Reload

Reload is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on November 18, 1997 through Elektra Records. It is a sequel or counterpart to the band's previous album, Load, and also the final Metallica album of the 20th century and the last Metallica album to feature Jason Newsted. Reload debuted #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 436,000 copies in its first week. To date, Reload has sold a little more than 4 million copies in the United States and is currently certified 4× platinum by the RIAA.

Almost all of the professional review were generally satisfying. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the record as "worthwhile", noting the influence of the heavy Southern rock. He didn't approve the idea of doing the sequel "The Unforgiven II", but praised the collaboration with Marianne Faithfull on the second track "The Memory Remains". He called the song "Where the Wild Things Are" a "eerie menace that Metallica never achieved on Load".

Dan Snierson from Entertainment Weekly said that Reload "continues Metallica's journey into stripped-down maturity while toying with fresh melodic textures" and "also forsakes some of the punchy hooks and gut-clenching heft that elevated recent Metallica CDs".

Lorraine Ali of Rolling Stone wrote that the album's musical direction is "strongly rooted in the group's apocalyptic metal sound" despite some of the songs being influenced by the "bluesy rock & roll". She called Metallica's Reload "not one of their greats", but also named it and "Load" "steppingstones in the ongoing Metallica legacy".

Music critic Piero Scaruffi concluded that with this effort "Metallica seem to have reached a point of saturation". Furthermore, he described the songs "Slither" and "Bad Seed" as "quotes of past Metallica classics". Scaruffi also offered an opinion on "Fuel" and "The Memory Remains", qualifying them as "the leftovers highlight". On the other hand, monthly magazine Musician stated that the album is "greasy, driving, full of fat grooves, lyric and rhythmic hooks, and sonic curveballs". They felt it "captures one of rock's greatest bands at its peak".

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by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Metallica recorded so much material for Load -- their first album in five years -- that they had to leave many songs unfinished, otherwise they would have missed their deadline. During the supporting tour for Load, they continued to work on the unfinished material, as well as write new songs, and they soon had enough material for a new album, Reload. The title suggests that Reload simply is a retread of its predecessor, and in many ways that's correct -- there's still too much bone-headed, heavy Southern rock for it to be anything other than the sequel to Load -- but there's enough left curves to make it a better record. Marianne Faithfull's backing vocals on "The Memory Remains" complement the weird, uneasy melody, and "Where the Wild Things Are" has an eerie menace that Metallica never achieved on Load. There are also a couple of ballads and country-rockers that don't work quite so well (it's never a good idea to have an explicit sequel, as on "The Unforgiven II"), and that, along with a few plodding Metallica-by-numbers, is what keeps Reload from being a full success. Still, the towering closer, "Fixxxer," along with handful of cuts that successfully push the outer edges of Metallica's sound, make the record worthwhile.