JAMES HETFIELD Hated The Direction Metallica Took In The ‘90s: 'So Stupid'

In a 2001 interview with Playboy, Metallica frontman James Hetfield reflected on the band’s major style shift during the Load era.

For Hetfield, that period, complete with designer clothes, makeup, and fashionable haircuts, wasn’t exactly a high point. He called the decision “stupid” and admitted it clashed with everything the band originally stood for.

“I let Lars and Kirk take over the image stuff for a bit. I really hate looking at it now,” Hetfield said. “Our fans were asking, ‘What happened to Metallica, that dirty, long-haired, biker band with a ‘screw you’ attitude?’ And there we were, trying to look like U2 or Stone Temple Pilots, or any other band that leaned on style. Why the hell did we need that? So stupid. Jason and I weren’t into it at all, but Kirk and Lars were super excited. You either laugh at it or get mad. Honestly, I’m doing both.”

Kirk Hammett, Metallica’s lead guitarist, chalked it up to the vibe of the decade. “It was just a phase. That was the zeitgeist,” he said. “Who knows… maybe we’ll do something even more extreme one day.” When asked if that might include Hetfield wearing a dress, Hammett fired back, “That would probably be extreme.”

The change in look came after the success of 1991’s Black Album, a turning point in Metallica’s career.

Even though the record was a commercial smash, Hetfield wasn’t fully sold on every track. “‘Through the Never’ was kind of weird,” he said. “‘Don’t Tread on Me’ is probably one of my least favorite songs musically. ‘Holier Than Thou’ felt kind of dumb, more like our old way of writing.”

While the Load and Reload albums kept Metallica in the spotlight through the late ’90s, Hetfield still sees that era as a detour. One he wishes they hadn’t taken.

The music may have held up for many fans, but the visuals? James would rather not revisit them.

New Load deluxe box set reopens the book on Metallica’s most debated era

While James Hetfield continues to side-eye Metallica’s 1990s makeover, the band has gone ahead and officially reissued 1996’s Load in a massive deluxe box set that dropped on June 13 via their own Blackened Recordings.

The release puts a fresh spotlight on an album long regarded as a turning point, musically ambitious, visually polarizing, and still the subject of passionate debate nearly three decades later.

This new edition is a deep archive dump of the Load years, featuring remastered audio (courtesy of Reuben Cohen with Greg Fidelman overseeing) and a mountain of extras: unreleased demos, rough mixes, live sets, TV performances, and more.

Included is the first-ever full release of “The Outlaw Torn” in its unedited form, which was originally trimmed to fit on CD.

Among the highlights is Loadapalooza ‘96, a triple vinyl live recording from Metallica’s headlining set at Lollapalooza in Irvine, CA, part of a wild chapter in the band’s history when cowboy hats, guyliner, and southern-rock grooves briefly took over.

Available in multiple formats, vinyl, CD, cassette, digital (including Atmos Spatial Audio), the reissue offers a revised lens on tracks like “Until It Sleeps,” “King Nothing,” and “Bleeding Me.”

Instant downloads for various versions of “Until It Sleeps” come with purchase, including a rough chorus vocal idea mix and a 1996 club performance.

Even as James has aired his regrets about the image overhaul, he’s never fully dismissed the music. Lars Ulrich, always the diplomat, has said in past interviews that Load and Reload were creatively in step with the band’s larger discography, just coming from a bluesier, more classic-rock angle.

In a 2013 Revolver interview, he pointed to influences like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC as guiding lights during the sessions.

Still, Hetfield hasn’t exactly softened over time. In interviews over the years, he’s called parts of the era a “compromise” and the album cover a “piss-take.”

He’s suggested that, if late bassist Cliff Burton had been around, the band might never have taken that U2-meets-abstract-art detour.

Even so, the Load box set lands with a clear purpose: to document the band’s evolution, not to apologize for it.

For longtime listeners, it’s a chance to revisit the ‘90s with open ears. For newcomers, it’s a window into a version of Metallica that had ditched the bullet belts, cranked the groove, and leaned hard into the unexpected.

Full tracklists, content previews, and ordering options are up at Metallica.com.

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