This is what Addicted to Noise had to say about ReLoad. Quotes from Lars, too!


" Addicted To Noise Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports : He hasn't been privy to much -- just a few sound samples here and there -- but so far Metallica fan Ryan Poore likes what he's heard from the band's soon-to-be-released album Re-Load (Nov. 18).

"I haven't heard the whole single yet," said the 23-year-old Utah native and webmaster of the unofficial "Land of Sorrow" Metallica site, about "The Memory Remains," which features backing vocals from '60s singer Marianne Faithfull. "But the bits and pieces I've heard on MTV and some samples on the 'net from their studio sound great."

Bob Rock, the veteran studio wizard (Veruca Salt, Motley Crue) who co-produced Re-Load (as well as Load) with singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, said that songs on the new album even top the Load material. "The strongest ones definitely weren't put out first [on Load]," Bob Rock told Addicted To Noise this summer. "There were some pretty strong songs on Load. It was really what the band wanted to put out first; it was a matter of choice. We were going to do the whole thing [as a two CD set], but we discovered it was just too much work for the band to cut, overdub and finish properly."

Even though Poore's "not very familiar" with Faithfull, based on the bits he's heard, he said the new album "sounds a lot like the last one," referring to 1996's Load. That's OK with him, even if that album "doesn't compare to their old stuff, which was heavier and faster," he said. "It's just a different style of music."

Re-Load is a 13-track sequel of sorts to the band's previous album. Featuring songs that were recorded during the Load sessions, but not used at the time, the tracks are said to have a similar feel to that album's brooding darkness. Singer James Hetfield has even hinted in interviews that a few of the tracks are sharp retorts to detractors who've criticized the metal-born band for everything from cutting their hair to playing 1996's Lollapalooza.

The track listing for Re-Load is: "Fuel," "The Memory Remains," "Devil's Dance," "The Unforgiven II," "Better Than You," "Slither," "Carpe Diem Baby," "Bad Seed," "Where the Wild Things Are," "Prince Charming," "Low Man's Lyric," "Attitude" and "Fixxxer."

Rock said he feels that Metallica are the definitive '90s hard rock band. "Once you do [produce] Metallica, where do you go?" he wondered. "They are the band."

Metallica played its first-ever acoustic sets on Oct. 18 and 19 at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit Concert in Mountain View, Calif., debuting the dirgey, moody "Low Man's Lyric," on which they were accompanied by a hurdy gurdy player.

With the once metal heavy band having crossed-over to alternative radio with the last album's singles "Until It Sleeps" and "King Nothing," programmers at both rock and alternative outlets seem eager to hear the sequel. "Metallica are a core artist for us," said Steve Kingston, program director at WXRK (92.3 FM), New York's K-ROCK radio station, sister to the influential alternative powerhouse, L.A.-based KROQ. "We're more rock-oriented than the L.A. station, but once we've heard it, I couldn't imagine we wouldn't play the new song as soon as it comes in."

Kingston said he thought the band's stint on Lollapalooza may have been what convinced some alternative program directors to add them to alternative radio, but he decried many of those same programmers' decisions to "drop them because they saw the band as another flavor-of-the-month band."

Meanwhile, Poore, a long-time fan of the band, said, despite not having heard the entire album yet, he doesn't consider Re-load to be "a leftovers album."

He did, however, get an interesting response from fellow Metallica fans about the acoustic set at the Bridge benefit. "I was surprised when I ran the poll," he said. "Most people said they didn't want to hear the band play acoustic because they didn't think most of their songs could go acoustic and sound good."

Still claiming that nobody will give them permission to do a free show next month in support of their album, the band says it is keeping its eyes for a venue for the Nov. 11 gig. According to a press release issued Tuesday, they have received more than 100,000 calls to a special 800-number and some 20,000 e-mails. The venue is scheduled to be announced by the end of this week. [Tues., Oct. 28, 1997, 6 p.m. PDT]