Outta my way, outta my day

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

16/06/96 : Load - Metallica


It's safe to say my expectations are not high for this album - I appreciate they do what they do well, but it's not something I enjoy hearing (done well or otherwise).  But here we go...

Actually, I didn't mind it at all (which means that I suspect "true" Metallica fans weren't so keen on it).  It's less heavy that their previous offerings I've experienced - it reminded me of Live's Throwing Copper album which I enjoy when I'm in the mood for it.  I particularly liked "Until It Sleeps" and "Bleeding Me" both of which have fine guitars on them but, all in all, this was a bit of a pleasant surprise.  Obviously I'll never listen to it again, but let's take the little victories where we find them, shall we?  It's not one we've ever owned though so our bad ownership run continues - 9/29.

We're at #8 in the charts on their second week of a 22 week run, having debuted at #1 in the previous week - chart-wise this is their second most successful album (after their eponymous/black album).  The top five this week were Bryan (a new entry), Alanis, George, The Fugees and Celine and there was one other new entry in the top ten - Robert at #7.  The next highest new entry was The Blue Nile at #13 - I'd completely forgotten about "Tinseltown In The Rain" until I read up about them.

Back to Metallica, Wikipedia has a few interesting facts on the album - as I suspected, it notes that the album did indeed "alienate much of the band's fanbase" but was possibly considerably more commercially successful as a result (more on this later).  The band were very proud of the album's running length - 78:59, which was as long as CDs could take at the time and so they put it on a sticker on the CD case.  For those of you with musical knowledge, you might be interested to know this is their first album where the songs are down-tuned to E-flat - is that a good thing?  It also tells me the album cover art is a mixture of blood and semen - charming!

Critical reception was mostly along the lines of "it's good, but is it Metallica?" and this from Melody Maker made me chuckle - "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".  It was, however, phenomenally successful commercially - #1 in 16 countries listed (and probably many more) with 4 weeks at the top in US and sales of over 7 million globally (and over 1 million in Germany alone!).

"Customers also listened to" Megadeth, Pantera, Guns n Roses and Rage Against The Machine - all lovely lads, I'm sure.  I have to admit though that I didn't mind this at all - it was a very pleasant surprise.

09/06/96 - Fine, I guess
23/06/96 - One that hits the spot nicely

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