METALLICA — Master of Puppets (review)

METALLICA — Master of Puppets album cover Album · 1986 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Negoba
The Master of All Metal

Metallica's Master of Puppets leads for the greatest metal album of all time, is often mentioned in the best of 80's regardless of genre, and elicits motions of headbanging in virtually all who hear the title. While it may not be my absolute favorite metal album of all time, there is no arguing it is a masterpiece. The album has no weak songs, features the band at the top of their game, while they are pushing the boundaries of the music as hard as they would throughout their entire career.

Opening with the clean guitars of "Battery," the band announces that they are going to follow the pattern of Ride the Lightning, but with better production, more complexity, better songwriting, and equal if not even better crushing riffage. The one-two punch of "Battery" into "Master of Puppets" is really unmatched in metal. The lyrics are intelligent, emotionally dripping, Hetfield's voice has improved substantially. The trademark Metallica guitar sound has arrived, continuing the trend of steady improvement with each album.

This would sadly be the last album with Cliff Burton and his presence adds to the sound considerably. His final showpiece is "Orion" and what an exit. One of the best metal instrumentals ever, and certainly of the Metallica catalog, "Orion" showcases the twin guitars evolved far past the Iron Maiden influences of earlier harmony leads.

Even the lesser known songs are great. "Disposable Heroes" is the best metal protest song since "War Pigs." "Back to the front. You will die when I say you must die." A little more blunt than all that flowery stuff. "Damage, Inc." is a blistering exit, and "Sanitarium" is one of the few Metallica slow songs that doesn't use the exact same Am chord idea. (see Fade to Black, One, Unforgiven)

Even Kirk Hammett, the perennial whipping boy of the band, sounds good here. His brief flash after the first verse of the title tune is for me one of his best moments. The energy of the whole band is at their angry sarcastic best. There is no doubt that this is the peak.

Certainly, there are plenty of great songs to each side of this album, but no other piece of Metallica's catalog is so perfect start to finish. If this isn't a masterpiece of metal, such a thing does not exist.
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