On June 4, 1996, Metallica’s sixth album Load was released — arguably the most highly anticipated metal album of that entire decade.
The band’s previous LP — titled simply Metallica, but better known as The Black Album — was a multi-million selling phenomenon that elevated its creators into one of the biggest bands in the world.
And the five-year gap between The Black Album and Load raised the public demand for new Metallica music to fever pitch.
Ahead of the release of Load, the four members of the band spoke to Kerrang! magazine.
Strangely, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett ended up talking more about other guitar players he admired than the album his band had just made.
“I love Carlos Santana,” Hammett said. “He’s so humble it freaks me out. And Buddy Guy —he’s a part of the generation that pretty much defined electric blues.”
However, on the Load album there had been a significant change in Hammett’s role — as was explained to Kerrang! by the band’s rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist James Hetfield.
“As far as letting Kirk play rhythm guitar and shit goes, maybe I’ve not mellowed out, but just broadened my scope,” Hetfield said. “Maybe I'm actually being a little more confident in myself to let someone else do it. I'm not so afraid that he [Hammett] is doing it.
“I guess I was a little bit afraid before. I still freak out about it, but I hold back and let Kirk do his thing.
“We still have a focus on what we want. I'll still say, ‘That’s a little bit not good — play something better!’
“But on this record, we've opened our minds to a lot of new shit, discovering how some of these other band members are actually pretty good! Everybody's brought something new to the table.”
Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich had always been the dominant forces in Metallica’s creative process, and bassist Jason Newsted confirmed as much when he discussed his own input to Load.
“James has the last word on everything,” Newsted admitted. “I submitted more material than ever before for a Metallica record, but it's just not where James was — or Lars, for that matter.
“We tried some of [his own] songs, but it just wasn't working out. James writes this shit that is so good it's hard to compete with it.
“I feel more satisfied putting my bass parts on James's cool writing than I would getting five of my songs on the record — I really do.”
Newsted described the style of Load as a new departure for Metallica.
“If anything, it's groovy,” he said. “Every song has its own vibe.
“The experimentation factor is higher than ever. The guitars and bass are definitely looser.
“For the first time, we're doing what 98% of other bands do — putting the bass down right on the drums and then the guitar after that. Kirk is playing rhythm guitar for the first time. Also that adds a lot to the character of it. The last album was great, but this one is a bit more real.”
It was Lars Ulrich — always the most outspoken member of Metallica — who revealed the most about the making of Load.
“This is the most relaxed this band has ever been,” he said, “and I think that ultimately shows up in the music. The word experimental is so corny, but we went into the studio before we were done writing.
“I don't think anyone really knew where this record was going to end up when we started it. We're just blessed with the fact that whatever we do ends up sounding like Metallica, but still a little different.
“We recorded a lot of this album live as a band right off the floor," Ulrich said. "So it has much more of a band sound than ever before, more of a group spirit and a whole other level of confidence and attitude.
“This the new rock 'n' roll Metallica. The riffs are becoming much greasier, bluesier, dirtier. We really cruise through it because we know we can do this better than anybody else.
“We’re a lot more confident than on the last record, and we're more comfortable with [producer] Bob Rock.
He continued: “We’ve been playing simpler grooves stuff for five years. We started with Enter Sandman and Sad But True. Before that, we were still doing ten minute jazz fusion songs!
“The word ‘loose’ comes up a lot. To me, it means we're trying not to get stuck into one thing. It's different, but it's still Metallica.
"12 years ago, when we started opening up on Ride The Lightning with Fade To Black, a lot of people said, ‘What the fuck is this about?’ And we said, 'We don't want to be stuck doing one thing.’
“I know this album is different," Ulrich said, "but I also know it's really fucking strong Metallica.”
He also spoke of his drive to succeed and how this shaped The Black Album.
“One of the long running jokes is my obsession with all of this,” he said. “When you’re creating it's always there. What are you going to call the record? What are you going to call song seven?
“It's very hard for me to listen to anybody playing music without analysing the arrangement, without thinking about the snare drum sounds — it’s part of your gig.
“In the last few years, I've realised that I could mentally remove myself from it for periods of time, and I find it gets easier for me to pull away.
“But he hungriest I've ever been was with The Black Album. The whole year leading up to that record, I knew what was going to go on. Maybe it sounds arrogant, but I could feel it. It was lining up — the right the songs, the timing of what was going on around us.
“I just knew that after ten years, everything was coming together at the right time, and I was pretty determined to see it through.”
Ulrich admitted that he may have over-indulged in the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle during the early ’90s.
“I think it culminated in 1992 when we toured America with Guns N’ Roses. I was looking into some of that rock star stuff a little bit, hanging out with some of those guys, kind of exploring their world a little bit.
“James was off on his own trip, doing a lot of things by himself, and for a couple of months in 1992 it could have gone off the tracks. But I think that the second we feel something is amiss, we pull together.
He concluded: “With the success of The Black Album, the only thing that matters is we got through it — and this, now, is the strongest we've ever been as a band.”
New deluxe editions of the Load album are released on 13 June
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