Maps of Music

Reload (1997)

Where the lyrics of Reload take you, and where it was really made.

Reload began as a plan for a double album, but the band split the same sessions into two separate records.

Key places

Recording sessions at The Plant Studios (1997)

Recording site Record Plant — Load and Reload were recorded here during the same sessions, between May 1995 and February 1996. Overdubs and extra sessions followed in 1997. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Faithfull's vocals in Dublin (1997)

Recording site Windmill Lane Studios — Marianne Faithfull recorded her vocals for The Memory Remains here on August 21, 1997, during the band's stop in Dublin on the way to three European festival dates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Reload (stylized as ReLoad): seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica
• Released November 18, 1997, through Elektra Records in the US and Vertigo Records internationally
• Follow-up to Load (1996), recorded in the same sessions with producer Bob Rock
• Began as a double album idea; the band decided to split the material into two albums
• Metallica's first studio album with a guest singer: Marianne Faithfull on "The Memory Remains"
• Last studio album featuring bassist Jason Newsted
• Includes "The Unforgiven II", a sequel to "The Unforgiven" from 1991

Background

• Continues the stylistic move away from thrash metal toward a hard rock sound, as Load did
• Released 17 months after Load, following the Poor Touring Me tour (September 1996 to May 1997)
• Additional sessions held July to October 1997, with guitar parts redone and overdubs and vocals added
• Band members felt a new sense of maturity during these sessions, especially after the marriages of Hetfield and Ulrich
• Hammett played rhythm guitar for the first time on a Metallica album, encouraged by Ulrich
• Newsted left the band in January 2001 for private and personal reasons

Recording

• Recorded at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, between May 1995 and February 1996
• Produced by Bob Rock, who also produced Load and Metallica (1991)
• Work split across three rooms at The Plant because of tight deadlines: guitars and vocals, Newsted's bass overdubs, and Ulrich's drum tweaks
• Hurdy-gurdy on "Low Man's Lyric" played by David Miles; violin added by Bernardo Bigalli
• Faithfull's vocals recorded on August 21, 1997, at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland

Cover

• Painting by New York artist Andres Serrano, titled Piss and Blood, made from a mixture of blood and urine
• Part of Serrano's Bodily Fluids series, paired with the Load cover
• Hetfield disliked the artwork, while Ulrich and Hammett were fans of Serrano's work

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, later based in San Francisco for most of its career.
• Founded as one of the "big four" of thrash metal alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.

Members

• Current lineup: Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.
• Former members include Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted and Dave Mustaine.

Career

• Commercial breakthrough with Master of Puppets (1986), often cited as one of the best metal albums of all time.
• The self-titled 1991 album moved the band toward a more mainstream audience and became its best-selling record.
• Returned to thrash roots with Death Magnetic (2008) and released 72 Seasons in 2023.
• Led the lawsuit against Napster in 2000.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
• Sold more than 163 million albums worldwide as of 2023.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Billboard's Paul Verna described Reload as "darker, more immediate, and more rough-edged than its predecessor"
• USA Today's Edna Gundersen wrote that the songs "stack up against Load's mother lode of rock riches"
• Rolling Stone's Lorraine Ali said Reload was not Metallica's best but named it and Load as stepping stones in the band's legacy
• Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune believed the two albums could have been combined into one great album
• Kot wrote that Hetfield turns in the most varied and nuanced performances of his career
• Musician magazine felt the album captures one of rock's greatest bands at its peak
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that songs such as "Fixxxer" pushed the edges of the band's sound, but filler tracks prevented a full success
• Calgary Herald's James Muretich said the band had become very much like the metal world's version of ZZ Top
• The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins said the songs otherwise came as no great surprise

Reappraisal

• Retrospective reviewers generally describe Reload as overlong and believe it and Load could have been condensed into one album
• Mick Wall calls Reload the nadir of Metallica's recording career in his 2012 biography Enter Night
• Joel McIver believed Reload was pure mediocrity and worse than Load
• Malcolm Dome argues both albums share the same strengths and weaknesses
• Metal Hammer included Reload in its 2020 list of the top 10 albums of 1997

Records

• Debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 436,000 units in its first week
• Remained on the Billboard 200 for 75 weeks
• Number one in Austria, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden
• Number two in Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Hungary
• Certified 4× platinum by the RIAA in 2025 for four million copies shipped in the US
• "The Memory Remains" reached number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100
• "Better than You" won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999
• Won a California Music Award for Outstanding Hard Rock Album in March 1999

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Faithfull was contacted by the band at Bob Rock's recommendation, and she reportedly recorded her vocals while intoxicated.
• Other singers reportedly considered for the guest vocal included Carly Simon, Patti Smith, and Joni Mitchell.
• Hammett co-wrote six of the album's thirteen tracks, becoming more influential in the songwriting process.
• The video for "The Memory Remains" was shot at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles in October 1997 and cost more than $400,000.
• Hetfield's tormented childhood inspired several lyrics, and "Where the Wild Things Are" recalls childhood traumas.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact