"On the back of the black album their next album was always going to sell well at least initially.. I wouldn't consider the loads radio friendly, the black album didn't get much airplay that i heard asides from Sandman and to some extent The Unforgiven...
Doesn't make them sell outs, if they were then every song after that would have been a black album type song.."
From the black album, Nothing Else Matters and Wherever I may Roam were played on the radio a fair bit.
And when Load came out "Until it sleeps" was the first single and that was absolutley flogged on the radio and so was "Hero of the Day" and "Mama Said".......... Look I dont care that they had their songs on the radio, only an a$$clown would want to deny a band popularity or $$$$ so kudos to them for their popularity at the time, but it was the actual songs themselves on the black abum and the loads the really pi$$ed me off, totally different to AJFA, MOP, RTL and K'emA. Progression is wonderful and you can hear that throughout the first 4 albums, but come on, that $hit era they were heavily influenced by Bob Rock who wanted them to be the next Bon Jovi. I don't hate the Black album anywhere near as much as the Loads, but I hate the fact that you can tell with the self titled album that is when the start of the rot with Rock started, I will admit most of the songs were written well before Rock came into the fold, though slowly but surely he got what he wanted over time.
Theres a reason songs on those early 80's albums were not played on the radio back in the day, they were long, intricate and took a listener on a musical journey. They were too intense and too long for commercial air play which likes it songs to sit at that comfortable 3:00-3:30 length. "Sandman" was a 5 minute song but the long intro and 40 odd second outro tended to make the song seem shorter than what it really was, "Nothing Else Matters" and "Unforgiven" were often cut shorter in the intros to shorten the song for the radio versions, well thats what I heard on MMM when I lived in Sydney at the time.
Metallicas songs in the earlier albums were amazing, and they did not have to change their style for the radio, they would have gained more fans and kept their old ones if they stuck to their guns instead of opting for the easy way out that Bob Rock was pushing.
Compare the songs from AJFA and MOP to the relatively less intricate songs on the black and then the Loads whose songs made one not know what the hell metallica wanted to be (rock, country, metal,- I hate the genre pigeonholing of bands, but there was just too much style hopping on the first load, I just could not get what they were trying to prove/do with it) and IMO the middle 90's/early 2k stuff from them was just tripe. I was a massive fan as a kid but they just lost their way for 20 years there. People can sit there and bag the fans that shunned their backs on metallica during this period, but you have to remember what metallica were known for and how much of a change they undertook in their music. It was just too much for most, me included, it felt like they shunned us so I suppose it was only natural a hell of a lot of fans recipricated that feeling.
I am sooooo glad they are back doing what they do best though...........hearing "This was just your life" for the first time, I had goosebumps like when I heard Blackened and Battery for the first time, I felt like a kid again.
