No band goes into the studio wanting to make a bad record. However many albums your favorite band makes, there are going to be those few that miss the mark.
While not all of these records are terrible, the musicians involved have washed their hands of them.
In retrospect, these artists didn’t mince words that these albums left the project with a bad taste in their mouths. Whether it was production snafus or not fully realizing a vision, these albums didn’t do it for the musicians who wrote them.
Despite being hated by the band, some of these records are regarded as classics today.
However, there are a few hated albums on this list where the fans can see where their favorite band is coming from too.
While recording an album you don’t like might sound like torture, it’s probably worse when you have to play the songs over and over on tour.
Load – Metallica
Metallica earned a whole new audience after The Black Album. While Bob Rock steered them towards hard rock, the late ‘90s had them toying with alternative music.
Even though the Load era has defenders, James Hetfield is not one of them saying “We’ve always been very organic. Load felt forced to me. I wasn’t 100% on it, but I would say that that was a compromise. I said, ‘I’m going with Lars’ and Kirk’s vision on this. It didn’t pan out the way I was hoping.”
It didn’t take long for Hetfield to sour on it. In the documentary Some Kind of Monster, Hetfield mentioned Load and Reload as examples of Metallica whipping any mediocre riff into shape.
Nevermind – Nirvana
The world of rock changed overnight when Nirvana put out Nevermind. While fans lost their minds to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Kurt Cobain was probably laughing at most of them.
Since most of the songs had lots of pop melodies, Cobain originally wanted to hire Andy Wallace because he mixed songs for Slayer. Once Nevermind blew up, Cobain started slagging off his masterpiece for sounding way too slick.
When talking to Nirvana’s biographer, Cobain was mortified by the production saying “When I listen to Nevermind, I hate the production, but there’s something about it that almost makes me cry at times. I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.”
Despite Cobain’s claims, this album was responsible for wiping bands like Crue off the face of the Earth.
All Hope is Gone – Slipknot
Every Slipknot project is intense. When the band got together for All Hope is Gone, Clown was the first one to notice some red flags.
While Corey Taylor mentioned that he loved recording in Iowa so he could see his son, Clown was not happy with the results saying “getting to go home, that’s not good for a band like us. I had lost my mother and father on the album before and I didn’t really want to talk.”
Despite the album racking up awards, Clown still felt stung when they got accolades saying, “It was something that I couldn’t give any part of myself to, and yet it became No. 1 on Billboard. It seemed like such a cruel joke.”
One By One – Foo Fighters
The early ‘00s were not a good time to be in the Foo Fighters. After creative tension and re-recording One By One, Dave Grohl still thinks the album is unrealized.
The band ended up recording the album twice, with Grohl saying, “the difference between both versions of ‘All My Life’ is that one was recorded for a million dollars and sounded like crap and the other was recorded in my basement in an hour and became a huge hit.”
Though there are some classics on the record like “Times like These,” Grohl doesn’t like to revisit this era saying “four songs were good and the other seven songs I never played again in my life.”
Ten – Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam never planned on being the biggest band in the world. Once the grunge icons started gaining traction though, they started to question what happened to their debut.
When talking about their debut record, Stone Gossard mentioned not being satisfied with the mixing of Ten saying, “The way we inhabit the songs and what they mean to us now is incredible. But from a musical standpoint, it still seems kind of unrealized. But that just shows you that I can’t hear it.”
That same production was what made Ten a blockbuster album. Despite some of its bombastic moments, these songs brought grunge into stadiums around the world.
Just Push Play – Aerosmith
Aerosmith was on a high after “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” went to No. 1. So if the big pop single worked once, why not try it again?
Although Just Push Play was produced by the entire band, Joe Perry talked about being upset that Steven Tyler would knock out songs without any of the band’s involvement. While Perry didn’t slag off the entire record, he despised certain songs saying “‘Trip Hoppin’ seemed like a desperate attempt by Steven to be hip. For an Aerosmith record, the song sucks.”
By the time they did press, Aerosmith was turning into the Steven Tyler Show. Even though “Girls of Summer” was released as a single, none of the non-Tyler band members showed up for the video.
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Rocka Rolla – Judas Priest
Judas Priest was the next step for metal after Black Sabbath. Before we got classics like “Breaking the Law,” the early version of the band was more hippy than headbanger.
While Rocka Rolla was recorded on a shoestring budget, Rob Halford mentioned that most of the songs were written by original singer Al Atkins. Even though the performances are great, most of it sounds like Judas Priest playing someone else’s songs.
Although the Metal God was the new guy, Glenn Tipton and KK Downing mentioned the band was in dire straits saying “we slept outside the studio in a van all day, in the blazing summer, and then we’d get out at like eight, nine o’clock at night, stumble in the studio, and play until sunrise, then go back in the van like vampires.”
Despite the name Judas Priest on the cover, the real Metal Gods didn’t touch down until Sad Wings of Destiny.
Generation Swine – Motley Crue
Every hair metal band got thrown for a loop once grunge rock hit. Even though Motley Crue was proud of their next phase with John Corabi, not everyone was happy with reuniting for Generation Swine.
When asked about the production, Vince Neil talked about not enjoying the recording at all saying “I probably quit three times during the making of this album. I didn’t really want to be there.”
Although Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee stand by taking chances, Mick Mars also had trouble gelling with the band saying “That album fucked me up. Every part that I played for the record was always wrong.”
While the Crue tried to change with the times, there was no way to blend Sunset Strip rock with industrial music.
Metal Magic – Pantera
Pantera was ready for the big time before they were out of their teens. Before they became the gnarliest band of the ‘90s, The Abbott Brothers started life in a glam metal band.
Most of Metal Magic is akin to the sounds of the Sunset Strip, but Rex Brown mentioned not looking back on their glam days after Phil Anselmo joined saying, “Once we got Philip in the band, it developed into something else, and that was the Pantera that we know now, and that’s why we never talk about those old records.”
Despite some tasty Dimebag licks, Brown has compared the old Pantera material to looking through old photos saying “This is like going back and looking at your old high school notebooks and going, “Look at how far you’ve come in between.” It might be a good time capsule, but not enough to revisit.
Diabolus in Musica – Slayer
Slayer is one of the last bands in metal that would sell out. When the nu-metal craze started in the ‘90s, the thrash legends found themselves playing songs in the same vein as Monster Magnet on Diabolus in Musica.
Although the record is still heavy, Kerry King has never been a fan of the record saying “That’s the one record that I really paid not enough attention to because I was really bitter about what kind of music was popular.”
While King mentions that he wanted to evolve, he thinks that the band went a little too far in the nu-metal direction saying “Looking back we were just saying, ‘alright, how do we make Slayer fit into today’s society?’ But, that’s probably my least favorite record of our history. That’s our [Judas Priest’s] ‘Turbo.’”
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