What is the name of the band's second number-one album?
After almost three years of touring to promote Metallica, including a headlining performance at Woodstock '94, Metallica returned to the studio to write and record its sixth studio album. The band went on a brief hiatus in the summer of 1995 and played a short tour, Escape from the Studio '95, comprising three outdoor shows, including a headline show at Donington Park supported by Slayer, Skid Row, Slash's Snakepit, Therapy?, and Corrosion of Conformity. The band spent about a year writing and recording new songs, resulting in the release of Load in 1996. Load debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and ARIA Charts; it was the band's second number-one album. The cover art, Blood and Semen III, was created by Andres Serrano, who pressed a mixture of his own semen and blood between sheets of plexiglass. The release marked a change in the band's musical direction and a new image; the bandmembers' hair was cut. Metallica headlined the alternative rock festival Lollapalooza festival in mid-1996.
During early production of the album, the band had recorded enough material to fill a double album. It was decided that half of the songs were to be released; the band would continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year. This resulted in follow-up album titled Reload. The cover art was again created by Serrano, this time using a mixture of blood and urine. Reload debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and reached number two on the Top Canadian Album chart. Hetfield said in the 2004 documentary film Some Kind of Monster that the band initially thought some of the songs on these albums were of average quality; these were "polished and reworked" until judged releasable. To promote Reload, Metallica performed "Fuel" and "The Memory Remains" with Marianne Faithfull on NBC's Saturday Night Live in December 1997.In 1998, Metallica compiled a double album of cover songs, Garage Inc. The first disc contained newly recorded covers of songs by Diamond Head, Killing Joke, the Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate, Black Sabbath, and others. The second disc featured the original version of The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collectors' item. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number two.On April 21 and 22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Kamen, who had previously worked with producer Rock on "Nothing Else Matters". Kamen approached Metallica in 1991 with the idea of pairing the band's music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff of over 100 composed additional orchestral material for Metallica songs. Metallica wrote two new Kamen-scored songs for the event, "No Leaf Clover" and "-Human". The audio recording and concert footage were released in 1999 as the album and concert film S&M. It entered the Billboard 200 at number two and the Australian ARIA charts and Top Internet Albums chart at number one.
Load