Reviewed by: Shortstick
(with a little help from Giggles)

 

I must admit to the readers that I am a huge Metallica fan. They have been my favorite band since I was 14, right around the time that the Black Album came out. There has been a ton of criticism about them since I have been a fan and I usually try to defend them. Don’t get me wrong, some of the criticisms have been well deserved. Anyone with a pulse that listens to popular music knows all the criticisms by now, so there is no need to rehash it here.

Continuing my confessions, I think that the Black Album was a great rock/metal album. Load was pretty decent as well, though I could have done without some of the songs. If Load didn’t have the name Metallica attached to it, I think it would have been received really well by the public. Honestly, it’s a pretty good rock album, and has some pretty damn good songs on it. It just doesn’t exactly sound like a Metallica album should. I could go on about Load with praise and criticism, but that’s really not what this review is about.

It was kinda hard to find pictures from the liner notes of Reload, but this should get the point across. Does this even look like Metallica?

To follow up Load, Metallica released an album named Reload. It was basically some songs that were left over from the Load sessions that the guys didn’t get around to finish, hence the name. Originally, the band had plans to do a double album sort of thing that would have included the songs from both albums (more on that later). Basically, to paraphrase something I read in an Amazon.com review “this is material that wasn’t good enough to make the Load album”.

When Reload was released, there was a ton of hype surrounding the song “Memory Remains” because it featured a guest singer AND it was a she. Seeing that Metallica has never had anyone sing on a song but James Hetfield, the idea was intriguing. “Memory Remains” was also the first single released from the album. I don’t remember a whole lot about the first time I heard it, but it wasn’t as cool as I thought it was going to be. I think in my mind that it would be a guest singer along the lines of Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil (not that I had heard of Lacuna Coil yet, but looking back on it, it’s kinda what I expected). Marianne Faithful was the guest singer and it sounds like she had smoked a pack of cigarettes in about 20 minutes before she recorded her part of the song. While the song rocked and had pretty some pretty cool riffs, the “guest vocalist” part didn’t work. I’m not sure how the song would have sounded without her, but I do know it didn’t add anything to the song either.

This would be the guest "singer" known as Marianne Faithful. I really don't know what to think about this picture...

Sometime after the single was released, the album came out (duh, it usually works that way). As with the previous release “Load”, there were some memorable tracks. “Fuel” and “Unforgiven II” come to mind right off the bat. As for the rest of the album, it didn’t leave a lasting impression. “Low Man’s Lyric” is kind of a cool song (Giggles doesn’t agree) but the problem with it is that it doesn’t sound like a Metallica song and its way too long for what it is. There just aren’t a whole lot of memorable songs on the album and for a Metallica album, which is a problem.

The best way I can describe my feelings towards the album is that when it hit, I listened to it for a while and kind of didn’t care much anymore. I lent it to Giggles shortly after it came out and didn’t get it back for a few years. For someone who is a huge Metallica fan, I don’t think that you can construe this as a good sign. It’s not that the album was bad; it just wasn’t a very good Metallica album. I don’t have hatred towards it, but I am kind of apathetic towards it. Previously, I let ya’ll know that I have defended the boys quite a bit. If someone were to bring up Reload in a conversation, I don’t think that I would be able to defend it. I might mention some of the songs that were actually worth listening to, but other than that, I can’t say it was a good album.

I really think the double album thing with Load would have made this album better, partly because it would have never seen the light of day as a separate release. If they would have done something like the “Smashing Pumpkins” did with “Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness”, “Load” might have been a really good album. From what I have read, the Pumpkins put their standard type of songs on the first disc and the more experimental type songs the second disc. You can argue this of course, but it seems to fit. Metallica should have done something like this as well. Songs like “Ain’t My Bitch” amongst countless others and some of the more rocking songs from Reload could have been put on the first disc. The more experimental, non-Metallica type songs like “Mama Said”, “Ronnie”, and “Low Man’s Lyric” could have been put on the second disc. At the very least, the first disc would have been great. The second disc might have been tripe, but I don’t think I would fault Metallica for having “the stuff that doesn’t belong on a Metallica album” on it. At least we would know going into that it wasn’t supposed to sound like them. The sad part is that most of the stuff from Reload would probably fit onto the second disc.

Anyways, to sum Reload up, the highlights from the album are few and far between. For a Metallica album, it falls really short. Like Load, perhaps if there was another band’s name attached to it, it might be considered a decent album. Unlike Load, I still don’t think it would be a good album. As a Metallica album, I think I would rate it 2/5. For a rock album, it might muster a 3/5 (for comparison, I think that Load would get a 4/5). The bottom line is that Reload was a subpar Metallica album and it was kinda disappointing.

Giggles Thoughts: I remember one time when I was drunk (I think I was laying on the floor or something. No, no, I’m certain of it. I was on my back with my bloodshot, weary eyes staring across the dark confines of my room) I saw Shortstick’s copy of Reload propped against the wall with randomly scattered CDs, jacketed in an inch of dust. I remember thinking, “Wow, I haven’t really even listened to that since I borrowed it! That’s weird for me and a Metallica album.” And then I remember looking at a picture of Kirk Hammet on the back of the CD cover and thinking that he kind of looked like a long-haired bat or something. To make a short story longer, I began laughing my ass off (all by myself in my room). And I have to say that this album, which was, let’s face it, a selection of B-SIDES, had one great monumental moment for me, and it stemmed from my intoxication and the poor lighting in my bedroom.