It was a Text-Book example of selling out. I heard an interview, back in the day, in which Lars was talking about how "Metallica was always going against the grain." Kind of ironic if you ask me.
I remember, when Metallica was premoting Load, I saw a Rolling Stone magazine at my girlfriends house and at first I was looking at it upside down and I thought "Cool, they wrote an article about the Chili Peppers." I turned it around and realized that it wasn't the Chili Peppers. I looked closer and was astounded to realize that it was actually Metallica with their new look!
It made me sick inside to see them like that because I knew that it was the confirmed death of the REAL Metallica.
