Metallica’s Load Returns: 2025 Remaster Unleashes Unheard Tracks And Deluxe Box Set

In 2025, Metallica’s most polarizing era is back in the spotlight. Load, the band’s five-times-platinum 1996 album, returns June 13 in a massive remastered deluxe box set via Blackened Recordings. Overseen by Greg Fidelman and remastered by Reuben Cohen, this reissue brings a fresh sonic clarity to a release that once split fans down the middle.

The Load (Remastered) deluxe edition is more than a nostalgic gesture—it’s a deep dive into Metallica’s mid-’90s identity shift. The box set includes unreleased demos, rare rough mixes, B-sides, and live performances that span from intimate club shows to stadium-filling sets like Loadapalooza ’96. The highlight? For the first time ever, fans will hear the full, uncut version of “The Outlaw Torn,” restored from its original form before being trimmed for CD constraints.

Also included are multiple versions of the hit single “Until It Sleeps,” including a remastered edition, the experimental Herman Melville Mix, and a live cut from Slim’s in San Francisco. The collectible set is packed with memorabilia: a Mama Said picture disc, Rorschach cards, a Rolling Stone cover print, guitar picks, and a 128-page hardcover book documenting the Load-era metamorphosis.

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Originally released in 1996, Load marked a sonic and aesthetic shift for Metallica, fusing Southern rock influences with alt-metal edge. Though controversial at the time, it debuted at No. 1 and has aged into a cult favorite, now ripe for reexamination.

With this 2025 remaster, Metallica invites both loyalists and skeptics to revisit a misunderstood chapter—one that dared to defy expectations.

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