I struggled to adequately convey what I really felt about this era. Take from it what you will…

The cleaner cut PG-13 version of Metallica wasn’t my favorite. In fact I literally threw the Load CD out of my car from pure disgust just hours after purchasing it back in June 1996 while driving down Appling Rd. in the Cordova neighborhood of Memphis — yes the memory remains that vivid — because I couldn’t believe five years of waiting on the follow up to their historic “Black Album” would be recompensed with what I could only describe as an openhanded slap to the face.

Ironically the profound dismay didn’t stop a couple of friends and I from paying top dollar for eleventh row tickets to see Metallica perform a 20-song set at The Pyramid in Memphis the following February, but that’s a scatterbrained story for some other time.

It wasn’t their new pop-oriented appearance that bothered me — shorthaired hipsters who looked as if they’d just stepped out of Hot Topic. It was the bewildering transition away from the power chords on which their characteristic sound had been established that signaled a largely unwelcomed change in direction for which many longtime fans only kept tagging along because our attachment to the band forbade dumping them, even if it felt at times like they had abandoned us.

Yet even during what I still refer to as their Boy Band era, ‘tallica would offer an occasional nod to their past selves. One such case occurred when they played a private party at the Playboy Mansion on October 18, 1998. Although their thrash classics were omitted, their usual standards like “Enter Sandman” and “Sad But True” made their way into the nine-song set.

Over 10 years and several generally substandard releases would pass before their ninth album — predicated upon the topic of death — demonstrated, at long last, that Hetfield and the guys were far from done. And with their widely acclaimed eleventh release coming in just over a week, it’s safe to say that Metallica are stronger than ever and won’t be abdicating the throne anytime soon.

But yeah, I still bear the scars of their Lollapalooza phase. Let’s not do that again.