UYI I & II vs. Load & Reload

[Fashionista]

Which is the stronger double set?

[Sosso]

UYI I & II. Load and Reload were pretty average albums. 

Edited July 9, 2018 by Sosso

[soon]

I think Guns benefited from having multiple song writers branching off in various directions leading up to UYI, whereas Metallica made a specific choice to branch off with the same songwriting team having to find that new sound (even though Hammet and Newstead probably contributed the most they aver did to those).

Both sets could arguably be condensed to one album, but they're just their own animals and it all works.

[Towelie]

UYI and it's not even close.

[Basic_GnR_Fan]

I would say UYI by a good margin, but only because ReLoad is by far the weakest of the 4. I do think highly of Load. I love the fact that Metallica branched out and experimented and I also think Bleeding Me is among their strongest songs they've ever done. 

[Fashionista]

If you cut Load & ReLoad into one record you have an awesome record. These songs:

Bleeding Me
Devil's Dance
Ain't My Bitch

Until It Sleeps
2 X 4

Hero of the Day

Wasting My Hate

Outlaw Torn

Fuel

Low Man's Lyric
Attitude

Bad Seed
 

[metallex78]

I voted UYI, but Load & Reload are pretty damn great too. Both sets of albums show both bands stepping outside of their comfort zones musically. Guns probably moreso than Metallica. 

Load/Reload sticks mainly to blues based hard rock, while UYI has punk, metal, country, stadium sized ballads and all out arena rock. 

[Towelie]

3 hours ago, Fashionista said:

If you cut Load & ReLoad into one record you have an awesome record. These songs:

Bleeding Me
Devil's Dance
Ain't My Bitch

Until It Sleeps
2 X 4

Hero of the Day

Wasting My Hate

Outlaw Torn

Fuel

Low Man's Lyric
Attitude

Bad Seed
 

Y'see, that's why this stuff never works, cuz you've not mentioned two of the songs I consider strongest on the albums, King Nothing and Fixxxer. 

[metallex78]

44 minutes ago, Towelie said:

Y'see, that's why this stuff never works, cuz you've not mentioned two of the songs I consider strongest on the albums, King Nothing and Fixxxer. 

King Nothing has killer groove, and Fixxxer is just epic awesomeness 

[Fashionista]

Both the UYI and Load should've just been double albums.

[DieselDaisy]

Even if I placed my most decorous Metallica hat upon my head I'd still say Illusion and I like Load and have often criticised Illusion, but Illusion is still somewhat representative of Guns at their prime whereas Metallica had well and truly entered their middle aged flabby ''what do we do now?'' stage when the Loads arrived. 

[action]

the illusions are some of my most loved albums out there, period. Tracks like "you could be mine" and "knocking on heaven's door" managed to shape 10 year old me forever. Especially the latter which, even though a cover, evoked feelings of awe and wonder that almost no other song managed. I remember hearing it on the radio that played when I was working on my dad's field during summer, I had never really listened to music until then, but it triggered something deep inside of me and that day is when I probably became a fan. Didn't even know YCBM was by the same artist, but I still I thought it was the coolest shit I ever heard.

The loads couldn't ever compare to that, but I still like them for what they are nonetheless. My love for them only goes that far since the only metallica albums I have playing on my car-USB are the first three at random. the loads just drag the tempo down too much. Not really great car albums if you've just listened to something like "damage inc.". There really isn't much special to the load albums, to me, it's just standard blues hard rock fare.

metallica are good, brilliant even on their first 3 albums, but they always felt a step down the ladder coming from GNR. James is a great rhythm guitar player, kirk a not so great lead player, but GNR has one of the best singers ever, and for me the best lead guitarist ever and I take Izzy over James any day. When you also have Steven in stead of pan and pot hitting Lars, the decision is quickly made.

the illusions, and appetite, are the crown jewels of my entire music collection, along with selected stones / Queen / aerosmith / ACDC albums. the load albums sometimes need to make place for other stuff.

[papashaun]

To me "Load" is one of the musical changing moments I wish had never happened....As a 15 year old when "Load" was released....my friends and I were very confused when "Until it Sleeps," appeared on MTV. We saw these guys who were once great thrash/metal rockers playing a soft/slow tempo-alternative ballad or sorts, with a completely different image. It felt like all the rage that once fueled the band died at that moment, and you really were hearing a whole new band. I still don't know why that particular song was chosen to be the first single/new song released in about 5 years....I would have went with a harder rocker like King Nothing myself, but not my call.....

Anyway, I can never shake the feeling that Metallica officially did "sale out" with that release. The reason being....the band reached a huge height of success with "The Black Album" which brought a lot of fame and cash not previously received for the band. I do believe the objective of the Load release wasn't to "experiment" a  new sound, or evolve, but to jump at the opportunity to become "The Biggest Band in the World." I think that's why you had guys that were previously "Thrashers" suddenly cut their hair, adopt a more alternative image shown on MTV at that time, appear in "Cabana Suits" on the album artwork, and even include an album cover made from "Goat's Blood," then declare that "Metal is dead." I just felt like with no GnR, no Nirvana due to Kurt's death, a slump of sorts for Pearl Jam at that time in 1996, and fading Seattle Sound......there was no front runner to take over as the most sought after band, and Metallica made these changes to try and claim that throne....Not to mention how much James cleaned up his act on stage, compared to previous years.....That's the moment Metallica turned into a brand, instead of a band, and you couldn't make money at that time producing Metal, instead of Alternative Hard Rock.

In retrospect, Load and Reload are not all that bad, but I just wish it had been made under a different band name. I did own both when they came out, and I really did like "The Memory Remains" when it was released, but still missed the thrash material. Metallica would have been completely ok with sticking by the Metal Sound, as we saw a lot of bands that tried to experiment or go more alternative at that time, but were ok with returning to form at at later time, once the 90s ended. Just why did you have to do that at that time Metallica???

That's why I'll always stick by UYI's as being the superior albums. Top to bottom, the song structures and material withstands time much better for future generations, while I'll feel that Load and Reload were caught in the 90s landscape.

 

 

[Ninjapie24]

Huh, some of the best two albums I’ve listened to and are some of the best the band has to offer vs. the worst albums the band has ever put out. I love the illusions records and despise load/reload. I know every song on the Illusions and like all of them (except my world). There are maybe 5 songs I can name from Load and Reload that I like the studio versions of (I admit that some of them are better on S&M but that’s still only a couple more tracks). I can’t remeber most of the songs off those albums and I don’t want to, I’d rather spend my time listening to the other fantastic albums Metallica has. This isn’t even factoring in that I like GNR more than Metallica. I would even argue that the Illusions might even be better than some classic Metallica albums.

[D.Z.I.]

On 2018-08-15 at 11:30 AM, papashaun said:

To me "Load" is one of the musical changing moments I wish had never happened....As a 15 year old when "Load" was released....my friends and I were very confused when "Until it Sleeps," appeared on MTV. We saw these guys who were once great thrash/metal rockers playing a soft/slow tempo-alternative ballad or sorts, with a completely different image. It felt like all the rage that once fueled the band died at that moment, and you really were hearing a whole new band. I still don't know why that particular song was chosen to be the first single/new song released in about 5 years....I would have went with a harder rocker like King Nothing myself, but not my call.....

Anyway, I can never shake the feeling that Metallica officially did "sale out" with that release. The reason being....the band reached a huge height of success with "The Black Album" which brought a lot of fame and cash not previously received for the band. I do believe the objective of the Load release wasn't to "experiment" a  new sound, or evolve, but to jump at the opportunity to become "The Biggest Band in the World." I think that's why you had guys that were previously "Thrashers" suddenly cut their hair, adopt a more alternative image shown on MTV at that time, appear in "Cabana Suits" on the album artwork, and even include an album cover made from "Goat's Blood," then declare that "Metal is dead." I just felt like with no GnR, no Nirvana due to Kurt's death, a slump of sorts for Pearl Jam at that time in 1996, and fading Seattle Sound......there was no front runner to take over as the most sought after band, and Metallica made these changes to try and claim that throne....Not to mention how much James cleaned up his act on stage, compared to previous years.....That's the moment Metallica turned into a brand, instead of a band, and you couldn't make money at that time producing Metal, instead of Alternative Hard Rock.

In retrospect, Load and Reload are not all that bad, but I just wish it had been made under a different band name. I did own both when they came out, and I really did like "The Memory Remains" when it was released, but still missed the thrash material. Metallica would have been completely ok with sticking by the Metal Sound, as we saw a lot of bands that tried to experiment or go more alternative at that time, but were ok with returning to form at at later time, once the 90s ended. Just why did you have to do that at that time Metallica???

That's why I'll always stick by UYI's as being the superior albums. Top to bottom, the song structures and material withstands time much better for future generations, while I'll feel that Load and Reload were caught in the 90s landscape.

 

 

Great post!

I’ve never been abig Metallica fan, their music just doesn’t touch me in the way that other music has, but they have great songs.

Looking back at it, it does feel like at that point, after the black album, they started chasing a trend, so as much as I enjoy some of those songs, i feel a lack of authenticity from those albums. It doesn’t feel like the band moved naturally to that sound and style, but rather made a conscious decision to go there motivated by the music landscape of the times and the popularity of their previous album that was already a departure from their thrash origins, but a more genuine and authentic one.

In contrast, the UYI albums are as authentic as they come, they’re a picture of the crazy times the band was going through, all that dysfunctionality is right there, from the lack of cohesion to My World, to Axl’s madness, the heavy drug use, etc... it’s all there, it all got recorded on tape and released. It’s a clear picture of the band at a specific time.

[Sydney Fan]

On 02/08/2018 at 7:29 PM, action said:

the illusions are some of my most loved albums out there, period. Tracks like "you could be mine" and "knocking on heaven's door" managed to shape 10 year old me forever. Especially the latter which, even though a cover, evoked feelings of awe and wonder that almost no other song managed. I remember hearing it on the radio that played when I was working on my dad's field during summer, I had never really listened to music until then, but it triggered something deep inside of me and that day is when I probably became a fan. Didn't even know YCBM was by the same artist, but I still I thought it was the coolest shit I ever heard.

The loads couldn't ever compare to that, but I still like them for what they are nonetheless. My love for them only goes that far since the only metallica albums I have playing on my car-USB are the first three at random. the loads just drag the tempo down too much. Not really great car albums if you've just listened to something like "damage inc.". There really isn't much special to the load albums, to me, it's just standard blues hard rock fare.

metallica are good, brilliant even on their first 3 albums, but they always felt a step down the ladder coming from GNR. James is a great rhythm guitar player, kirk a not so great lead player, but GNR has one of the best singers ever, and for me the best lead guitarist ever and I take Izzy over James any day. When you also have Steven in stead of pan and pot hitting Lars, the decision is quickly made.

the illusions, and appetite, are the crown jewels of my entire music collection, along with selected stones / Queen / aerosmith / ACDC albums. the load albums sometimes need to make place for other stuff.

I think sorum alone makes lars look like a drumming novice.

[Ninjapie24]

On 10/5/2018 at 1:31 AM, Sydney Fan said:

I think sorum alone makes lars look like a drumming novice.

At least for these albums, but in Live Shit Lars actually had some style and knew what a double bass was. He just had fucking aggression in those early concerts. By 1991, I would definitely say that Matt was better in every way.