Sometimes the first album you hear by a particular band becomes your favourite album... I remember the first time I heard Metallica; the album was Ride the Lightning and it knocked me out. All these years later I agree Master of Puppets is killer and I love it - perhaps I can say equally as much as Ride the Lightning... (there are emotions and events tied to that album that will always affect my feelings for it).
Can't believe it's been 40 years - awesome write-up, man.
Thanks so much for checking in! I actually was turned on to Metallica by Kill 'Em All, which is even older lol. Master still does it for me insofar as their best work.
Yeah, I went back and bought Kill ‘Em All after getting their second and third albums… also ‘Garage Days Re-Revisited (The $5.98 EP)’ which is awesome. I was already a fan of Budgie so hearing Metallica’s cover of ‘Crash Course in Brain Surgery’ was classic! No doubt Master of Puppets is their best, I just have that nostalgic love of RTL, y’know.
The unifying theme in the lyrics is control and powerlessness. The unifying theme in the music is that, despite the studio and their perfectionism, the songs still sound like they were crafted in the garage. These are what give this amazing album its soul.
It’s been a beautiful 40 years with MOP. Thank you for shining a light on this very important LP.
Thanks for the in depth review. It's the one for sure to stay in my lp bins. I got the remastered recently. I'll spin it for Friday night relaxathon. Saw them twice both were very nicely done. Of course as a newbie I dug Black ⚫️ hush little baby don't you weep! But you got it right here MOP still matters.
Forty years on, what still floors me isn’t just the force—it’s the design. This record isn’t “heavy” in the blunt sense; it’s heavy because the structure holds under load.
You can hear the engineering mindset in the way the album controls tension: “Battery” lulls you into a safe reference condition and then detonates it; the title track lays out the blueprint—tension established, tension complicated, tension resolved on their terms. That last part matters. It’s not fan-service resolution; it’s internal logic completing its own cycle.
I also appreciated the way you handled Burton: present, essential, but not turned into a grief frame that overwrites what the album already was in March ’86. “Orion” really does feel like the proof-of-work track—harmonic movement, patience, and confidence that never has to announce itself.
This is one of those pieces that reminds you why Puppets keeps scaling across formats and decades: not because it’s loud, but because it’s built to last.
My favorite Metallica album...the savage attack of the guitars, the rage in the vocals, and of course the brilliance of Cliff Burton's bass are what puts it at the top for me. Cheers!!!
Great article! Love this series. I still remember opening this CD on Christmas Day sometime in the late 90s and hearing this album for the first time (along with the rest of their first four). Didn’t care about any other presents that day.
One thing I think gets overlooked about a lot of early Metallica because of course the music was so good, is that their lyricism was also top notch, hitting different rhyme schemes and achieving a rather poetic flow in a lot of instances. They clearly put a lot of effort into this area as well, and it shows. Just check out the internal rhyming in Battery.
Sometimes the first album you hear by a particular band becomes your favourite album... I remember the first time I heard Metallica; the album was Ride the Lightning and it knocked me out. All these years later I agree Master of Puppets is killer and I love it - perhaps I can say equally as much as Ride the Lightning... (there are emotions and events tied to that album that will always affect my feelings for it).
Can't believe it's been 40 years - awesome write-up, man.
Thanks so much for checking in! I actually was turned on to Metallica by Kill 'Em All, which is even older lol. Master still does it for me insofar as their best work.
Yeah, I went back and bought Kill ‘Em All after getting their second and third albums… also ‘Garage Days Re-Revisited (The $5.98 EP)’ which is awesome. I was already a fan of Budgie so hearing Metallica’s cover of ‘Crash Course in Brain Surgery’ was classic! No doubt Master of Puppets is their best, I just have that nostalgic love of RTL, y’know.
The unifying theme in the lyrics is control and powerlessness. The unifying theme in the music is that, despite the studio and their perfectionism, the songs still sound like they were crafted in the garage. These are what give this amazing album its soul.
It’s been a beautiful 40 years with MOP. Thank you for shining a light on this very important LP.
Thanks for the comment Carl.
Thanks for the in depth review. It's the one for sure to stay in my lp bins. I got the remastered recently. I'll spin it for Friday night relaxathon. Saw them twice both were very nicely done. Of course as a newbie I dug Black ⚫️ hush little baby don't you weep! But you got it right here MOP still matters.
Forty years on, what still floors me isn’t just the force—it’s the design. This record isn’t “heavy” in the blunt sense; it’s heavy because the structure holds under load.
You can hear the engineering mindset in the way the album controls tension: “Battery” lulls you into a safe reference condition and then detonates it; the title track lays out the blueprint—tension established, tension complicated, tension resolved on their terms. That last part matters. It’s not fan-service resolution; it’s internal logic completing its own cycle.
I also appreciated the way you handled Burton: present, essential, but not turned into a grief frame that overwrites what the album already was in March ’86. “Orion” really does feel like the proof-of-work track—harmonic movement, patience, and confidence that never has to announce itself.
This is one of those pieces that reminds you why Puppets keeps scaling across formats and decades: not because it’s loud, but because it’s built to last.
My favorite Metallica album...the savage attack of the guitars, the rage in the vocals, and of course the brilliance of Cliff Burton's bass are what puts it at the top for me. Cheers!!!
Yes, yes, and yes! Thanks Chuck :)
Great article! Love this series. I still remember opening this CD on Christmas Day sometime in the late 90s and hearing this album for the first time (along with the rest of their first four). Didn’t care about any other presents that day.
One thing I think gets overlooked about a lot of early Metallica because of course the music was so good, is that their lyricism was also top notch, hitting different rhyme schemes and achieving a rather poetic flow in a lot of instances. They clearly put a lot of effort into this area as well, and it shows. Just check out the internal rhyming in Battery.