| January 1998
by Steven R. Rochlin
"What I've felt,
what I've known Y E A H ! ! ! Ok, so some of this album is hit n' miss, yet my life would kind of feel incomplete without it. The vinyl is fairly quiet, and my pressing is flat. It's a gatefold two-record set and would fit nicely in any Metallica fan's collection. The main reason why I'm givin' it only three stars is the hit n' miss songs. Averaged them out and there you go. Some songs are five stars whereas others are, maybe, two stars. It was tough to really put a stars rating here when some songs rule and others bite. Is this album recommended? Well, maybe at $10-11 though not at $16 USD for us poor folks. This way you don't feel ripped off because of a few misses on it. GO BACK TO: |
Metallica - Reload
![[Reviewed on Vinyl]](../format/vinyl.gif)
First I must say a most humble thanks to my
UK friend Gareth who sent me all the old Metallica stuff
many months ago, like Metallica's 1983 release of Kill
'Em All, 1984's Ride the Lightning, and 1986's
Master of Puppets on 45 RPM UK vinyl. If you're a
true Metallica fan, may I humbly suggest that you hunt
these down. With that said let's talk about their latest
release, ReLoad. Wasn't too thrilled with Load,
though while shopping for new music my eyes saw their new
album on vinyl staring me in the face. Like a junkie
looking for his next fix, I bought it. This album is
possibly what happened to Rush as they became more, um,
mainstream. More synthesizers, more studio effects, and
more, well, production work. Is this a good thing to
happen to Metallica as it did Rush? Well...maybe, maybe
not. This new release, which is on the charts, should've
been Load and the first Load should've
almost never happened in my humble opinion. ReLoad
seems to have that long-desired Metallica edge, and just
one listen to "The Memory Remains" will bring
this to light. As this song starts to play, I can't help
but turn the volume to twelve and rock my head back and
forth as Metallica's special kind of metal tunes fill the
room. Unfortunately it's followed by some overproduced
song called "Devil's Dance" which doesn't yank
at my chain. It's as if the edge went home and now came
some more refined yet untrue music to a diehard Metallica
fan like me. (As I begin to scream like James Hetfield)
You know it's sad but true!!! My feelings are mixed about
the song "Fuel." Maybe it's a more personal
thing here? Many of my friends have asked me about the
song "Unforgiven II" and here's the dope on it.
As Metallica fans know "Unforgiven" is the
mantra many of us live during parts of our lives.
"Unforgiven" is raw, slow thrash metal at some
of its best! Well, "Unforgiven II" starts out
just like the first version on the black 1991 self-titled
album "Metallica," yet it immediately breaks
into their special kind of slow full-force jam which then
mellows out to something so raw and angry that I couldn't
help but have the feeling of wanting to totally trash my
listening room followed by destroying the rest of my
humble abode. Does this make sense? You Metallica fans
know where it's at here.