Behind the Album Cover: Metallica’s ‘Load’

The Los Angeles-born heavy metal rock band Metallica is credited with cementing the genre as a mainstream force.

The group, which released its debut album, Kill ‘Em All, in 1983, has stayed top of mind for many music fans when it comes to thick, heavy, percussive rock songs that display dire emotions, depressive thoughts, and rage.

Since its inception, the band has released 11 LPs, one of which is their 1996 release, Load.

The Album

Released in the summer of 1996, Load was a controversial album, and not just for its grotesque album cover. The style of music on the record was considered more “hard rock” than “thrash metal,” which put off some of the band’s fans, who thought Metallica was going too commercial and flouting their loyalties.

“This album and what we’re doing with it – that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things,” said the band’s drummer and de facto lead, Lars Ulrich. “The minute you stop exploring, then just sit down and fucking die.”

A commercial success, the album is also the longest from Metallica. It went five-times platinum and its biggest hit was “Until It Sleeps,” which features picked guitar lines and singer James Hetfield’s classic growl.

The Album Cover

Perhaps a joke at first, the cover came to be known as one of the more sophomoric of all time.

It is the original artwork from the 1990 Bodily Fluids series, titled Semen and Blood III, by artist Andres Serrano, who had been discovered by the band’s guitarist Kirk Hammett.

Hetfield never liked the cover art. “Lars and Kirk were very into abstract art, pretending they were gay,” said Hetfield. “I think they knew it bugged me. It was a statement around all that. I love art, but not for the sake of shocking others. I think the cover of Load was just a piss-take around all that. I just went along with the make-up and all of this crazy, stupid crap that they felt they needed to do.”

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV