Customer Reviews

Reload

5 star:		(228)
4 star:		(129)
3 star:		(82)
2 star:		(75)
1 star:		(148)

 

 

First off, anyone who bashes this album based on past Metallica releases is missing the point. We're not in 1983 anymore. At least in their albums, Metallica have made their stamp on thrash metal and have moved on. They still play all the old stuff live, and play it better than ever.

Anyway, let's get straight to the point here. If you are a hardcore metalhead, and accept nothing but fast and angry music, this album is obviously not for you. If you are just a fan of good hard rock of all kinds from blues to metal, chances are you'll enjoy this. As far as Lars' drumming here, it is simpler than before. Mainly because these Load records are more guitar driven (both Kirk and James play rhythum) than before, and Lars is simply becoming more vibe oriented, rather than being all flashy and show-off. Still, as seen on the songs "Fuel" and "Bad Seed", there are still some good drum fills throughout the album.

Even though its been done 100 times before, I feel its necessary to break this down song by song. I'm even going to listen to them as I write this.

1) Fuel: Fast song, as the title indicates. Almost reminicent of old Motorhead, particularly "Ace of Spades". The fast and simple main rhythum, the guitar fills in between, and Lars' churning double-bass drum during the chours. The best song on the album.

2) The Memory Remains: An old friend of the 'Stones, Marianne Faithful, contributes some vocals here. Again, simple guitar riffs, almost like a darker Iron Maiden. The subject matter deals with famous people fading out of the spotlight. You'll notice here that Kirk's leads are more blues than speed, something he learned from one of his guitar heros: UFO's Michael Schenker. Another great song.

3) Devil's Dance: Funny how the old Metallica never wrote anything about the devil. This is where the heavyness begins. The opening guitar effects are great (especially the crunchy one at about :16). Although it doesn't have the groove of the classic "Sad but True", it holds its own. Basically, this song is about the temptations of the devil. A real hidden gem.

4) The Unforgiven II: Indeed, it does resemble the original song in some ways. James was writing this song one day and realized that the chord progression was similar to "The Unforgiven". Rather than toss it, he tweaked it up enough so that it only became a sequel. The somewhat "country" sound in the clean guitar is just James using the B-bender in his Fender Telecaster. Its interesting how in the original, the verses had heavy music and the chorus had soft, while here its vice versa. Overall, despite the resemblance to the first Unforgiven, this song is good enough to stand on its own.

5) Better than You: A song that wins a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance can't be that bad. The subject matter deals with something we all can relate to: the desire to be better than your rivals. Hard, driving guitars are the heart of this song.

6) Sliter: Although not a terrible song, its not one of the most memorable. James seems to be telling us something when he says "There ain't no heros here". One thing about all of Metallica's songs is that they are open to a lot of interpretation. This one doesn't seem to have a meaning that's obvious.

7) Carpe Diem Baby: The title pretty much says what this song is all about. Great sense of movement here. If you don't like this, James has two words for you: "Suck it!"

8) Bad Seed: Tuning down to C# gives this song an added element of heavyness. Lars gets a little wild on the drums here, especially in the chours. Cool song.

9) Where the Wild Things Are: You may know a children's story book by the same name. Haunting opening guitars lead to pounding power chords. Indeed, the whole song is very dark and haunting, reminicent of Alice in Chains. Another cool song.

10) Prince Charming: A fun, loose, and dirty song, kinda like "So What". Not too much lyrical or musical depth here, just something to sit back and enjoy.

11) Low Man's Lyric: This song about the homeless seems out of place on a Metallica record. Even though a past song, Nothing else Matters, has the same slow and clean feel to it, it doesn't have the climactic ending of its predecessor. Many people would avoid this song simply because its a pure ballad, but again, that's missing the point. Nevertheless, a cool song.

12) Attitude: The theme of vibe oriented songs continues here. Aggressive in its music and lyrics, its another great song.

13) Fixxxer: Here's where it gets ugly (in a GOOD way). The opening wahs of the guitar are Hendrix-like in their sound. This is one twisted, heavy song, somewhat similar to "The Outlaw Torn". One of the best on the album, and one of the more popular songs among the fans.

This album, along with Load, is a lot more loose than the tightness and speed of '80s Metallica. Still, most modern bands (3 Doors Down, Papa Roach, Blink 182) would crumble under the weight of this album. It might be a weaker Metallica album than others, but its definately not a bad one.

Okay, there seems to be four Metallica fan groups out there. You have the "I've been the biggest fan since "no life 'till leather" demo came out and they say Metallica sold out with "And justice for all". Next you have the "Master of Puppets" group that says everything that's not "Master of Puppets" sucks. Followed by the "And Justice"/black album crowd, who for some reason don't like the earlier "Kill 'em All" and "Ride the Lightning", yet state that "Reload/Load" were total sell-outs and nothing will compare to the Black album, the album all the other "fans" whined abot years ago when it first came out. Then you've got the new fan base that loves "Load" and "Reload" and are also buying "Garage inc." (cover songs that influeced them) and earlier albums. The funny thing is you don't hear a lot of newer fans complaining about the older albums or all the older songs that they still play at their shows. Some of you so called "die hard fans from back in the day" need to lighten up a little bit and maybe expand your musical horizons some. "Reload" is not a bad album. It is a little different but is still a great effort by four talented musicians. Some other open minded reviewers made reference to "hair swinging" and if thats all you're into don't buy this album, I agree. There are plenty of hair swinging bands,(Exodus, Meliah Rage, Kreator etc.) none have the talent, then or now, that the musicians in Metallica have.

I cannot say enough about how Metallica has done a 180 turn for the worst. They were everything that metal meant; after all, they were metal'lica. But since they started selling records and got a taste for dead presidents they have lost their integrity. I mean this in the truest sense of the word. With their impending lawsuit against napster, this band has layed the last brick in the wall between them and their fans. Lars says that the band doesn't like their art traded like a commodity. What does that mean, Lars. We aren't talking about a group of starving artists here. Additionally, music being sold by the record companies doesn't qualify as "traded like a commodity"? Oh the days when Burton was playing with the band. They were masters of the trade. He must be turning over in his grave now...

After promising for months during pre-release interviews that "Reload" would not be simply leftover material from "Load" (although the songs were written during the same sessions), the album eventually dropped to a misinformed public. "Reload" sounds like absolutely nothing else EXCEPT material that wasn't good enough for inclusion on the already spotty "Load" album.

The opening track, "Fuel", was one of the album's biggest hits and current live faves, but both lyrically and musically it finds Metallica sinking further and further into dimwitted neanderthal rock. The James Hetfield that used to pen such masterpieces as "Fade to Black" and "Blackened" is now reduced to such tripe as "Gimme fuel/Gimme fire/Gimme that which I desire/Oooh!" (how could that possibly have passed the drawing board stage?) Even though the song does boast what's indisputably one of the catchier riffs on the album, it's bar band simplicity and the blockheaded lyrics mar it beyond favor.

Of the other singles released from "Reload", "The Memory Remains" sounds like Metallica merely going through the motions, despite the fact that they've only been playing in this style for one album now. The "la la la" vocals by Marianne Faithfull are a horrendous misstep; I defy fans of the song to deny that they wouldn't prefer a version without Faithfull's contributions. As for the other big "hit", "The Unforgiven II" is nothing more than a crass attempt to cash in on the success of a far superior song. Metallica are shrewd businessmen and realize that most people tend to prefer the first material they encounter by a band, which is why you see so many of the positive reviews for the latter albums obviously written by teenagers and other youth - the younger they are, the less likely they are to have heard the original "Unforgiven", and once they've decided the sequel is a good song they're unlikely to admit to a hasty judgment later and downgrade their opinion of the sequel. At best you tend to get a "they're both cool in their own way" response.

Finally, one of my main complaints with "Reload" (and a prime indication of why it seems like a rush job) is that the solos on the album sound like they were all recorded during one long, self indulgent jam session, then chopped up indiscriminately and inserted into the finished tracks at random. There's not a single solo that sounds like it was handwritten for a particular song, and by about 3 songs into the set you already develop a "been there done that" immunity to Kirk Hammett's remaining efforts. "Reload" is the only album to date that I would rank decidedly below even "St Anger", and should probably be the last stop on a neophyte's list of Metallica albums.

Metallica's 'Load' albums are one of the most overlooked and underappreciated Metallica albums ever, why? Because Metallica changed their image. From thrash to hard rock, Metallica created the Load albums, Reload, the second of these albums has to be the best of the two and one of my favourite Metallica albums. Old school fans for some reason have a problem with these albums, because the speed metal that created Metallica no longer exists, the contriversial Load album unfortunatly wasn't a very good album and because of this many people have overlooked Reload, despite it being actually a really good experience.

As mentioned this album is actually really good, it isn't as brilliant as some of the previous albums, but it still is a great listen, the album opens up with a really catchy, speedy song, Fuel. This is a great opener to the album and is one of the greatest songs on the album, it's quite fast with fun lyrics with a short but great solo - 9/10.

The next song, The memory remains, is actually a good one, but the S&M version is much better, as it doesn't have the crude voice of Marianne Faithfull's backing vocals. - 7/10 but the s&m version is simply a 8/10.

The devils dance is slow paced but with great use of the bass, the lyrics are very good and the solo is also very entertaining, if not a tad short, not to be overlooked - 8/10.

The Unforgiven ll, an awesome song indeed. I think that this version is a lot better than the previous one on the Black Album, the guitars are much more stronger, the song is longer, with very emotional back up vocals at parts, Hetfields singing is improved and the slow paced acustic is gone. Just like the original, the lyrics are very metaphoric and have some repetition. Even the small solo is great fun and emotional, but not as good as the originals solo. - Best song on the album. 10/10

Better Than You - Isn't a bad song but isn't really one to go crazy about. 6/10

Slither - A great rhythm, and the drumming is very well timed and precise, but there are better songs again. 6/10.

Carpe Diem Baby - Now this is a great song, it's a song you have to sing along to, the guitars are very dominant and Hetfield doesn't sound like he's straiing to sing in this song, it's very relaxed, the riffs are good and the solo is quite lengthy for this album and is actually quite good. "Then make me miss you" - 9/10

Bad seed - nice lyrical value but this song isn't one worththe listen really, give it a miss. -6/10

Where the wild things are - Just awesome, you'll really like this song listen to it and enjoy the chorus and the simple yet, fine musical power. 9/10

Prince charming and Low man's lyric aren't that great either, not quite 6 not quite 7. -6.5/10 for both.

Attitude - Great one, it seems quite overlooked though it really is worth the listen as it's riffs are great and the production of this song is very well done. 8/10

Fixxxer - Hightlight of the album, a terrific closer with great lyrics, a great introduction a great chorus and an amazing finish. the solo is good and the slow stretching period emphasizes the conslusion all to well. 9/10

As you can see above, there are some songs that really deserve the listen, they are really great and show a lot of maturity in Metallica's performance and song writing, forget your strickly 'metal' attitudes, take a look at this and see soem great songs on offer,

There are about 4 decent songs here, none of them really great. The rest are really bad. I don't know what happened with this CD and with Load (which is also terrible). Metallica says they were just in a "phase" when they made Load and Reload. Let's hope they return to greatness with their next effort.

I've commented on this album a while back and gave it only two stars. There is a reason for this even more dismal review. I've just been listening to ReLoad again and two words come to mind: incredibly weak. I'm sorry but I'm one of the old fans and I will say unequivocally that this is Metallica's most pathetic release yet. Compared to their previous efforts (Load not included), ReLoad comes across as the definition of mediocre. Lars has said that ReLoad is a completion of their new phase since the "Black" album. Talk about ending with a whimper.

Now don't get me wrong, there's some small nuggets of originality buried in ReLoad. Personally, I think the strongest track is "Where the Wild Things Are". It's quite different from the rest of the album which is a good thing. If only the rest of the album were as imaginative. This, unfortunately, cannot save the rest of the album. The remaining tracks mostly amount to radio-friendly filler (to quote another review, thanks). A couple songs like Devil's Dance and Fixxxer manage to rise to the level of OK and that's about it. I'm afraid to say this but Garage, Inc. was a stronger release even if only for the one CD which had all their older covers. Metallica needs to get back to their roots.

I'm not going to rag about Metallica being sell-outs. I'll simply say that creativity, originality, musical integrity...and BALLS...are lacking in this record AND in Load. Metallica have become a parody of themselves, de-evolving into [junk]. A friend of mine suggested I give a band called Dream Theater a try, the AWAKE album specifically. I haven't turned back.

Mindboggling it is to know that Metallica continues to sell millions of cds despite not having put out even a remotely fair album in over 12 years. How this cd sold over 10 million records with this alterna/country-metal is a sin...Bands like Saxon, Manowar, Deep Purple, even the L.A. Guns (yes, I did say the L.A. Guns - see 'American Hardcore') released MUCH better 'metal' albums the same year and maybe sold some 60,000 copies combined.

Truth be told -- the name METALLICA sells and still receives overexposure. Undoubedlty thee most OVERRATED band in all of metal history, nothing after Metallica's S/T album is worth purchasing. Many people have brainwashed themselves into thinking the past few Metallica albums are actually worthwhile.... This album [stinks] plain and simple. Once one of the soldiering bands for the faith of true heavy rock, now you hear Metallica on alternative radio stations sandwhiched between Foo Fighters and Blink 182 (or other Top 40 teeny bopper music) and going on tours with rap-rock bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park (they had even asked Eminem to tour but he declined, are you kidding me?). Truely Shameful. If you wana hear some GOOD Metallica, pick up Ride THe Lightning and avoid this abomination. If you want to sink your teeth into some recent solid metal, I'd simply say avoid Metallica entirely and do some homework.

ReLoad was the first taste of "new" Metallica that i listened to. Its not as bad as people make it seem, but it doesn't compare to any of their old stuff. Then again, what band does? songs such as Fuel, The Memory Remains, and Slither still show that they are heavy. altough you can clearly see they are no longer a thrash metal band, to say they've gone soft is bull. Metallica will live on forever as one of the greatest Metal bands of all time.