10 Rock Albums That Went From Hated To Loved

There’s probably a decent amount of metal fans who just pretend that the Metallica that ruled the ‘90s never even happened. Here we had one of the most interesting bands in the metal scene dominating the underground circuit, and now they were suddenly pinup superstars that were looking to make radio rock for the masses. Then again, is there anything wrong with making the kind of music that could get on the radio?

While everyone and their mother have poked fun at the Load era of the band as the prime time for them selling out, a lot of the songs on these records are actually fairly decent by Metallica standards, offering the same darkness that they were known for with a bit of an alternative chaser. Though Load gets the brunt of the hatred most of the time, ReLoad is actually a more complete experience than what they were originally going for, with James Hetfield bringing the pain back to the table on the opener Fuel.

Many fans may have been disappointed that the rest of the album wasn’t exactly that level of intensity, but there’s still plenty to choose from here, like the Sad But True like swagger of what they were doing on the song Devil’s Dance and even flirting with prog rock styles on the song Where The Wild Things Are. Considering this was also the time where James was confronting his alcohol dependency, hearing songs like Low Man’s Lyric is a lot more revealing than you might think, as Hetfield points the finger at himself for feeling so alone. There’s definitely some more emotions on this album, and maybe even a touch of angst, but this wasn’t Metallica just making radio rock for the hell of it. They were much different people than they were on Master of Puppets, and this record is them trying to fit Metallica into the modern age.