Album · Metallica
Load by Metallica
Load is an album by Metallica, released in 1996. 6 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 106 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Until It Sleeps”, on 45 lists with a best position of #17.
Load, Metallica's sixth studio album, hit on June 4, 1996 through Elektra in the US and Vertigo overseas, and it's the sound of the thrash kings cutting their hair and loosening their belts. Bob Rock came back to produce after the band's self-titled 1991 album, and the loose, mostly Sausalito sessions ran from May 1995 to April 1996 and turned up almost 30 songs, split in two rather than issued as a double: the rest became Reload.
This is hard rock with dust on its boots: Southern rock, blues and country twang, alternative crunch and grunge murk, with Kirk Hammett playing rhythm guitar for the first time and James Hetfield singing his most personal, troubled lyrics yet. "Until It Sleeps" became the band's only US Top 10 single, and "Hero of the Day", "Mama Said" and "King Nothing" followed it as singles. The short hair and make-up rankled plenty of fans and the reviews were mixed, but it spent four straight weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and went 5x platinum.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Load on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Until It Sleeps | 45 | #17 | – | 1996–2026 | |
| 2 | King Nothing | 26 | #2 | – | 1997–2026 | |
| 3 | Hero of the Day | 24 | #8 | – | 1996–2022 | |
| 4 | Aint My Bitch | 5 | #9 | – | 1997–2002 | |
| 5 | Bleeding Me | 3 | #4 | – | 1997–2002 | |
| 6 | Hero of the Day (live) | 3 | #46 | – | 1999–2000 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.