ReLoad is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released November 18 1997. The album is a direct sequel or counterpart to the band's previous album, Load. Drummer Lars Ulrich states that: "it's the second half of Load. It's just coming out a year-and-a-half later."

To date, the album has sold over 3 million copies in the US,and is certified Gold in the UK, having sold over 100,000 copies.

History

The album consists of material originally written during the writing sessions for the band's previous album, Load. According to drummer Lars Ulrich, the band had initially hoped to release the Load & ReLoad songs as a double album:

We wrote 27 songs for Load and were developing it as a double album. We then got the offer January 1996 to play Lollapalooza summer and 1 we 2 put one record out now with most of the songs that are done and then we 3 come back after a year and finish the rest of them. As far as I'm concerned, you can take any of these songs and interchange them on the two albums. The only fear we had was getting to it quick. We didn't want to leave it lying around for three years and worry about what it would sound like when we came back to it.

ReLoad shares similar artwork with Load - the latter uses Andres Serrano's Blood and Semen III while ReLoad uses his Piss and Blood.

In addition to heavy grooves like "Fuel" and "Devil's Dance," ReLoad continues the experimentation seen on Load, with the use of violin and hurdy gurdy on "Low Man's Lyric" and Marianne Faithfull's haunting vocals on "The Memory Remains." It also contains a sequel of sorts in "The Unforgiven II," referencing a single from 1991's Metallica.

The cover of the album is original artwork depicting urine and blood. It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own urine and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas. As with Load, ReLoad included a booklet containing band photos and select lyrics for each song.

ReLoad would mark the end of a brief, blues-influenced chapter of Metallica. They would again reinvent themselves with St. Anger, Metallica's first studio album in six years. The delay would be brought on by various circumstances such as Hetfield's entrance into rehab and the departure of Jason Newsted from the band in 2001.

Reception

Professional reviews:

• Rolling Stone (12/11/97, pp.75-76) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...more influenced by bluesy rock & roll than by any '90s trend....strongly rooted in the group's apocalyptic metal sound....The biggest change is an increased emphasis on rhythm."