10 Perfect Albums Where Metal Went Alternative

As Metallica were starting to make waves around the turn of the '90s, most of the metal community were absolutely pissed. These were the guys that were supposed to fill up stadiums for the rest of their lives through the power of metal, and here they were making songs like Nothing Else Matters that got major airplay on the radio. If the metalheads thought that was bad though, they were not ready for a Metallica that had the gall to actually cut their hair.

Even though most fans have slagged off the Load era of Metallica, the second installment in their "sell out" years is actually far more compelling than you might think. Although the album gives you a false sense of security with Fuel going back to their speedy roots, the rest of this album sees them flirting with some of the more alternative metal tendencies that were going on around this time as well, like taking pages out of Alice in Chains' playbook on Where the Wild Things Are or even verging on stoner metal territory on the riff on Devil's Dance.

This might also be one of the more intimate song cycles that James Hetfield has ever written, talking about the evil nature of man on Prince Charming before letting himself become vulnerable in front of his family on a song like Low Man's Lyric. We're pretty far from the likes of Master of Puppets at this point, but ReLoad is the sound of the band taking the feedback from Load and making something that's a lot more streamlined.