According to drummer Lars Ulrich: "This album and what we're doing with it - that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things. The minute you stop exploring, then just sit down and fucking die."
Musical style
Released approximately five years after the international smash success, Metallica, Load saw the band embrace a collective sound and identity closer to traditional heavy metal and different from their thrash metal roots. As on previous releases, the fourteen songs that would eventually make up the album began as rough demos created by principal songwriters James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in Ulrich's basement recording studio, "The Dungeon." The band took over 30 demos into The Plant Studios in the spring of 1995 where they would work for approximately the next year. Once again, Metallica teamed up with famed producer Bob Rock, who had been at the helm during the recording process for Metallica.
The songwriting dispenses almost entirely with the thrash metal style that characterized the band's sound in the 1980s. In place of staccato riffs, Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett experimented with more blues-based tones and styles. Additionally, Ulrich adopted a minimalist approach to his drum recording, abandoning the speed and complex double bass patterns of previous albums. Hetfield displayed a lyrical evolution as well, writing what many feel to be his most personal and introspective lyrics. "Until it Sleeps," the album's lead single, addressed his mother's losing battle with cancer, and "Mama Said" also explored his relationship with her. All of this marked a departure from the political and social overtones of albums like ...And Justice for All and Master of Puppets.
At 78:59 minutes, this is Metallica's longest studio album. Initial pressings of the album were affixed with stickers that boasted its long playtime, simply reading "78:59."
"The Outlaw Torn" had to be shortened by about one minute to fit on the album. The full version was released on a single for "The Memory Remains" as "The Outlaw Torn (Unencumbered by Manufacturing Restrictions Version)" with a running time of 10:48. An explanation was given on the single's back cover:
When we were doing the final sequencing of the 'LOAD' album, the record company told us that we couldn't go a second past 78:59, or your CD's wouldn't play without potentially skipping. With our 14 songs, we were running about 30 seconds over, and something had to give, so the cool-ass jam at the end of 'Outlaw' got chopped (ARRRGGGHHH!!).
This was the only Metallica studio album on which the band's bassist (Jason Newsted for this album) did not have a writing credit. It was also their first album for all tracks to be down tuned to Eb standard; they had, however, previously tuned down to drop D on "The Thing That Should Not Be" from Master of Puppets and "Sad But True" on The Black Album and down to Eb standard on "The God That Failed" (also from The Black Album) and some covers including the Motörhead songs recorded before Load.
The Australian CD release of Load includes a bonus interview CD which is unavailable elsewhere.
Visual style
The cover of the album is original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III." It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas.
Load also marked the first appearance of a new Metallica logo, rounding off the stabbing edges of the first and last letters of the band's earlier 1980s logo. The M from the original logo was used to make a shuriken-like symbol known as the "ninja star" which was used as an alternate logo on this and future albums as well as other related artwork.
The album featured an expansive booklet which contained extensive photography by Anton Corbijn, best known for his work with U2 and Depeche Mode. These photos depicted the band in various dress including white A-shirts with suspenders, Cuban suits, and gothic. The booklet only contained select lyrics from each song in contrast to Metallica's previous studio albums which included complete song lyrics. Additionally, the interior artwork revolved around images of inkblots, a theme which would carry over to ReLoad and the covers for the singles released from the two albums.
