Do you want alternatives? Do you want this alternatives? Metallica gives you the alternative, baby! We are in the 90s and after the alternative rock boom many bands that made it big in the previous decade are trying in one way or another to stay afloat. U2 more or less devote themselves to disco. Guns N' Roses spend a quarter of a century chasing the ghost of Chinese Democracy. And Metallica? Well, they get weird. And, contrary to what many say, that wasn't a bad thing at all.
Load And ReLoadreleased in 1996 and 1997 respectively, are not strictly alternative records given that James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's riffs owe much more to the blues and Lynyrd Skynyrd than to shoegaze or the Pixies. Yet they managed to at least convey to metalheads the idea that they were, given that they made less “bad” music which even today seems like a distancing from the repertoire thanks to which they became legendary. Already col Black Album Hetfield had learned to sing and it was then that the band began to throw off the shackles of metal purism.
That more relaxed attitude helped them come up with a number of interesting ideas, most of which are now collected in the monumental box set by ReLoad composed of five LPs, a 45 rpm, 15 CDs and four DVDs dedicated to the most avant-garde Metallica of their career (at least until the meeting with Lou Reed). Twelve kilos of stuff, a time machine full of unusual things.
How much alternatives are you willing to accept from Metallica? How about an acoustic version of Last Caress by the banjo-based Misfits, with Blues Traveler's John Popper blasting harmonica solos and Hetfield's soft voice singing about bloody violence as if it were the perverse background of a small-town American barbecue? Or DJ Spooky who transforms For Whom the Bell Tolls with trip hop rhythms, illbient echoes and a reverse wah effect on Cliff Burton's historic bass line? Or Rob Overseer who overlaps the famous drum break of smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana played by Dave Grohl a Enter Sandman? And what about the mountains of photographs of the band with new haircuts, eyeliner and nail polish in CD booklets with reproductions of semen, blood and urine on them? A few years earlier, in Nothing Else MattersHetfield sang “open mind for a different view”. Even he could not imagine how far he would open his mind.
Even though many fans have always pretended to hate the albums of the period Loadthe public bought them. Load reached number one in the charts in 1996 and its more fascinating and evil twin, ReLoadrepeated the feat a year and a half later. Fans of the old guard still turn up their noses at his mention Mama Saida country-tinged sentimental ballad that was on Load. But if we manage to separate these Metallica from the thrash ones, it is clear that the spirit of the alternative movement guided them towards songs that were innovative for them, which continue to be played on rock radio even today.
Twenty-nine years later, ReLoad looks better than Load because the band took more time to broaden the sonic palette. Metallica had been working on the two albums at the same time and even hoped to release them as a double. But the start of the tour loomed: they quickly closed 14 songs and released them Load. The first listen was shocking. The best pieces were introspective (Until It Sleeps, Hero of the Day), some had a heavy step (The Outlaw Torn) or they proposed unexpected surprises (truly the tough Hetfield sang “It's time to kiss ass” in Ain't My Bitch?). The ferocity of the old days was missing. It remained a nice straight hard rock record. ReLoadhowever, showed a much more nuanced side of their transformation.
Since the punkish days Fuelwith a devastating riff built to raise fists in the arenas, ReLoad today it gives the impression of being the album of musicians fueled by anger, adrenaline and the substances they did before Some Kind of Monster. The voice of Marianne Faithfull in The Memory Remains continues to give you chills. Where the Wild Things Arewith its haunting vocal harmonies reminiscent of Alice in Chains, sounds darker than many of Metallica's heavier songs. Carpe Diem Baby it might be their best rock groove ever, embellished with a swirling bridge that sounds like a hyper-maximal version of Joni Mitchell. AND Low Man's Lyricthat delicate waltz with a heavy step accompanied by a hurdy-gurdy, today seems there Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands of Metallica, but more sad and without any lady.
As already happened with Loadcelebrated last year with an even more impressive box set, there is something superfluous here too. The Unforgiven IIwith the almost comical abuse of the articles in the line “If you can understand the me then I can understand the you”, one can hardly forgive it. The pounding riffs and growls of Devil's Danceinstead, anticipated the terrain on which generic post-nu metal bands like Godsmack and Disturbed would thrive. Attitudethen, it really lacks… attitudeespecially when the chorus asks “what happened to the sweat?”. As with many sister albums (er, Use Your Illusion of Guns N' Roses), among Load And ReLoad there are enough great songs to make a single four-and-a-half-star album, if only Metallica had trimmed the set list and immersed themselves even more in their new identity.
It is precisely this musical research that occupies center stage in the box set ReLoad. There is a sticker stuck on the cover which, like the one on the Load original which reported the duration of 78 minutes and 59 seconds (practically the maximum capacity of a CD), indicates 1697 minutes and 47 seconds, about two hours less than the box set of Load. Inside there are also brightly colored posters, Rorschach test-type blots that are so '90s, guitar picks and a hardback volume, the album artwork reproduced in large format. The photos of the four with their new looks and the comments of Bob Rock and Jason Newsted are enlightening. «After years and after having reconnected with ReLoadI continue to feel satisfied… I did what I set out to do. We did what we set out to do”, writes the bassist. Ok, but where are the comments from James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich?
Some of the best stuff can be found among the demos and rough tracks that document the moment the foursome were trying to figure out how far they could go: the ghostly choruses of the 1995 mix of Fuel for Fire (later became simply Fuel), the breathtaking vocal performances of Marianne Faithfull, the noise textures created by Hammett in the 1997 rough mix of The Memory Remainsthe almost monastic guttural chants of Skimpythe demo of Carpe Diem Babythe massive and almost Neurosis-like power of Bastard – 'Bad Seed' Riff IIthe guitar reminiscent of Robert Smith in the demo of Mine Eyes (Then Low Man's Lyric), or the way the obsession with Diamond Head and Lynyrd Skynyrd he had given birth to The Four Horsemen he ended up producing too Prince Charming.
They are collected in the four titled discs Shadowcast along with other curious finds: never-used blues solos, versions with alternative lyrics and other oddities that show how deep Metallica went during the period between the 1995 sessions for the two Load and the return to the studio in 1997. But the best of their deviations is found in the two albums entitled Poor Acoustic Mewhich include Neil Young's 1997 Bridge School Benefit performance – hear Hammett's blues solo in Last Caress – as well as some unusual acoustic performances recorded for the radio.
In the 1997 performance on KSJO radio they reinterpreted it with evident enjoyment Last Caress together with John Popper, Metallica plays with members of Alice in Chains (a year after that “friends don't let friends get friends haircuts”), with Les Claypool of Primus on banjo, Chris Isaak (obviously in Nothing Else Matters) and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd. They seem to be having fun and the whole thing is incredibly bizarre, eclectic and very 90s.
Even the rock concerts contained in the various CDs and DVDs are a testimony of that era. Thanks to the rawness of the live mixes, the experimental work done by Hammett in the pieces of Load And ReLoad finally receives the prominence it deserves (just listen The Memory Remains or Bleeding Me to capture the nuances of the guitar). And it's funny to hear Metallica mention both Mrs. Robinson is HighwayStar in the opening jam of the concert at Ministry of Sound. Their songs have always taken on a new identity on stage, and the songs of Load And ReLoad here they sound even more impressive.
You can clearly hear (and see it on the DVDs too) that the four were enthusiastic about playing the new pieces and at times almost bored during the older ones, with Hetfield even allowing himself some ironic grins. How bored were they? Enough to condense the first two albums into one Kill/Ride Medley and to give to Master of Puppets a styled haircut Friendseliminating the middle section and everything that came after. On the other hand, they enjoyed discovering new aspects of their personalities.
It didn't last long. The two albums have sold millions of copies (Load is five times platinum and ReLoad four times), but Metallica took note of the contempt of a part of the public and tried to correct the course by literally returning to their roots with Garage Inc. in 1998, reissuing old Misfits and Diamond Head covers alongside new reinterpretations of hard rock and metal classics (including Tuesday's Gonerecorded right in the KSJO studios), as well as a cover by Nick Cave. Then they arrived St. Anger in 2003, an almost definitive crisis, Rick Rubin and the thrash revival.
In the most recent albums they have progressively distanced themselves from the period of Load and in concert they almost only do it Fuel And The Memory Remains. Every now and then, however, they continue to indulge in some deviations, such as acoustic concerts or those with symphony orchestras. Listen again today ReLoad and everything that revolves around it confirms the old cliché according to which to find oneself one must first lose oneself. You can love or hate that period, but when Metallica went astray they made authentic, strange music. And so we will never hear from them again.
From Rolling Stone US.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
