While METALLICA’s Load and Reload era remains one of the most divisive periods in their discography, guitarist Kirk Hammett recently expressed his openness to revisiting that sound.
During a recent episode of the “Rolling Stone Music Now”, he reflected on the album’s bluesy, groove-driven style and hinted that he wouldn’t mind crafting another record in a similar vein.
Could fans see a return to the Load era’s bold musical direction? Here’s what Hammett had to say (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Yeah, who knows? We might just say, ‘Okay, let’s go back to the ’90s again.’ It’s not a bad idea. We haven’t said that to each other yet. And it’s interesting because when Load and Reload came out, there was a lot of derision, there was a lot of backlash. It was too much change.
“We changed our appearance, we changed our sound, we changed the way we recorded,” he continued. “I was even playing different guitars and f**king tuning to E flat and listening to a lot of blues and jazz. And so all those factors came out on Load and Reload to make what Load and Reload are, and Load and Reload are so different from anything that came before it. It’s interesting, ’cause nowadays I run into fans and they love that era — they love Load and Reload. But when those albums first came out, it was, like, ‘F**k Load. F**k Reload. F**k METALLICA.’ But nowadays we play ‘Fuel’ and people go nuts.”
“ When I was a teenager, I listened to all the [LED] ZEPPELIN albums except [Led] Zeppelin III, because it was more acoustic and I just wanted the high-energy, aggressive stuff, ’cause that’s what I’d like when I was a kid. But over time, I really came to embrace Zeppelin III and how wonderful it is. And now I f**king fully understand it and its place in ZEPPELIN‘s catalog. And I think a similar theme kind of happened with Load and Reload. After people got over the initial shock and the challenge, people kind of sat down and gave an honest listen and said, ‘Oh, it’s not really that bad at the end of the day.’
When the interviewer suggested METALLICA‘s image, specifically their nail polish and short hair, influenced album perception more than the music itself, Kirk responded: “One of the reasons why I cut my hair, bro, is ’cause I didn’t think I looked good with long hair when I wore a suit jacket. So I cut my hair so I looked better when I wore a suit jacket. I swear to God. That was one of the only reasons. There wasn’t like any fricking huge thing. I showed up and I cut my hair. Then literally the next day, Lars cut his hair, because he was already thinking about it. And so James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] saw that Lars and I cut our hair and he f**king went for it. It just seemed like a cool, kind of nice change. And [then-METALLICA bassist] Jason Newsted already had short hair by that point.”
Source: metaladdicts.com
