Every band has their masterpiece album. Metallica's is Master Of Puppets. This 1986 release marked the beginning of something not seen in most Metal up until this point. There was some real intelligence in the entire album.
This album was arranged, styled, written, performed and executed with such classical pression that very few bands have been able to do it with any success since James, Lars, Kirk and Cliff all got together. They took all the best things Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Rush came up with in the 1970's and then made it heavier, louder, and faster, but not for the sake of doing it, like the NWOBHM bands were doing, but because that's just the way it should be done.
The album's opening track, Battery, for example starts off a bit nice and pretty. Then it uses you like a battery, and just hammers away at you for a little over five minutes. I actually consider this the weakest track on the album, and I think the only reason it became as popular as it is was due to it being the second shortest song on the album. The shortest song is more musically insane, and much better. However, this song is only two seconds longer.
Next up is the album's title track. Master Of Puppets is an amazing epic that takes you through the hells of being at the mercy of a drug addiction. This song has all the highs, and lows, but it also has those eerie mids that totally keep you in suspense.
Now I will be totally honest. If I owned this album on vinyl the only song I would listen to on the first side would be The Thing That Should Not Be. This is 6:32 of heavy. I mean this song is a mastadon in an Iron Man suit heavy. This song is the Cthulhu it does everything but mention. "Messenger of Fear in sight / Dark deception kills the light / Hybrid children watch the sea / Pray for Father, roaming free / fearless Wretch / insanity / He watches / lurking beneath the sea / great Old One / forbidden site / He searches / Hunter of the Shadows is rising / immortal / in madness You dwell / Crawling Chaos, underground / cult has summoned, twisted sound / Out from ruins once possessed / fallen city, living death / fearless Wretch / insanity / He watches / lurking beneath the sea / timeless sleep / has been upset / He awakens / Hunter of the Shadows is rising / immortal / in madness You dwell / Not dead which eternal lie / stranger eons Death may die / drain you of your sanity / face The Thing That Should Not Be / fearless Wretch / insanity / He watches / lurking beneath the sea / great Old One / forbidden site / He searches / Hunter of the Shadows is rising / immortal / in madness You dwell." It's a beast of a song.
I normally like my songs about insanity, but Welcome Home (Sanitarium) is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, this song is beyond amazing. It's beautifully written, and very skillfully executed. However, I like my songs about crazy to people to be... well, to be more crazy. This song comes across as a very sane person describing what it's like to be in a nut house. When you grow up listening to albums like Alice Cooper's From The Inside, Sanitarium is mild and boring.
As far as I'm concerned this album doesn't really get good until the second half. Thingy (Metallica's short form for The Thing That...) is only a warm up for an album that starts at track five. Disposable Heroes was the song that was later stretched into the ...And Jusctice For All album. This song has blistering speed, with great complimentary fills. The arrangements are top notch, and I just can't get over the speed.
Then it's on to my favourite (non instrumental) track on the album. Leper Messiah was the reason I got so heavily into this album. Musically it's one of the slower tracks, but it has such passion and raw aggression that I find it astounding. I also love the lyrical content. "Spineless from the start, sucked into the part / circus comes to town, you play the lead clown / Please, please / spreading his disease, living by his story / Knees, knees / falling to your knees, suffer for his glory / You will / Time for lust, time for lie / time to kiss your life goodbye / Send me money, send me green / Heaven you will meet / Make a contribution / and you'll get a better seat / Bow to Leper Messiah". This is only the first part, and you start to pay less attention to the lyrics as the music clearly becomes the main focus. Also, for a song that's only 5:38 it sure seems a lot more epic.
Next up is Orion. This is an Instrumental. It is very arguably Metallica's best instrumental. I know that's what I think. I also think this is one of the best starship space battles I have ever heard scored for a movie. The way the explosions are captured with the snare. How you can hear the pilots heart racing with the rhythm guitar and bass. Then there's the ariel maneuvers being conducted by the lead guitar. That's before you hit the mid section and get to watch a sun rise over a planets rings, before the solar winds start blowing your vesel along the cosmos. Then it's back to the battle, and on to eternity.
The album ends with Damage, Inc. This is the shortest song on the album. This is the fastest song on the album. This song is like getting punched in the face with a jackhammer, after the angels have tried singing you to sleep with their sweeping harmony. Imagine having the most peaceful dream of your life, and then waking up in the middle of Normandy Beach on D-Day. I'm sure that's historically inaccurate, but I think the point is made.
Is this my favourite Metallica album? Nope. I'm not a critic, I'm a fan. I think this is the best album they've ever released on a song by song basis. I would never skip any of these songs as they played on my CD player, but three out of eight I don't normally listen to on my own. It's the most over played three, so take what you want from that, but I don't feel a need to hear them all that much. As for the rest of the album. It's some of the best music ever writen, especially Thingy, Leper, and Orion.
I must say that I would like to hear a digitally remastered version of this album, because the production on the original CD version is pretty lackluster.
10/10 - content
7/10 - production
8/10 - personal bias
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