Metallica Announce Long Awaited ‘Load’ Remaster Deluxe Boxset

Metallica has finally announced the deluxe remaster for their notorious 1996 LP, Load. The news comes from the band’s social media pages, where they announced pre-orders for the remaster and its release date which is slated for June 13th.

Since 2016, Metallica has been going through the process of reissuing and remastering their studio albums. For every remaster the band has done an intricate ‘deluxe boxset’ which often contains tons of memorabilia from the album-tour cycle and sometimes bonus tracks or live recordings from the time.

What’s In The Load Deluxe Boxset

Sitting at a steep $275 price tag, the boxset for Load is just as ambitious as all previous deluxe edition boxsets Metallica has released. Here’s what’s inside the box:

• Load (Remastered) on 180-gram double LP and CD
• “Mama Said” picture disc
• Three live LPs
• 15 CDs
• Four DVDs featuring unreleased content (live shows, rough mixes, demos, etc)
• MP3 download card of all audio
• Two tour laminates
• 11″ x 17″ Lollapalooza poster
• Pushead patch
• 8″ x 10″ Rolling Stone Magazine cover print
• Five-pack of guitar/bass picks
• Pack of 14 Rorschach Test cards
• Lyric folder and sheets
• 128-page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos + stories from those who were there

The History Polarizing History of Load

It’s amazing the effect that time can have on the perception of art, specifically music. Metallica’s 1996 album Load was one of the most polarizing albums to ever grace the metal scene back in the 90s, and for many fans it was considered band’s worst album at the time. If 1991’s the Black Album was Metallica experimenting with hard-rock and arena-metal, then Load was the band adopting slow groovy melodic songwriting and completely abandoning their metal aesthetics. Of course, at the time fans did not respond well to this stylistic change, nor was there any additional praise when Metallica decided to chop off their luscious locks – Metallica cutting off their hair was considered the nail in the coffin for many longtime fans.

All that being said, fans have since come around to Load and it’s 1997 sequel album, Reload. Metallica routinely performs a select few tracks off both records, and some fans have found songs like “Outlaw Torn” and “Bleeding Me” to be some of the band’s most underrated tracks. It’s clear there’s a hunger for Metallica’ 90s sound, now more than ever. Knowing how well Metallica’s reissues sell, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact the Load remaster has on the Billboard charts when it drops in mid-June.