Metallica: 10 Best Hard Rock Songs
4. Fuel
When many fans were getting burned by Metallica's first delve into hard rock on Load, people were still itching for the band to knock it out of the park once again. Even though the band's followup was still a bit rough around the edges as well, everyone could agree that it definitely started on the right foot with "Fuel."
Rather than having the more downtempo songs of their previous effort, this song starts off like a smack in the mouth with a groovy-as-hell riff at a perfectly driving tempo.
Though the speed may have gone up a notch, the tune is still rooted in a more hard rock shuffle than your typical thrash rager. People may have been a bit disheartened, but the entire song is the ideal soundtrack to the motorcycle-fixated biker dude who surrounds himself with fast cars.
Just from the opening riff, this song demands to be played loud while you're revving your engine, about to go from 0-90 at the green light. Out of all the songs to come from this era, "Fuel" has been given the most praise as one of the band's greatest heavy-hitters.
Reload had much more sonic detours in store for Metallica fans, but "Fuel" was the one track that showed us our favorite metal band was still in there somewhere.