12 Best Cult Hard Rock Albums Of The 90s

For many Metallica fans, Load is the reason we all can't have nice things. Though the band had initially taken heat for a softer approach on their self-titled Black Album, many fans were still more than pleased with Metallica's thunderous take on hard rock.

Once the band cut their hair and put out Load, many fans were eager to cry sell-out. The album was filled with more introspective tracks and had angst that you usually expected from the alternative bands of the time. On the flip side, the actual execution of these styles turned out to be pretty intriguing from metal's greatest band.

Is the album flawed? Certainly. A song like "King Nothing" even sounds like a direct plagiarism of the band's earlier hit "Enter Sandman." At the same time, the band go own different sonic avenues on tracks like the country leaning "Mama Said" or their foray into blues rock on "2X4."

The album also features one of the band's most emotional moments on the mini-epic "Bleeding Me," which strikes a perfect balance between mellow introspection and hard rock bombast. People expecting a second version of the Black Album were probably disappointed, but the band's experimentation with different styles holds up amazingly well even after years of scorn.