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Rating:
6.0 |
Metallica - Re-Load
18 November 1997
01. Fuel
02. The Memory Remains [feat. Marianne Faithfull]
03. Devil's Dance
04. The Unforgiven II
05. Better Than You
06. Slither
07. Carpe Diem Baby
08. Bad Seed
09. Where The Wild Things Are
10. Prince Charming
11. Low Man's Lyric [feat. Bernardo Bigalli & David Miles]
12. Attitude
13. Fixxxer
ReLoad is Metallica's second experimental album and it's meant to be the ideal follow up to Load. But I consider them as twins, as an only double cd, since these two albums have the same sound, similiar covers, identical artwork and even similiar disposition of the tracks. So I suggest you to read my review of Load before going any further.
The opening single 'Fuel' has become a true classic. I think it's Metallica's most innovative song: speed riffs, impeccable guitar work, excellent backing vocals, powerful chorus and amazing drums [I believe it's the funniest Metallica song to play for a drummer!]. Lyrics deal with high speed, fuel, fire, gasoline, engines, adrenaline. The videoclip for this song is outstanding! If the whole album was made of songs like this, I'd rate it 10/10. Unfortunately, we have to skip tracks now. The single 'The Memory Remains' could be a nice bluesy song, but it's ruined by Marianne Faithfull's awful vocals! Why so a stupid endless boring melody? A nice senseless videoclip has been filmed for this one. What a pity. The third track has a slow evil rhythm and great demoniac effects: Kirk's guitar sounds like a howling cat! Really good.
On the following track, a familiar horn intro brings us 6 years back: another 'Unforgiven'! This single is one of my favourite songs of all time. As Ronnie, this one is played on a special Fender Telecaster that gives it an amazing sound. All guitars are perfectly harmonized and effected. As in the first 'Unforgiven', there are some strings before the chorus. 'The Unforgiven II' shares some elements with the first version: the horn intro, the main guitar melody [now in the background] and the lines "What I've felt, what I've known", "So I dub thee unforgiven", "Never free, never me". But it is totally different from 'The Unforgiven': it has a different mood, it is more open, it is a true heavy ballad. It is not better and not worse than the first chapter: just different. Once again the video is evocative. I love both of them.
The following tracks are boring and a bit empty: good ideas, great melodies, new territories explored, but excessive length. As in Load, the tenth track is aggressive: 'Prince Charming' sounds heavy but it is obviously inspired by Motorhead's 'Stone Dead Forever'. Together with 'Mama Said', 'Low Man's Lyric' is Metallica's slowest and quietest song. I personally love it: outstanding vocal harmonizations, good melodies, excellent lyrics. You can even hear a violin and a cello! This song is just too long and it seems like it should never end.
The following track is similiar to 'Prince Charming': aggressive, catchy and a bit too long. As in Load, the final track is an experimental and mature piece, with dark lyrics, great sound effects, powerful chorus and unusual structure: one of the best on the album.
Finally, if you liked Load, you will like ReLoad: James' vocals are still amazing and the choruses are melodic and catchy. Vocals have never been harmonized so well. But if you're one of those who hate Load, forget about this second experiment.
written by The Silent Man | 22.09.2003 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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Comments
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| This album is the point in Metallica's career where they experimented with hard rock. Oh boy! Now they talk about cars and racing! That's so awesome. Yawn. Just like "Load (of Crap)", "ReLoad (of Crap)" is a failed experiment and further selloutery by Metallica. If I reviewed this album, I would give it a 2. I'm sorry about this, Silent Man, but I hate this album. |
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Mordack - 03.09.2006 at 04:58
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| Half of it is great, half is filler. |
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| The only song that I like on this album is Fuel. The others are generic and commercial. This is my least favorite Metallica album, and that's saying a lot because St. Anger is a massive piece of shit. |
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Written by Dangerboner on 03.09.2006 at 05:04
The only song that I like on this album is Fuel. The others are generic and commercial. This is my least favorite Metallica album, and that's saying a lot because St. Anger is a massive piece of shit.
my own words... |
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| Fuel is the only interesting song here. Great though. |
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| also my least fav Metallica album, but not at all bad. 'Fuel', 'The Memory Remains', 'Better Than You', 'Bad Seed', 'Prince Charming', 'Attitude' and 'Fixxxer' are great songs. 'Carpe Diem Baby' and 'Devil's Dance' are allwright. The cover 'Slither' and 'Low man's lyric' are average. 'The Unforgiven II' I just don't like it and 'Where The Wild Things Are' is not good at all. Overall a nice album, but I expected more. |
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Well, to me ReLoad was the first Metallica album I got, I only knew a couple of their classic song before this and I gotta say therefore it has a special meaning for me. LOL, I was reading my diary that I wrote when I was 12 and I found it written when I got this album.
I personally very much enjoy it and would rate it same as Load, 8/10, but I still like it a bit more, as I said, for personal reasons. It's true as @The Silent Man written, first four tracks and Low Man's Lyrics are the best tracks on this album, Fuel being definately the catchiest song Metallica has ever made, full of adrenaline. I also love the riff in Devil's Dance, it really gives you the feeling of hearing Devil's footsteps. The rest of the album is then again a solid hard rock jounrey, Carpe Diem Baby being among the best there. |
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| I was reading this review first, but I find this advice about not going any further, so hopefully I found the review of Load only a couple of threads down. It's true that this album is very similar to Load, but Load has better songs, for me Fuel and The Unforgiven II are the only really good songs of this one, the rest is good but filler. |
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Written by Guest on 03.09.2006 at 04:58
Half of it is great, half is filler.
I totally agree with you. Good point.:thumbup: |
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| I guess among the best albums in metal world if we take lyrics. |
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ThrashMetal_Rulz - 02.03.2007 at 01:44
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| It's even worse then Load and St. Anger, and that's saying something. |
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| I personally find ReLoad better than Load mainly due to having Fixxxer in it. That song is something totally out of the ordinary, an awesome work all around. ReLoad is another heavily underrated masterpiece due to not being 'tr00 m3t4l'. Metallica changed, end of the story. |
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Average album, Metallica's worst. Has had a great impact on me as a young Metalhead, but this sure isn't an album I listen to reguraly.  |
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| Fuel's teh onyl good sogn in this album |
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THE_BLACK_GOD - 18.04.2008 at 11:05
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Written by AnGina-- on 09.01.2007 at 20:27
Well, to me ReLoad was the first Metallica album I got, I only knew a couple of their classic song before this and I gotta say therefore it has a special meaning for me. LOL, I was reading my diary that I wrote when I was 12 and I found it written when I got this album.
I personally very much enjoy it and would rate it same as Load, 8/10, but I still like it a bit more, as I said, for personal reasons. It's true as @The Silent Man written, first four tracks and Low Man's Lyrics are the best tracks on this album, Fuel being definately the catchiest song Metallica has ever made, full of adrenaline. I also love the riff in Devil's Dance, it really gives you the feeling of hearing Devil's footsteps. The rest of the album is then again a solid hard rock jounrey, Carpe Diem Baby being among the best there.
agree with u about the album its good cause its good.i think if they had released an album like kill 'em all
at that time, they would lose a fan like u 
9 for me |
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Written by AnGina-- on 09.01.2007 at 20:27
Carpe Diem Baby being among the best there.
Totally agreed. I always bang my head when listen this song (eventually in the middle part). I don't know why, but IMO this song is great and great and great....  |
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| Not a great release, is hard to find someone who likes the whole album, you have to pick good songs. I think Metallica was trying to play without thinking what they did before and the result was Load and Reload. The Memory Remain, The Unforgiven II and Fixxxer my favorites, but this album is lacking of passion. |
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I really like this one, my first metallica album
much better then load imo |
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| Maybe it is not bad album. Maybe better than Load. There are some good songs. But the sound is like "retro-rock". Music now is not actual. I dont like Fuel now but i liked recently Prince Charming for its rock-n-roll rhymes. |
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| Got this and Load recently (yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to Metallica) and, if I'm honest, there are only three songs I would recommend (and one is because I like the other two with the same name): Fuel (which, frankly, is a bit of a unappreciated classic these days), The Memory Remains (except for Marianne Faithful's bit, although I thought it was Hetfield singing strangely at first) and The Unforgiven II. Otherwise, not particularly interesting overall, which is a shame, as the experimental sound is fairly good. It's not dreadful, but it isn't great either (and this is from a guy who listens to rock, country and folk when not listening to metal or singing, so it isn't the sound of the album that puts me off it). I'd say roughly a 5.5 or 6 out of 10 for this album. |
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"Finally, if you liked Load, you will like ReLoad"
Nope, I quite like Load, but find this to be very poor. The first four songs and Prince Charming are all good, but everything else is dull as could be. |
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"Load" and "Reload" were recorded when Metallica thought that they were the biggest band on the planet. So they had no humility to admit that some songs shouldn't be released. Instead of making one very good album, they made two, not so great.
If I were them at the time I'd choose the following and make them into 1 album:
Ain't My Bitch
Bleeding Me
Wasting My Hate
The Outlaw Torn
Until It Sleeps
Cure
Fuel
The Memory Remains
Carpe Diem Baby
Prince Charming
Fixxxer
It would be so much better! |
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Written by Daniell on 04.08.2011 at 12:05
Instead of making one very good album, they made two, not so great.
If I were them at the time I'd choose the following and make them into 1 album:
I guess I'm one of the few here that really likes Unforgiven II, mainly because it was one of the first metal (or rock, whatever they played here) songs I've heard in my life which I liked very much. Other than that, I agree with the idea of just making one album of those songs. |
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Unforgiven II isn't terrible, but the songs I mentioned are much better to my ears, hence the omission of Unforgiven. Unforgiven III however, is really bad  |
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| Can't argue about that |
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| The original Unforgiven was already quite bad to be honest. |
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Cuca Beludo - 14.01.2012 at 22:09
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Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 04.08.2011 at 15:51
The original Unforgiven was already quite bad to be honest.
I must disagree. The original Unforgiven is great, as "the black album" itself. |
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Written by Guest on 14.01.2012 at 22:09
I must disagree. The original Unforgiven is great, as "the black album" itself.
I believe you just further proved Marcel's point. |
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| Yep he did cause the self titled album was really bad except for its production. |
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