10 GUTSIEST Moves Metallica Ever Made (And Whether They Paid Off)

10. Load/Reload Era

By the time the '90s rolled around, change was definitely in the air for Metallica. After hooking up with superproducer Bob Rock for their self-titled Black Album, the band achieved massive success far beyond what any of them had anticipated. You only get those kind of records once in your career, but for the next few years, Metallica ended up making drastic changes to recreate that lightning in a bottle energy.

Across both Load and Reload, the Metallica that we knew from the '80s was long gone, with songs that reflected more of a hard rock style rather than the thrashy tunes we were used to.

Songs were a lot more sequenced, guitars were a lot prettier, and when there was something that fit the metal bill, it typically favored heaviness over an actual fast tempo. Probably the most blasphemous of all is the fact that the band (*gasp*) cut their hair during the promotional cycle for the album.

While the Load era is not something many Metallica fans look back on fondly, there are still a few decent cuts across these records that warrant a place among the band's finest moments.

This was certainly a change of pace, but if you cut down both of these records into one single album, if would have been a worthy follow up to their Multi-Platinum blockbuster.