Master of Puppets is the album that put Metallica into the consciousness of every metal head in America back in 1986-87. Only those deepest in the scene heard Kill Em All or Ride the Lightning BEFORE Puppets. Many argue that Puppets is the apex of Metallica's songwriting and playing. There's another contingent that says And Justice For All was the same.
The album starts off with Spanish influenced acoustic intro that leads right into the bombast of Battery. Excellent songwriting on this tune...the acoustic subtlety goes into some orchestral electric "giganticness" and then the thrash breaks loose at breakneck speed. Lyrically, I've always thought this song to be in the same vein as Hit the Lights and Whiplash, about Metallica's live show with battery referring to the insanity found out in the mosh pits of metal shows in small clubs in those days. Battery also refers to the percussion section of an orchestra. Is the song about Metallica's full force audio assault? Or does a closer look could throw this into the realm of James's revealing of his personal demons. The strongest evidence that suggests this might be the case is "cannot kill the family, battery is found in me." It seems that James could be singing about things that would pop up again and again on later albums, throwing blame at his parent for his anger, hostility, anxiety, and depression. But that's to be explored at a later time.
Master of Puppets...perhaps the best Metallica song of all time. Lars's kick drum paired with Cliff's bass punctuate the heavy stops and make this song a monster. The song is so well-crafted, all parts vital. About 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the song takes a break and becomes very soft and beautiful. There are some twin guitar harmonic leads that are quite elegant. This mellow interlude lasts about a minute and a half before the song kicks back into gear with the power chords, the pounding percussion, and the end of each measure is punctuated with the bass and kick drum. For anyone just getting into Metallica or trying to introduce another to the world of Metallica, this song is the place to start.
The Thing that Should Not Be- this song weighs seven tons. It's heavy. Much slower than most of the thrash Metallica creates, Thing stands out so much because of its pace. But it works so well on this album because it leads perfectly into the down tempo Sanitarium. Another metaphorical song about Hetfield's mental anguish.
Sanitarium...more of Het's psychosis. Nice mellow opening. Sounds so soft and delicate after Thing. As the song builds a dreamy sound scape lifts the listener through clouds of placidity. I think Limp Bizkit once covered this for VH1 Rock Honors....and they did one hell of a job. Quite surprising. This is just another excellent song. It slows the album down and gives it some depth and space to breath. After Battery and Puppets, Thing slows the pace down and this widens the fissure from the thrash assault, well, until about the 4 minute mark. That's when the song kicks back into the thrash and blazes.
Disposable Heroes is so lighting fast and heavy there isn't much to say that hasn't been said before. The first riff after the intro sounds like and idling hot rod. The song blazes and grooves at the same time. Another interesting song lyrically. On the surface it seems to be a simple criticism of a nation's willingness to sacrifice its young in war. If you look at it metaphorically, it could be another song where James disguises his personal war with the world. The evidence for that lies in the line "life planned out before my birth nothing could i say." Again, this could be address further later but i only do so here as I have a theory that this is perhaps Metallica's most fully developed concept album. Lighting was about death, Puppets is about James. I'll get to that in a second.
I love the fact that Leper Messiah opens with someone in the band counting off the start of the song without it being edited out. This song grooves as it opens and reminds me a bit of Frayed Ends off Justice. Trying doing the Wizard of Oz singing monkey thing (oh wee oh, wee oh oh) over it here and it works. This is another slower tempo million ton song. So heavy, yet it still manages to groove.
Orion is a monster. How does it compare with Ktulu and To Live is to Die? Subject for another time. But if you needed some background music in your movie during a pre-battle scene, or a crime movie where the thieves are prepping for the big heist, or a football movie where the team is getting ready to take the field, this is your song.
Damage Inc.....opens with some simple harmonic sounds. Then breaks into some really ugly distorted guitar. This is the sound of anger. This is the sound of hate. This is full throttle. Another great song. The fact they close the album out on such a brutal note ties this album directly with Justice. Dyer's Eve might be the only song that competes with this for full and total fury.
Overall, this might just be Metallica's best album. Not necessarily my favorite, that's to be decided when I look at the others in depth. I have a tendency to feel nostalgic toward Justice just because so much of my formative development was spent with that playing in a car tape deck, a boom box at a party or in my teenage bedroom thorough my stereo system. The mixing and production is less "tinny" than RTL but still muddier than Kill Em. Although I like the sound of Kill Em All better because you can hear each player individually at all times, the sound on Master suits it well, better than RTL becasue that sound takes away from a killer album. The fury and aggression of Puppets comes across in its sound. RTL loses some power because it sounds weak. Pupppets sounds like it wants to kill your family.
As a concept album, Puppets is far more realized than RTL. Follow the "story." Battery starts out expressing the rage and fury of the protagonist. He's got to unload, unleash, and rage. Puppets, clearly a song about drug addiction, could also be looked at as a song about anxiety and depression as the "master." Let's just keep it as a drug abuse song for simplicity's sake. The protagonist becomes a victim to addiction because there is no other way to channel his aggression, anger and hatred. His escape becomes its own nightmare. The Thing That Should Not Be is about the madness lurking under the surface of the protagonist. Very similar to Trapped Under Ice, this "thing" is just waiting to break out and escape. Sanitarium is next and the protagonist is still struggling with managing to live in the world at large while keeping the crazy inside under wraps. Disposable heroes displays the war between the protagonist and the world he must be a part of. Leper Messiah shows that like the drug addiction in Master, there is no salvation in religion. Its false, phony, and fake claims of compassion and guidance are just ploys to fill financial coffers. Orion is a wordless...make of it what you will. If this were a movie the director could flash back to definitive scenes of character development from earlier in the film then show him about to break out and break free from his demons by accepting them and then slide into Damage Inc. Here the protagonist accepts that he will always be damaged and fucked and they only way he can cope is through aggressive behavior. Like Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, there is no escape, there is no relief, there is only yourself and nothing lasts.
Grade: A+
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