Death and pain is also the main subject of "The Outlaw Torn". Religion also impacted some of the lyrics,Template:Sfn such as on "Thorn Within".Template:Sfn "Ronnie" concerns a shooting that occurred in Washington state in 1995. The author Benoît Clerc believes it may have been inspired by the story of Ronnie Long, an African-American imprisoned for a crime he did not commit in 1976, eventually being released in 2020.Template:Sfn

Artwork and packaging

Artist Andres Serrano in 2023

The cover art for Load was created by New York artist Andres Serrano (pictured in 2023).

The cover of Load is an original artwork titled Semen and Blood III. It is one of three photographic studies created by New York artist Andres Serrano in 1990 by mingling bovine blood and his own semen between two sheets of Plexiglas. Hammett came across the photo in an art book of Serrano's work titled Body and Soul that he purchased from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He said at the time that at first glance, he thought it resembled hot-rod flames due to a similar tattoo he had. Recalling the abstract art and psychedelia of a 1960s gig poster,Template:Sfn the image depicts an amoeba-like blend of strawberry-red and creamy white tones swirling against a mottled black background. Serrano had known of the band but was unaware of their music. He appreciated the collaboration and believed it would help expand his audience. Hammett wanted the picture as LoadTemplate:'s cover artwork because he thought it was "beautiful" and "it was the form, not the content, that was great". One of Serrano's artworks was also used for the cover of LoadTemplate:'s follow-up Reload the following year.

Not all band members liked the photo. While Ulrich loved it, Newsted hated it and refused to discuss it in interviews. Hammett believed Newsted "cared too much about what the fans think", although he did not want fan reactions to "dictate or censor" what he did. Hetfield felt indifferent about the artwork and was more concerned about potential backlash from retailers who would refuse to sell the album over the cover.Template:Sfn In 2009, Hetfield expressed his dislike of the artwork, calling it a "piss-take" around art made "for the sake of shocking others". Due to the band's differing views, a compromise was reached wherein the artwork's title would not appear in the album's liner notes, but Serrano remained credited as the cover artist. In a 2018 interview, Ulrich maintained his appreciation for the Load and Reload covers, calling them his favorite Metallica album covers.

Load featured a new Metallica logo that simplified and modernized its appearance, going from "metal" to "alternative".Template:Sfn The album booklet featured photographs of the band by former U2 and Depeche Mode collaborator Anton Corbijn.Template:Sfn With Load, the band adopted a new image that strayed away from their metal roots. They wore short hair, tailored shirts, leather jackets, and make-up.Template:Sfn At certain press events, Hammett and Ulrich kissed each other.Template:Sfn

Release and promotion

When Load was unveiled in May 1996, fan reactions were mixed, with many criticizing Metallica's new image and change in sound.Template:Sfn Some regarded it as a betrayal of the band's heavy metal roots. Hammett said: "I think we made a really fucking great album, and people aren't going to walk away from our music even if they think we look like 'poofs'. At the end of the day, it all begins and ends with the music. I think we're now much more than a heavy metal band." In a 1999 interview, Ulrich described the heavy-metal audience as "very conservative" and resistant to change, saying, "If at the end of the day someone's opinion of us comes down to whether we're wearing leather jackets, then they shouldn't be buying the records." In 2022, Rock commended the band for not caring what the fans think and doing "what they feel is right for them".Template:Sfn

Load was released on June 4, 1996,Template:Efn through Elektra Records in the United States and Vertigo Records in the United Kingdom and Europe,Template:Sfn in CD, cassette, and double LP formats. The album was a commercial success, debuting and spending four consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album sold 680,000 units in its first week, making it the biggest opening week for Metallica as well as the biggest debut of 1996. It was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping five million copies in the United States. Load also attained number one positions in the UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium Flanders, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Load reached number two in Belgium Wallonia, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, and number eight in Zimbabwe. Nevertheless, according to Wall, overall sales were less than half of Metallica.Template:Sfn

Singles

"Until It Sleeps" was released as the lead single on May 20, 1996. Its avant-garde music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, displays the band in their new image and features neo-biblical imagery, including references to the Hieronymus Bosch paintings The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Haywain, and Ecce Homo.Template:Sfn The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 1996. The single became Metallica's first – and to date only – top ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100,Template:Sfn as well as the band's second top five in the UK, with number one positions in Australia, Sweden, and Finland.Template:Sfn "Hero of the Day" was released as the second single on September 10.Template:Sfn Its music video, directed by Anton Corbijn, centers on a "drugged-up kid" staring at a television while Load-themed channels play, all featuring the Metallica members.Template:Sfn It stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 60, but was the band's second number-one single on the Mainstream Rock chart after "Until It Sleeps".

"Mama Said" appeared as the third single on November 25.Template:Sfn Its music video, also directed by Corbijn, features Hetfield playing the song on an acoustic guitar sitting alone in the back seat of a car. He travels down a metaphorical highway while the other three members peer at him through the windows. At the end, it is revealed it was a back seat prop in a studio, after which Hetfield and a white horse walk off-screen.Template:Sfn It reached number 19 in the UK.Template:Sfn The fourth and final single, "King Nothing", was released in the US and Canada onlyTemplate:Sfn on January 7, 1997.Template:Sfn It was promoted by a music video directed by Matt Mahurin.Template:Sfn It reached number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Tour

James Hetfield performing live on stage with Metallica in 1996

Hetfield performing live with Metallica during the Poor Touring Me tour in 1996

Metallica performed various fanclub-only shows in June, after which they performed at the 1996 Lollapalooza festival.Template:Sfn Metallica's appearance at the festival was controversial; longtime fans of the band accused them of selling out, while regular festival attendees believed their appearance was hijacking the music and culture the festival had been originally designed to reject.Template:Sfn Metallica performed at the festival as a headliner, sharing the bill with Soundgarden, the Ramones, Rancid, and Screaming Trees.Template:Sfn

After the Lollapalooza shows, Metallica embarked on the Poor Touring Me tour,Template:Sfn which spanned 19 countries and ran 125 concerts from September 6, 1996, to May 28, 1997.Template:Sfn According to Newsted, "We wanted to take the music to a new generation of Metallica fans."Template:Sfn The tour began in Europe, where the band made appearances on the British television show Later... with Jools Holland and at the European MTV Awards in November.Template:Sfn The American leg began in late December and spanned the entire United States and Canada.Template:Sfn The band enjoyed their time on the road, with Ulrich stating the band was in the best physical and mental shapes of their career.Template:Sfn Ulrich and Hetfield married their respective girlfriends in January and August 1997, respectively.Template:Sfn

At the end of the tour, Metallica announced LoadTemplate:'s follow-up album, Reload, to be released in November.Template:Sfn Reload was composed of outtakes from the Load sessions, with additional recording sessions taking place from July to October 1997.Template:Sfn Upon its release, like Load, Reload was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200.Template:Sfn

Critical reception

Template:Music ratings Load received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the band's performances and welcomed the change in sound. Musician magazine's Mac Randall said that "The boys are more into cohesion now, more interested in the slow increase of momentum." Rolling StoneTemplate:'s David Fricke believed that longtime fans should get over the change in image and appreciate the band's growth with "easily the heaviest record of the year". Q enthused, "These boys set up their tents in the darkest place of all, in the naked horror of their own heads... Metallica are still awesome... What is new is streamlined attack, the focus and, yes, the tunes." Entertainment WeeklyTemplate:'s David Browne wrote that the band "approach each song on Load with grim, teeth-gritting determination" and exhibit "subtle" signs of emotional growth. Kerrang! editor Phil Alexander wrote that Metallica has "let their individual talents breathe" and with Load, the band "still tower over the competition with audacity and power".Template:Sfn

Others were more mixed on Load. Some critics felt that the band's experimentations made them less forward-thinking and conventional, failing to push the band forward creatively. Jon Pareles of The New York Times remarked that "for the first time, Metallica sounds as if it's looking over its shoulder, wondering where it fits in the era of grunge". Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald felt that Load sounded "tame" compared to Metallica's previous records, which Browne attributed to the "clean but parched production". Melody Maker expressed reservations about LoadTemplate:'s heaviness compared to its predecessors: "A Metallica album is traditionally an exhausting event. It should rock you to exhaustion, leave you brutalised and drained. This one is no exception. It is, however, the first Metallica album to make me wonder at any point, 'What the fuck was that?' It's as if the jackboot grinding the human face were to take occasional breaks for a pedicure." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau said "this is just a metal record with less solo room, which is good because it concentrates their chops, and more singing, which isn't because they can't." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered Load repetitive, uninteresting and poorly executed. One of Metallica's contemporaries, Slayer's Kerry King, expressed his dislike for Load in a 1996 interview with Kerrang! magazine, saying that the music lacks "attitude" and "fire".Template:Sfn

Legacy

Opinions on Load and Reload have been mixed in the years and decades following its release. Both albums have typically placed low in lists ranking Metallica's studio albums. Many commentators agree that Load is bloated and overlong.Template:Sfn The author Paul Stenning wrote that several songs sound like extended jams rather than having coherent structures.Template:Sfn Metal HammerTemplate:'s Paul Brannigan said that LoadTemplate:'s main fault was "quality control", containing tracks that can be considered "throwaway" and "mediocre". Some have argued Load and Reload could have been one "pretty good" album but the band was "too loose" regarding editing.Template:Sfn In his 2004 biography of the band, Joel McIver argues that with the experimentation, Metallica lost sight of themselves and what they succeed at best: "heavy metal with power, aggression, and kill".Template:Sfn Others have shown appreciation for Load. In 2022, LouderTemplate:'s Terry Bezer called the album underrated and Metallica's "last great album". The following year, LoudwireTemplate:'s Jon Wiederhorn argued that the songs on Load are "solid and well-composed" and the album rewards repeated listens.

[We were] trying to be something we weren't and that confused us even further musically. There's quite a few great songs on there that could have been greater if the cover and the pictures were different I think. A lot of the fans got turned off quite a bit from the music but mostly, I think, from the image. It just doesn't work. You absolutely have to evolve, but let's have it evolve naturally. It didn't seem natural to Template:No wrap

—James Hetfield, 2003

The band has held mixed opinions on the Load and Reload period in subsequent decades. Hetfield felt he was following Hammett and Ulrich's vision and did not believe in the idea of revamping their image. He felt that the large number of songs "diluted the potency of the poison of Metallica". Hetfield also believed that former bassist Cliff Burton, if still alive, would likely have disapproved of the direction the band took for the two albums. Nevertheless, Hetfield did not regret the period because it "felt like the right thing to do" at the time. When interviewed in 2002, Ulrich said he liked some of the material from Load and Reload and was more disappointed that fans reacted poorly to the music based on the band members' new image rather than the music itself. By 2003, Ulrich agreed that the two albums could have been condensed into one, but felt that at the time, he and Hetfield wanted to release all the newly-written songs and lacked "an edit button on our instrument panel". Reflecting on Load, Hammett said that pushing boundaries and surprising fans is part of Metallica's creative identity. He acknowledged that taking risks can either be rewarding or damaging, but ultimately, the band stayed true to themselves by experimenting and letting the music guide them. Bob Rock also remained proud of Load and Reload, believing it would have been wrong to copy Metallica. Speaking in 2025, Rock said: "Those records are on par with everything else that we've done creatively... I'm very proud of those records."

Reissue

Template:Music ratings Load was reissued as a super deluxe box set on June 13, 2025. Described in a press release as "an ambitious and comprehensive time capsule of 1995–1997 era Metallica", the super deluxe set includes previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, videos, live recordings, and more. The physical release is spread across 15 CDs, six vinyl records, four DVDs, a 128-page hardcover book, and additional materials. The reissue also includes a new remaster of the original album by Reuben Cohen and the original extended version of "The Outlaw Torn", which was edited down due to manufacturing limits.

Reviewing the deluxe box set for Pitchfork, Drew Millard enjoyed the live material, believing the Load tracks blended seamlessly with their older material. He also praised the addition of the band's 1995 live Motörhead covers performed at the Whisky a Go Go for Lemmy's 50th birthday. Discussing Load itself, Millard called it the band's first misstep in their career, but one that was respectable in retrospect, writing: "There is dignity in flagrant, unnecessary failure." Rolling StoneTemplate:'s Joe Gross also praised the live material in the box set, including the band's 1996 Lollapalooza gig. He summarized that Load "remains a reminder of a very specific musical moment, when the various competing versions of rock remained a subject of vigorous debate: Metallica threw on some makeup and stoked the flames."

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes, except where noted.

Metallica

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

Additional musician

• Jim McGillveray – percussion (all tracks except "Until It Sleeps", "Poor Twisted Me", "Wasting My Hate", and "The Outlaw Torn")Template:Sfn

Production Template:Div col

• Bob Rock – production
• James Hetfield – assistant production
• Lars Ulrich – assistant production
• Brian Dobbs – engineering
• Randy Staub – engineering, mixing
• Jason Goldstein – assistant engineering
• Kent Matcke – assistant engineering
• Mike Fraser – mixing
• Matt Curry – mixing assistant
• Mike Rew – mixing assistant
• George Marino – mastering
• Reuben Cohen – 2025 remastering
• Paul DeCarli – digital editing
• Mike Gillies – digital editing assistant
• Chris Vrenna – digital editing assistant
• Andie Airfix – design
• Andres Serrano – cover design
• Anton Corbijn – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

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Weekly chart performance for Load

Chart (1996)	Peak position
Canadian Albums (RPM)	1
Czech Albums (IFPI)	1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	1
Estonian Albums (Eesti Top 10)	1
Europe (European Top 100 Albums)	1
Icelandic Albums (Tónlist)	1
Irish Albums (IRMA)	2
Italian Albums (FIMI)	2
Japanese Albums (Oricon)	3
Portuguese Albums (AFP)	1
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)	2
Zimbabwean Albums	8

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2025 weekly chart performance for Load

Chart (2025)	Peak position
Croatian International Albums (HDU)	7
Danish Vinyl Albums (Hitlisten)	5
German Rock & Metal Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	1
Greek Albums (IFPI)	3
Japanese Albums (Oricon)	34
Norwegian Physical Albums (IFPI Topplista)	1
Swedish Hard Rock Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	4
US Billboard 200	64
US Top Rock & Alternative Albums (Billboard)	14

Year-end charts

1996 year-end chart performance for Load

Chart (1996)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	21
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	6
Canadian Albums (RPM)	9
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)	33
European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media)	10
French Albums (SNEP)	17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	6
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	17
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)	29
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	8
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	23
UK Albums (OCC)	59
US Billboard 200	14

1997 year-end chart performance for Load

Chart (1997)	Position
Canadian Hard Rock Albums (Nielsen Soundscan)	18

Decade-end charts

1990s-end chart performance for Load

Chart (1990–1999)	Position
US Billboard 200	81

External links

• Template:Discogs master