Metallica
Master Of Puppets

THE REVIEW

MASTER OF PUPPETS... It was the year 1986, the year of Cliff Burton's death, the year of this album that I would define as nothing short of PERFECT; there is no Metallica album that succeeded better. In this platter, there's everything: aggressiveness, thrash metal, slowness, but also anger... a lot of anger.

The intro of the album is nothing short of exceptional and fitting: "Battery" is characterized by its powerful and raw riffs, but also the enigmatic nature of its intro. The song develops well; it's the classic successful Metallica song as it could have been in 1983 when they were still young, like "Phantom Lord" or "No Remorse". The track is aggressive enough, it's truly the perfect intro to an album that is even more so. Does the second track need descriptions?? I don't think so; we all know "Master of Puppets", and every self-respecting metalhead knows it even if that person happens to be a black metal fan (which I am not because I abhor black metal). Since "Kill 'em All", Metallica had broken free from every constraint by releasing very long songs of 6-7 minutes (at the time very long), and now the four want to go further and release even longer songs, about 8-9 minutes in length. This is exactly what characterizes this album: the length of the songs. Many skeptics might insinuate that long songs can be boring and repetitive; maybe this can be true for "St. Anger," but not for a Thrash metal masterpiece like "Master of Puppets".

Let's move on to the third song.

"The things that should not be" is a song that flows very well, decently built, and with Metallica's trademark thrash: the clean guitar without distortion at the track's incipit. Let's remember that the clean and/or acoustic guitar had already appeared in the album "Ride the Lightning" in the song "Fade to Black". Initially, the song was criticized because it didn't seem like a thrash song, the trademark of the four, but later it was rehabilitated as a beautiful song, though never appreciated by the fans.

The next song is destined to have ENORMOUS success: "(Welcome home) Sanitarium". What can I say... The song is wonderfully constructed, linear, fluid, and also fun at first listening.

Obviously, anyone who thinks this album can be enjoyed passively... well... I'm sorry to say... but they're making a big mistake... Metallica from "Kill'em All" (KeA) have matured, grown... they had already demonstrated this with "Ride the Lightning" (RtL) and with "Master of Puppets" (MoP), they demonstrate and continue to assert this. To review MoP, I had to listen to this album about ten times, research, etc., etc... Since RtL, Metallica can no longer be listened to passively but require active and thoughtful listening.

Let's continue the review after this small and brief parenthesis.

The following song is, in my opinion, the third most beautiful on this album: "Disposable Heroes"... there are no words to describe it, because you can't describe a masterpiece like MoP; in front of "Disposable Heroes" one can only bow because it's truly a spectacular song... The record continues with "Leper Messiah", which has been defined as one of the least successful (WHICH DOES NOT MEAN BAD!!!!) of MoP; however, I dispute this statement by saying that "Leper Messiah" is the fifth most beautiful song on this record.

From RtL onwards, instrumental songs will become another Metallica trademark. In RtL there was a (I hope you allow me this term) "musical orgasm" of 8 minutes called "The Call of Ktulu", in MoP there is another one, of equal length but different name "Orion". I reiterate that these two songs are real and proper "musical orgasms". It concludes, in my opinion, with the least successful song of the album, "Damage, Inc.". In itself the track is also nice, but it doesn't thrill me that much.

1986: Cliff dies... MoP becomes one of humanity's most beautiful records, and Metallica, after Cliff's death, were about to break up...

What a year, What an album, What a band it was...

P.S. This review has already been done countless times but please read it anyway.

Kissarmy