90's Guilty Pleasures #40: Metallica "Hero Of The Day" (1996)

Most hardcore Metallica fans in the 80's stopped caring somewhere around "The Black Album," so by the time Load was released 5 years later, the fans who they helped introduce to thrash had likely moved onto harder bands (Pantera, etc). The first two singles from Load were "Until It Sleeps" and "Hero Of The Day," the only 2 really good songs from Load and Reload, which had a lot more in common with grunge than metal. Without James Hetfield's vocals, you'd hardly know it was them. It wasn't until 2000 that "I Disappear" became their next and final great song, which was followed by several pathetic attempts to cash-in on nu-metal.

Regarding "Hero Of The Day," at least they figured out how to do grunge correctly for one song. And it comes with probably the best video posted in this list so far...