Thursday, December 31, 2009

Albums That Blew My Mind: "Master of Puppets" by Metallica

If you've known me for any length of time in the last thirteen to fourteen years, you know that music has played and continues to play a major role in my life. From time to time I plan to go into more detail on certain albums that played a big part in the development of my musical taste and styling. Most of the albums I'll be going over are well known. The point of this is to explain how I came to love the record, as well as its specific impact on me, not a song by song breakdown or a review of the album.

There is no album more deserving to begin with than
Metallica's 1986 masterpiece, Master of Puppets.


I was first exposed to this monster in the spring of 1997, when I was in seventh grade. Metallica was not an alien band to me at the time; I had been listening to Chicago's main rock station, 103.5 for a few years, and was familiar with the stuff from the self titled album (it was the first CD I ever bought) as well as the singles from Load ("Ain't My Bitch," "Until It Sleeps"). One of my friends told me that if I liked those songs, I should check out Metallica's older stuff. He lent me his copy of Puppets, and I headed home to check it out. At this point, I was just happy to have another disc to put in my new CD boom box. I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially with the cover art's ominous look.

What I got was a sledgehammer to the eardrums. I had
NEVER heard anything like it. As soon as the distorted guitars kicked in at the 38 second mark of "Battery" I was hooked. It was the fastest, loudest, meanest music I had ever experienced.

Every song on the album is killer. There is literally no filler to be found. The songs are complex, yet still accessible.
Metallica goes from heavy as all hell (tell me you don't want to just break stuff when you hear the title track or "Leper Messiah") to soft (relatively speaking) and reflective in the middle section of "Orion." James' monster right hand and rhythm technique are on display throughout. Kirk's solos blaze. Lars sounds possessed on the drums, and it's astounding to know that Cliff didn't use a pick for any of the bass lines. It's 55 minutes of metal perfection. There's a reason why this album is listed either at or near the top of almost every list of best metal records ever made. It has become popular in the last decade or so to bash Metallica (many times fairly), but anyone who denies the power of Master of Puppets is simply hating on Metallica. I honestly believe it is impossible to like heavy music and not enjoy this record.

So, what did
Puppets do for me?

For starters, it was my proper introduction to heavy metal. Everything about it just seemed so dangerous. There was the album cover, with its crosses, puppet strings, and the army helmet, which just looked so damn threatening. It sure looked different than the other albums I had seen. There were the songs about drugs, violence, war, death, and other things that were much more adult than what was popular at the time. The picture in the back of the booklet showed Cliff Burton (bass) flipping the bird, and the rest of the band looked just as pissed off. I was (and am) an extremely shy person, and this image appealed to me. I didn't know much about this metal stuff, but I sure wanted to learn more.

It also got me interested in guitar. After seeing some other pictures of the "old" James
Hetfield on the Internet (remember, by '97 Hetfield had short hair and was well dressed, which took some of the edge off) with his Gibson Explorer strapped super low, I thought there was nothing cooler. For being as shy and quiet as I was (and am), something about having the ability to create an ungodly amount of noise sounded pretty nice. Although it would take a few years to convince my parents to buy me another instrument after my failures at viola and oboe, the seeds were planted with Puppets. An Explorer shaped guitar is still on my guitar "to buy" list, mainly because of James. I still think James is untouchable from a cool standpoint from the mid '80s to the early '90s.


This album will probably always occupy the #1 in personally important albums. It's the only record I literally say changed my life.

Some songs to check out:

"Master of Puppets" live in 1986

"Orion" live in 2006 (starts at 1:40)

"Battery" live in 1989


Rest in peace, Cliff. Bang the head that does not bang.

So, What's the Point?

I figure explaining why I'm starting a blog in 2010 is as good of a way to begin my writing as any. There are several reasons why I've decided to start putting my thoughts and opinions to this page:

1. I admit there is a certain level of narcissism involved. If I didn't think my opinions were at least worth reading and thinking about, I wouldn't bother sharing them.

2. To a certain extent, I'm doing this as a type of mental time capsule. I want to look back a few months from now and see what I was thinking.

3. Everything that I write about will hopefully be open for debate. If you disagree, let me know on here or in person.

4. I enjoy writing, and don't really get the chance to do it much these days.

5. I'm a geek. It's how I roll.

This isn't going to be a LiveJournal styled diary. I plan on focusing mainly on my interests of music, sports, movies, and the like. From time to time I'll give my take on a political issue, but I'm not looking to go super heavy here. Like I said, if you read something you like, let me know. If you read something you don't like, let me know.

With that said, here.... we..... go.