‘Loaded’: Smashing Metallica’s alternative era into one album
Metallica were never a band known for making the same mistake twice. Even if they went down a road that left fans wondering what the hell they just heard, surely the next album would either put them back on track or right into another ditch, completely independent of the last screwup. Although The Black Album had already sent off alarm bells for fans who preferred the classic sound of the thrash icons, little did they know what they were getting into once they dropped the mother-Load.
Since none of the band members wanted to make the sequel to The Black Album, the albums Load and ReLoad were their attempt at putting together their take on alternative and hard rock coming out of the 1990s. While the idea of the group wearing eyeliner probably got a lot more dirty looks from fans than was warranted, the music itself tended to get bogged down by one crucial problem: too many tracks.
As much as people were lukewarm on the prospect of one alternative-leaning Metallica project, doubling down on it for two releases didn’t necessarily solve the problem. However, there are still some quality tracks on the record, and if they had decided to actually throw them into a decent order on one project, we could have been at least a decent follow-up to The Black Album everyone wanted.
But there’s a certain pecking order that comes with resculpting an album like this. When looking through the catalogue, there are definite opportunities to make it a beefier record with a healthy balance of ballads and heavy tracks. So, when going through each flavour that Metallica made during this time, let’s see if this potential album, Loaded, could stand on its own compared to its predecessor.
Smashing Metallica’s alternative period into one album:
Metal tunes
No band can name itself after their namesake genre and then blame the fanbase for not being able to grow. Metallica has the term metal coursing through their veins from the minute their albums come on, and any of their other projects would normally benefit from having a few speedy tracks on them. While this era does contain only a handful of decent fast tracks, there is a way to shoehorn a few of them into the mix without it feeling overly crowded.
‘Ain’t My Bitch’ was already a decent track to kick off Load, so that would be a welcome return, and while it has become a meme among metalheads, ‘Fuel’ would need a primary spot on the tracklist as well. Alongside more radio-friendly metal songs like ‘King Nothing’ and ‘The Memory Remains’, it’s not like they had to sacrifice their heaviness for radio play, either.
There are even pieces that could stand as modern classics had they been given more time to shine. ‘Devil’s Dance’ was always going to be a lesser ‘Sad But True’, but its swaggering groove would be a welcome way to integrate their older sound in with the new fashion, alongside other epics like ‘The Outlaw Torn’ and ‘The House Jack Built’. Out of all the tunes on this cluster record, this at least would put them on firmer ground than they had been before.
Ballads
Metallica has always had a touch-and-go relationship with ballads. While some of their greatest albums have had slow moments like ‘Fade to Black’ and ‘One’, they are still among the heaviest in their catalogue if taken on the same level as ‘Nothing Else Matters’. And while the softer material takes up most of the track listing on their alternative album, having a handful of them on the disc would at least put them on the same level as the grunge kids of the world.
After all, grunge wasn’t afraid to break out the acoustics now and again, and hearing a track like ‘Low Man’s Lyric’ about a drug addict’s withdrawals or someone constantly trying to get themselves out of a rut on ‘Hero of the Day’ at least scans properly as something a 1990s kid might like. That also means having to cut some of the dead weight as well, like the lethargic ‘Carpe Diem Baby’ and the other “epic” song ‘Fixxxer’.
And no matter what shape this album would look like, it would need to include ‘The Unforgiven II’ as a sequel to their classic ballad since it would also connect in with the completion of the trilogy on their 2008 album Death Magnetic. It may be a softer version of Metallica, but just because they show their audience the shape of their heart doesn’t mean that they have to hang up their metal credentials.
Experimental tracks
The third factor in all of this is trying to get a decent variety of music from the project. After all, this was meant to be the group’s attempt to go alternative, so making songs that capitalised on newer music did at least give them a lot of wiggle room. And while many of those avenues weren’t worth going down, there were still some shining lights in the mix as well.
Despite being considered a ballad, ‘Mama Said’ is a nice slice-of-life song about James Hetfield’s struggles with his mother, and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ is the closest attempt they made to making a progressive song during this era. There are even one-offs that would never be seen on Metallica projects that could warrant inclusion, like ‘Bleeding Me’, which deals with Hetfield’s struggles with alcoholism.
No matter how this supposed single instalment shaped up to be, there was at least ample material here to see a version of Metallica that wasn’t completely embarrassing. If anything, this would be the kind of record that wouldn’t look all that out of place sitting next to the likes of Alice in Chains on the CD rack circa 1996.
