Thirty Four Years A Master

Metallica’s Master Of Puppets At 34

With the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement in full swing, a bunch of pimply faced kids in San Francisco were paying notice to albums by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang and the like. A whole new scene was evolving influenced by the aforementioned and from the punk movement of years gone by. Add Motorhead to the mix, and the fledgling days of Thrash Metal were about to be unleashed to an unsuspecting public.

Metallica took all those influences and mixed them into a sound of their own. By the time the first album had landed, Metallica were already known to the scene via the success of their No Life Till Leather demo tape which was getting interest and rave reviews from magazines such as Kerrang!, Metal Forces and the Metal ‘zine scene which was prevalent at the time.

No internet here folks. No MP3s or downloads. This was raw, organic, word of mouth. Tape trading. Fanzine swapping. Independent. Power to the people.

Metallica began to show progress and growth with each of their first two albums. Ride The Lightning was years ahead of its predecessor Kill ‘Em All. The band was growing at an incredibly rapid rate and the infantile, chest beating warblings of the first album, were refined and replaced by a more mature and confident band on Ride The Lightning.

By the time Master Of Puppets was released, Metallica were well on their way to being Metal phenomenon. Every band in Metal wanted to be like them and the copycats rode their coattails with abandon.

Speed, Power, Death, Thrash Metal – Metallica invented it all. They wrote the book and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Whilst their peers were trying to play faster and faster in a fury of speed and more speed, Metallica understood full well that it wasn’t just speed that created heaviness, but dynamics as well. Sure they could blast with the best of them, but they knew when to take it down a notch. They knew when to introduce intelligence, subtlety, good lyrical concepts and fantastic musicianship throughout.

Produced once again by Flemming Rasmussen, it was the final album to feature bassist Cliff Burton who was killed tragically later in the year. To this day I will never forget my phone ringing early in the morning and my good friend Peter telling me the news. It affected us so greatly as mere fans, there is no telling what it did to the band themselves who did not fully recover for years and years after Cliff’s death. Some might say, they never have.

The album reeks of epic songs throughout. Meticulously structured and prepared, the band brought produced Rasmussen detailed and thorough demos for him to work off.

Critics outside the Metal genre were hailing it as a classic at the time of its release and it went on to become the very first Thrash Metal album to be certified platinum. An incredible achievement at the time.

An incredible album to this day…

The Fans Speak:

Derrick Kershaw I remember my older sister had ‘copied’ cassettes of this and Ride the Lightning. I didn’t really understand it at the time, but a few years later I was 15, and found her old cassette. I was just discovering Sabbath and Panteras first 2 albums, and Master of Puppets was the nail in my metal coffin. This album lead me into everything before it, as well as the Justice album just drew me on this massive Metallica journey. It was a great time to be a teenager and an amazing time to be introduced to the heavy metal landscape.

Mark Woodhouse Loved this album from the first time I heard it to the present day.

Andrew Slaidins It was a game changer, I still remember getting it on Music For Nations as an import only days after its release. I played that record to death, I still love it today. It is one of the most important records in the history of metal.

Marli Martallica Ellis It’s a life saver. Many years ago I was in a dark place and I was hanging out with some friends and one them put this album on their record player. It somehow spoke to me and I fell in love with metal music and I’ve never looked back.

Carl Neumann Changed my life. Was the second heavy metal music I heard. I was hooked.

Mark De Vattimo It means 1986

Andrew Wurster One of the greats. First Metallica album which really clicked for me after hearing The black album.

Orin Douglas Perry I was into heavy music before I heard Master of Puppets, bands like sabbath were in constant rotation in my room,but I was not prepared for this album. It changed what I thought of as metal. It changed what I was trying to do on guitar. It is still the gold standard for thrash metal to me.