Metallica's third album, Master of Puppets, is rightfully considered one of the greatest metal albums of all-time, and certainly the greatest thrash metal album ever (apologies to Slayer's Reign in Blood). The album's themes are generally insanity, loss of control, war, and drugs.
Metallica (and thrash metal in general) was still relatively underground when this album was released. Without any airplay or any videos, the album made it to #29 on the Billboard charts and went gold. It has since gone 6x platinum. Sadly, it was the last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who died when the band's tour bus overturned in Sweden while the band was touring to support the album.
Whereas yesterday's album, Diarrhea Planet's Loose Jewels, was 11 songs in 19 minutes, Master of Puppets is 8 songs in 54 minutes. Each song is a complicated interweaving of lightning-fast guitars, throaty vocals, insane bass lines, and thunderous drums. People always think of Metallica's music (and metal in general) as gruff or sometimes unintelligible, but that's not really fair. Their musicianship is second to none, and their songs are really well composed, often with classical and symphonic qualities (for instance, the musical interlude in the title track). They just also happen to play really fast.
Among the many accolades Master of Puppets has received are the following:
-inclusion in TIME Magazines's "All-TIME 100 Albums" list
-inclusion in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
-Number 167 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
And it's one of the few Rocktober albums with all of its songs on Playlist.com. Does Lars know about that?
1. "Battery"
At 5:12, "Battery" is the shortest song on the album. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in power. (That's what she said.) It starts off slow, then twin lead guitars bust in with a slow intro until a little after a minute, when shit gets real, the tempo picks up, Burton goes crazy on the bass, and suddenly you're pushing the guy next to you on the train.
2. "Master of Puppets"
Over the past couple years, now that bars have moved to electronic jukeboxes that allow you to play just about anything, "Master of Puppets" has become a jukebox favorite of mine, especially after some idiot plays dance music. It's a bar, not a club. Obey your master. This is, quite simply, a badass song. It has a great riff and a great driving beat, a slowed-down interlude that allows you to take a breather, before the song crescendos back into madness. The song is considered a metal classic, as evidenced by the following:
-It is #3 on VH1's list of the greatest heavy metal songs ever.
-It is #22 on Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks list.
-It is #2 in Martin Popoff's book, The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time, ranked by about 18,000 musicians, metal fans, and journalists.
-It is #1 on Total Guitar Magazine's 100 Greatest Riffs poll.
3. "The Thing That Should Not Be"
This one has a nice groove to it. The title could be about nearly anything, from a shark with one eye to a chick with a dick to Purdue University.
4. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
Lead singer and lead Metallica lyricist James Hetfield wrote this as a tribute to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's a great song that is generally slow and plodding, then picks up the tempo for the break and Kirk Hammett shredding on some insane solos. Get it? Insane? Sanitarium?
5. "Disposable Heroes"
This is another badass song, and probably my second favorite on the album after the title track (and I know it's my buddy Gregerson's favorite song on the album). "You will die / When I say / You must die." Why so angry? Like "One" on their 1988 album And Justice For All . . . , "Disposable Heroes" is, for the most part, sung from the perspective of a soldier at war. He is coming to grips with the destruction and devastation of war and his inability to control anything. Musically, like "One," the song simulates war, with thundering drums and bass, and machine gun guitars.
6. "Leper Messiah"
Lepers are an odd lot, aren't they? Messiahs, too. You wouldn't think the two would mix, but they do on this plodding metal tour de force. More than anything, this song makes me happy because I am finally able to use the phrase "plodding metal tour de force."
7. "Orion"
This song is an eight-and-a-half-minute instrumental (or would it be an "instrumetal"?), featuring Burton playing "lead bass" (i.e., playing a melody with his bass). It was played at Burton's funeral. Interestingly, it has been covered by Mexican acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, who, interestingly, met when they were members of a thrash metal band.
8. "Damage, Inc."
In addition to being an awesome metal song, "Damage, Inc." is a great name for an intramural softball team or a linebacking corps.
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