Metallica

From the Source

Reload saw Metallica continue their foray into blues-tinged, slower-paced alternative rock on their 1997 seventh album. The companion piece to the previous year's Load, it secured the band another multi-platinum-selling hit and a new swathe of hard rock fans.

With Reload continuing Load's legacy of heavy, hard rock with a country or bluesy twist, the debate about Metallica's change in direction raged on amongst hardcore metal heads. But in the eye of the maelstrom, the band themselves remained unrepentant and keen to defend their right to evolve.

Kirk Hammett put it his way: 'We've started to listen to a lot of very different types of music. I got heavily into blues and jazz. Bringing in all these influences definitely changes all our ways of thinking, and that's basically why ReLoad sounds so different. We're different people now.'