Metallica - Master Of Puppets
Metallica is a four-piece band originally out of Los Angeles who relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. Forming in 1981, Metallica is best known for defining what would be later called “thrash metal”. Since the mid-late 1970s, heavy metal music had already been present in the underground and popular music scene for a few years. Heavy metal can be considered a mixture of punk, classical and jazz mixed into one, typically with a higher volume of musicianship and technical chord progressions than its preceding genre, punk.
Before the release of their third studio album, Metallica was an up and coming thrash band playing hard and fast metal music for fans to swing their necks, bang their heads and throw up their fists in a repetitive motion. When they released Master of Puppets in 1986, the band really pushed the limits of musicianship. Master brought heavy metal and thrash metal to the forefront, requiring technical musicians outside the genre to pay attention and admit this band knew how to play their instruments well.
Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, the album begins with a surprising classical guitar that likely confused most people the first time they listened. The presence of a classical guitar perhaps convinced listeners they had accidentally purchased a Spanish guitar compilation album. Before one can be convinced, a train jumps out of the speakers going seven hundred miles an hour, waking you up from whatever relaxed state you were just in. The opening track, Battery gives you a progressively faster beat that builds and builds until rhythm guitarist and lead singer, James Hetfield’s vocals come out of nowhere. This song quickly forces the listener to pay attention. Metallica is doing everything they can to get you to pay attention.
What is different about “Master” compared to other metal albums is not its speed, but its writing, technical make up and message of global paranoia. Avoiding other metal clichés with songs that discuss banging your fist in the air, “Master” explores the topic of “abuse of power”. With several war references, it was the first album that made me think deeper about the meaning of war. I always viewed war as a necessary evil. It was good guys versus the bad guys. We, of course, were always the good guys. Master of Puppets made me consider there are other points of view in the world about war. It never brought me to one conclusion or opinion. It simply got me thinking.
The title track to the album is likely its strongest piece which is a tall order. Fast tempo verses that bleed into a melodic chorus are Metallica’s claim to fame and they bring it out for the very first time on their third studio album here.
What might be most impressive are the time signatures of drummer Lars Ulrich on this album. Ulrich utilizes a double bass drum approach in Latin breakbeats. I consider myself lucky. I was born with a natural sense for a musical beat and musical rhythm. Some have it and some just do not. I did a lot of drummer mimicking as a young musician. I remember rarely being able to air drum to Lars’ drumbeats when I would listen to Metallica records. Lars and Rush drummer, Neil Peart were two drummers I could never figure out or even pretend to copy.
The mixing of melody and thrash continue on tracks such as The Thing That Should Not Be, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Disposable Heroes and Leper Messiah, once again breaking the tradition earlier metal bands had followed of similarly fast tempos where the intention was take it to the fastest speed. These tracks cover such topics as war and evangelical abuse of power, all tied into a galloping rhythm section that certainly gets your blood pumping.
Deep into the back half of the album, bassist Cliff Burton, writes and presents his instrumental monument, Orion. This song brings orchestral, classical notes together with mid-tempo riffing by Hetfield and lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett. Burton’s bass takes over four minutes into the song and brings it in a totally different direction, certainly making it a ballad. Burton was tragically killed in a bus accident while the band was on tour in Sweden, supporting this album in 1986. Even as I write this in 2020, it is still clear in interviews the band has not fully recovered emotionally from Burton’s death. Metallica went on to hire a new bass player, Jason Newstead to record their follow up album, ..And Justice For All in 1988 and several others follow up albums. A third bassist would join the band in 2003, Rob Trujillo. After Newstead left to pursue outside musical ventures, Metallica auditioned several bass players. When Trujillo finished his private audition with the band, guitarist Hammett is known for saying, “No one has played those notes like that since Cliff”. This gave me goosebumps as I watched Kirk admit this to his bandmates on camera during the band’s 2004 documentary, Some Kind of Monster.
Master of Puppets rounds out with Damage, Inc, which is another nod to rants about senseless violence. To the general listener, one may hear this album and think Metallica is promoting violence. The lyrics on Master do quite the opposite. They force the listener to think. Hetfield and Ulrich’s writing are considered a masterpiece outside the metal community, pairing with a more intellectual style of writing than albums past. Certified six times platinum this album was also selected by the Library of Congress in 2015 for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally significant”.
Pick up a copy and form your own opinion!
Or check out their previous album, Ride the Lightning!
Also, get yourself some Metallica Merchandise!