Reload (stylized as ReLoad) is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on November 18, 1997, through Elektra Records in the United States and Vertigo Records internationally. The follow-up to Load (1996), the album was recorded during the same sessions as that album with producer Bob Rock. While a double album was considered, the band decided to split the material into two albums. Additional sessions for Reload took place in 1997 after Load supporting tour. Reload was Metallica's first studio album to feature a guest singer (Marianne Faithfull on "The Memory Remains") and the last studio album to feature bassist Jason Newsted.
Like its predecessor, Reload features a hard rock sound that strayed away from Metallica's thrash metal roots. The band members' influences at the time led to experimentations in styles such as blues, country, alternative rock, and grunge, and the use of instruments such as hurdy-gurdy and violin on "Low Man's Lyric". The album also features "The Unforgiven II", a sequel to 1991's "The Unforgiven". Lead singer James Hetfield's lyrics were inspired by his tormented childhood, with themes of anger and aggression present on multiple tracks. The cover artwork, like Load, is a painting by Andres Serrano, created by mixing blood and urine.
Released 17 months after Load, Reload was a commercial success, topping the charts in seven countries and debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200. It was accompanied by three singles: "The Memory Remains", "The Unforgiven II", and "Fuel". The band supported the album on the Poor Re-Touring Me tour (1998). Reload received mixed reviews from music critics; some praised the band's performances while others criticized it for a lack of innovation. Retrospective reviewers generally describe Reload as overlong and believe it and Load could have been condensed into a single album. A super deluxe reissue was released in June 2026.
Background and recording
Reload was recorded during the same sessions as Metallica's previous album, Load, at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, between May 1995 and February 1996. The sessions were produced by Bob Rock, who also produced Load and Metallica (1991). The original idea was to release Load and Reload as a double album, but problems arose with recording almost 30 songs at one time, so Metallica decided to separate the material into two different albums. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield said at the time: "Reload has all of the crappy ones [laughs] ... But really, these aren't the rejects, they're just all the songs that weren't finished when we released Load." Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett also believed a double album "would have been a lot more material for people to digest, and some of it might have gotten lost in the shuffle".
By 1994, the band members' influences extended beyond heavy metal: Hetfield took inspiration from songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave; Hammett grew interested in David Bowie's works with Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, and the blues music of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Howlin' Wolf; Newsted grew fond of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More, particularly the bass playing of the former's Flea; and Ulrich was enjoying Britpop groups such as Oasis. The initial recording sessions were productive, and the band's songwriting process became looser and more relaxed compared to previous albums. Encouraged by drummer Lars Ulrich, Hammett played rhythm guitar for the first time on a Metallica album, having previously only played lead parts while Hetfield played all rhythm parts. Hammett said this was done to achieve "a looser sound". He ultimately became more influential in the songwriting process, sharing co-writing credits with Hetfield and Ulrich on six of the final album's thirteen tracks. After being excluded from the songwriting process on Load, bassist Jason Newsted received a co-writing credit on "Where the Wild Things Are" for writing the music.
After Load release in June 1996, Metallica embarked on the Poor Touring Me tour in support of the album from September 1996 to May 1997. At the end of the tour, the band announced its follow-up, Reload, to be released in November. Additional sessions for Reload occurred between July and October 1997, during which the band re-did guitar parts and added additional overdubs and vocals. Due to tight deadlines, work was split between three rooms at The Plant: guitars and vocals were recorded in one room, while Newsted overdubbed bass in another and Ulrich tweaked his drum parts in a third.
The band members felt a new sense of maturity during these sessions, particularly after Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich's marriages. They continued the experimentation they began on Load. Under the guidance of Faith No More's Jim Martin, Hetfield hired the musician David Miles to play hurdy-gurdy on "Low Man's Lyric", while assistant recording engineer Bernardo Bigalli added violin to the track. Ulrich explained: "It's in the same vein as [the Load track] 'Mama Said', which had kind of a country feel." Hammett added various guitar effects using different pedals, such as ones by Electro-Harmonix and Roland Corporation on "Prince Charming" and a DigiTech Whammy on "Devil's Dance". He also utilized wah-wah effects throughout Reload, particularly on "Where the Wild Things Are".
Reload marked Metallica's first album to feature a guest vocalist, with Marianne Faithfull appearing on the track "The Memory Remains". It is the only song in Metallica's discography, apart from Lulu, the band's 2011 collaboration with Lou Reed, in which Hetfield shares lead vocals with a guest. Faithfull was contacted by the band at Rock's recommendation. Other singers reportedly considered included Carly Simon, Patti Smith, and Joni Mitchell, although Hetfield and Ulrich said that Faithfull was their only choice. Ulrich said: "We needed someone charismatic, someone ... weathered in every possible way." Faithfull recorded her vocals for the song, reportedly while intoxicated, on August 21, 1997, at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland, during the band's stop there en route to three festival dates in Europe.
Reload was Metallica's final studio album to feature Newsted, who departed the band in January 2001 for "private and personal reasons". Since 1995, he had been collaborating with different artists and recording material at his own studio, The Chophouse, which Hetfield disliked. In 2000, while the other band members were spending time with their families, he had formed the group Echobrain and intended to release music with them, which Hetfield forbade. Newsted, amidst years of growing resentment, felt trapped in his role in Metallica and decided to leave. In later interviews, Hetfield and Ulrich felt Newsted remained isolated from the other members during his tenure in the band and never got close to them.
Composition Music
Like its predecessor, Reload continued Metallica's stylistic departure from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound. Speaking in 1997, Ulrich commented that "As far as I'm concerned, you can take any of these songs and interchange them on the two albums." The authors Joel McIver and Paul Stenning argue that with Load and Reload, Metallica recognized and adapted to a changing music scene, compared to other metal bands such as Slayer, who stuck to their formula.
Primarily a hard rock and heavy metal album, Reload features experimentations with blues, psychedelia, country, Southern rock, alternative rock, and grunge. Reviewers have described the music as being riff-heavy, with emphasis on rhythm and melodic rock 'n' roll. Metallica had listed several artists and bands they were inspired by while writing Load and Reload that took them away from their thrash roots, including Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, Ted Nugent, Oasis, and Alanis Morissette, among others. Other influences by 1970s hard rock bands such as Led Zeppelin and AC/DC can be heard on songs such as "Slither" and "Bad Seed". Newsted believed that "Fixxxer" is "what Black Sabbath would have sounded like if they stayed together in October 1997".
Reload features Metallica's first sequel song, "The Unforgiven II", the follow-up to "The Unforgiven" from Metallica (1991). Hetfield and Ulrich came up with the idea to record a sequel as a means of doing something they had not done before. Hetfield had purchased a new Fender Telecaster guitar with a B-Bender and began playing "The Unforgiven" riff, believing it "sounded new enough. So I thought, 'Fuck. This could be another song. Well, should we hide the fact that it's 'Unforgiven?' No, let's just make it a continuation." Compared to the original, "The Unforgiven II" replaces the Spaghetti Western-style intricacies with "a sense of real emotion". The band later recorded a third song, "The Unforgiven III", for their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic (2008).
According to McIver, allowing Hammett to play rhythm guitar led to a looser, less "metal" and more "rock" sound, a result of Hetfield's growing maturity and the band's "desire to move forward". Hetfield and Hammett's dual rhythm guitar roles are prominent throughout the album, particularly on "Carpe Diem Baby". Hammett's guitar solo on "Better than You" features double stops, a style the guitarist had used prominently during the 1980s. Hammett said he played it this way for a fan who had confronted him about it in 1994.
Lyrics Hetfield's lyrics throughout Reload were heavily inspired by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; the group's name is alluded to in the title of "Bad Seed". Hetfield's tormented childhood inspired several lyrics, with the author Benoît Clerc believing the "bad seed" in the aforementioned song referred to the days of the singer's youth when fights were a daily occurrence; anger and aggression are prominent themes on songs like "Attitude". Hetfield himself said in 1997: "I think anger and aggression are just part of our personalities. ... It was never put on so you can't just take it off. Life is much easier for us now than it was ten years ago, [but] there are still things in my past that still piss me off. ... I don't think those initial feelings will ever go away." "Where the Wild Things Are", named after the 1963 children's book of the same name, similarly recalls childhood traumas.
The opening track, "Fuel", is a hymn to fast cars, mainly inspired by Hetfield's love of custom cars. "The Memory Remains" is about a fading Hollywood star, partly inspired by the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. "Devil's Dance" features a character being possessed by the Devil and forced to dance. "The Unforgiven II" contains lyrics about battles won, lost, or thrown away. Whereas "The Unforgiven" was sung as a narrative, "II" is sung in a first-person perspective. The main character sings to a female counterpart, both of whom have undergone serious trauma. "Low Man's Lyric" is a ballad about a homeless man expressing frustrations at the world, while "Prince Charming" is told from the perspective of a malevolent character in multiple unpleasant scenarios. In "Fixxxer", the narrator is a voodoo doll, desperately asking its torturer to stop torturing them.
Artwork and packaging