Metallica's Reviews

Master Of Puppets

(Average Rating: 9.62 out of 10)

The Breakthrough

(Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by Michael K Middleton from Muzak City USA

I had vaguely heard of Metallica when I bought this album (without having heard a single note of it) when it was first released in 1986. It was much heavier and faster than the more mainstream metal of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest that I was listening to at the time, and while I never became a serious devotee of thrash metal, this remains one of my favorite discs of all time.

First of all, though, this is not Metallica's best album; it is a very close second to the follow-up, ....And Justice For All, if only because the band's songwriting skills absolutely peaked on that album. Having said that, you could definitely hear where the band was going here, and that they had moved light years ahead of Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning (possibly the most overrated Metallica album). This is the one that turned them into the Led Zeppelin of my generation.

"Battery" opens the disc by first lulling you with its acoustic classical guitar lines, then blasting you out of your chair with its monster riff and breakneck tempo. The title track is an absolute masterpiece (no pun intended), maybe one of the two or three best metal tracks ever. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" will raise the hair on the back of your neck with its eerie lyric content. And finally, "Damage, Inc." pretty much sums up the band and the musical movement they were a part of in a deafening, four-minute blast.

The songs are long, but the constant riffage and changes keep you interested, and unlike Metallica's first two records, there is no filler whatsoever. This album has held up wonderfully for nearly twenty years and still sounds fresh today. Pick this one up!

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