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Release Date: March 3rd, 1986
Record Label: Elektra
My rating:
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It was a normal Sunday morning in the autumn of 1986 during my first year of college. I woke up late morning to the smell of eggs and bacon cooking downstairs. After washing up and going downstairs for breakfast, I picked up the Sunday paper and started skimming through different sections. My favorite was the Entertainment section. I was always hoping to find some news about one of my favorite rock and metal bands (no such thing as the internet at that time). Each time was so cool to find something about a metal band in a regular newspaper. Maybe a new album release or an upcoming concert tour, and then I came across this disturbing headline which read:
Waterbury American News: September 28, 1986
Crash kills musician
LJUNGBY, Sweden (AP) - A member of the American rock group Metallica was killed and the eight other band members were injured Saturday when their van crashed on an icy road, police reported.
They said Clifford Lee Burton, the 24 year old bassist for the heavy-metal group, was killed, but they did not have any further information about him.
Needless to say I was stunned and shocked! Just five months before, I saw Metallica open up for Ozzy at the New Haven Coliseum on April 24, 1986. While most of my friends were stoked about Ozzy, I was more excited to finally see this relatively new band that never played Connecticut before. And Metallica blew Ozzy off the stage with only nine songs: Battery, Master Of Puppets, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ride The Lightning, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Seek and Destroy, Creeping Death, Am I Evil and Damage Inc. I still remember being amazed a Cliff Burton whipping his hair in windmill fashion while still laying down thunderous bass and keeping the band in the pocket. To hear these songs for the first time live was an experience I will never forget. Little did I know, it would be the one and only time I would see Cliff Burton play live.
After reading the news of Cliff Burtons death, I slowly went to my room and put in my cassette tape of Master Of Puppets and pressed PLAY. And I honored Cliff by cranking my boom box and headbanging for the next 54 minutes and 39 seconds. Master Of Puppets is exactly what my eighteen year old ears had longed to hear.
From the opening acoustic guitar notes of "Battery", I already knew that Master Of Puppets was going to be a masterpiece thirty nine seconds into the song, when the whole band cranked into a mid tempo dual harmony guitar part. And then at one minute and six seconds my head nearly exploded when the band stopped and I heard that classic single guitar riff at lightning speed leading into the intensity of Lars Ulrich's drumming and Kirk Hammett's melodic solo followed by what seemed like thousands of blazing fast notes. And I've always loved how James yelled with a certain emphasis, "BATTERY". It was different and infectious.
The albums' title track follows with arguably the most recognizable, monstrous, 80's Metallica riff, beloved by every headbanger and guitar player. Without a doubt, the song "Master Of Puppets", is early progressive metal at its finest. The multiple changes in tempo from verse to chorus to the slow melodic bridge with Kirk's dynamic guitar solo building up to the crescendo heavy stomping "MASTER...MASTER" chant then again into a blistering guitar solo before going back to the main riff. The "MASTER...MASTER" chant always reminds of seeing Metallica again in November of 1986, this time with newcomer Jason Newsted on bass, headlining their first small club tour with Metal Church supporting. It was cold and rainy outside this small club with a capacity of about 800. And the venue would not open the doors until 7:30 pm. As the rain intensified, a crowd of about 100 metalheads in various stages of sobriety, started banging on the front doors and chanting in unison, "MASTER...MASTER...Open the door. MASTER...MASTER...Open the door." It worked because the doors opened 15 minutes early. This epic track is definitely in the top 5 heavy metal songs of all time.
"The Thing That Should Not Be" opens with a slow, dark, undistorted chorus guitar effect. This sets the stage for moody, mid tempo downtuned chunking guitars. The short guitar solo displays Kirk's trademark wah wah effect with whammy bar dive bombs. A cool song, but if there is any weak spot on this album, it's this song.
Metallica's version of a power ballad, "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", closes Side 1 of the album by starting with some melodic harmonics that lead into a beautifully crafted and controlled guitar solo which I continue to play and enjoy on my guitar to this day. During the "Sanitarium" chorus, I love how the drums and guitars double and mirror each other's beat perfectly. The song begins to speed up to the bridge, "Fear of living on. Natives getting restless now. Mutiny in the air. Got some death to do." A classic Kirk guitar solo ends with dual guitars doing three descending E string slides in between chords before slowing down to a heavy studder riff ending.
I love the opening track of Side 2, "Disposable Heroes", with its machine gun guitar riff, pounding drums and crashing cymbals. As the opening riff stops and the cymbals swell, the random juxtaposition of one guitar playing the fast, machine-gun, guitar riff and the other playing slow & heavy distorted chords before going into the verse, always puts chills down my spine. The "BACK TO THE FRONT!" chorus provides the perfect words for this war-themed song.
The opening of "Leper Messiah" with a simple 5 count on the cymbals always reminds me that Metallica was still a glorified garage band. Something of which they took pride. The down and dirty raw guitar riffs on this song echoed Metallica's distaste of the televangelists of the 1980's, which proved prophetic as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker greedily amassed millions while they hypocritically denied the Christ that they claimed to follow by being exposed for their infamous business and sex scandals.
"Orion" is literally Cliff Burton's epic swan song as it was appropriately played during his funeral. The fade in of the distorted bass and drums brings us to a heavy, mid-tempo riff that provides the foundation for this monumental structure of a song. Cliff's bass playing stands out all over the place on this track. From the fast fingered bass solos, to the trance-like spacey mid-section featuring harmonized bass melodies that are often mistaken for guitars. Very tasty, melodic and fast guitar solos are provided by both James and Kirk. In my opinion, this is the greatest metal instrumental song ever!
"Damage, Inc." finishes off the album with an all out speed, thrash song that keeps hitting you in the face for 5 plus minutes. The loud thrash guitars are brilliantly contrasted by the briefly whispered chorus of "Damage Incorporated". I love the bridge in this song as it is similar in musical framework to the intro in "Disposable Heroes". Kirk's lightning fast acrobatic guitar solo is spectacular to say the least. Learning to play this song with my band proved challenging but it was just what I needed to keep pushing my abilities to the next level.
As I look back 25 years, the year 1986 was a turning point in my life as it was for Metallica. Not only was that the year I ended an era by graduating high school and starting my new life as an adult with the future unknown, but it was also the year that I saw the sad end to an era with the passing of Cliff Burton, sending Metallica into an unknown future with Jason Newsted.
Of course Master Of Puppets gets 10 out of 10 stars. That's a no brainer. But only two words can fully describe the rollercoaster ride of musical emotions that make up the essence of this masterpiece known as Master Of Puppets...Beautifully Metal.
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