My love for Metallica isn’t a secret. I’ve written about them multiple times on this site and I’ve used them and their status to make arguments on why metal fans can act quite entitled and I’ve used them as an example of how there may never be another metal band that reaches their level ever again. Also, for funsies, I created my own personal Best Of album, which featured 21 tracks from their discography.
When it comes to Metallica’s discography, there are pretty much two schools of thought on which album is the most popular: You’ve got the camp that backs …And Justice For All and the team that is gung-ho behind Master of Puppets. Me personally? I’m in the latter group.
That brings us to today, March 3rd, 2016. Exactly 30 years ago today, Metallica released the groundbreaking and unbelievably influential album Master of Puppets, an album which would go on to shape and alter the course of metal as we know it.
While there hasn’t been and update for a while on how many units the album has sold, the last official count I can find places it at over 6 million units, which means the album is officially six times platinum, an achievement that few artists can proclaim. It just goes to show that the album is one that people keep coming back to, even after all these years.
After releasing the blistering Ride the Lightning, Metallica’s third studio album would prove to be a landmark success but also a somber memory as it was the last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton before his tragic death in a bus accident while the band was doing their support tour. But that pain only reinforces the difficult and troubling topics that are tackled on this album, such as drugs, violence, and mental health.
I remember buying this album and feeling like a fucking sledgehammer had been taken to my face. The opening track “Battery” has a deceptive acoustic opening, one that makes you turn the volume up only to have your ear drums ruptured by the explosion of distortion, drums and guitars that shriek, shred, and suddenly come together to form one of the tightest and most driving riffs still to this day. Plus, the track has one of my favorite drum fills ever.
And when “Battery” is over, we move over to the title track, and song that has since become one of the band’s most famous offerings and a mainstay in their live performances. The journey of brutal heaviness to its beautiful interlude and back into insanity is one that every metal fan needs to undertake at some point in their life. It’s basically a rite of passage.
From the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired “The Thing That Should Not Be” to the fantastic instrumental “Orion” back to the beautiful-in-its-own-right “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” to the thrash metal majesty that is “Damage, Inc.”, Master of Puppets is an album that has withstood the test of time to become one of the most important albums ever released. And that’s not confining it just to the metal genre. That’s an overarching statement for all genres. If you’re someone who actively studies and appreciates music, not having Master of Puppets in your collection should be a punishable offense.