10 Best Sequels To Incredible Albums

9. Metallica – Reload

Metallica’s ‘Reload’ is the follow-up to ‘Load’ that was released the year prior, in 1996. Load and Reload were originally intended to be released conjointly as a double album but the band had issues recording all the songs in time for release and wanted fans to have the time to properly absorb each song, believing this was better accomplished by releasing them separately.

Load and Reload set-up newfound relevance for Metallica throughout the difficult ‘90s period where post-grunge and alternative metal reigned supreme and so many of their contemporaries faded into obscurity. In the beginning many claimed Lars and company sold out with these two albums but in hindsight they progressed. Imagine if they had just made The Black Album 2; they would have gotten much more flack and accusations of selling out.

Reload is noteworthy for being the last original Metallica LP to feature bassist of 15 years Jason Newsted. Reload’s sound is more experimental than Load, featuring more stringed instruments in songs. Still, the guitars are prominent throughout. ‘Fuel’ is an adrenalin classic, ‘Devil’s Dance’ features some of James Hetfield's strongest lyrics aimed at The Devil and ‘The Unforgiven 2’ itself is a worthy sequel to The Unforgiven (featured on ‘The Black Album’). Metallica took the blues heavy metal found on Reload and expanded it further on their most recent release in 2016, ‘Hardwired... to Self-Destruct’.