10 Terrible Rock Albums (That Aren't As Bad As You Think)
3. Load - Metallica
People have lined up for years to spit on Load by Metallica. As if the supposed "sell-out" the band took on the Black Album wasn't enough, they had the gall to release another helping of songs that were a bit mellower than thrash (with short hair no less). There was change in the air, but the music didn't suffer nearly as much as people thought.
The first problem people have with these albums cites the band jumping on the alternative hype train, but these songs still sound like the same band who gave you "Enter Sandman." Songs like "King Nothing" may be different, but it owes its origins more to old school hard rock than something like Alice In Chains.
Coming off the success of the Black Album, this actually feels like the ideal followup, with the clean production married to more stripped down songs.
Albeit, not everything sticks the landing, like the uninspired "Wasting My Hate," but the risks that the band took on this album ended up paying off a lot more than something like St. Anger or Lulu later down the line. Load may not be anywhere close to something like Master of Puppets, but as a sensible career choice, it's actually one of the more engaging listens that the band put out in the '90s.