Review by Sonny for Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)

It is with some trepidation I approach an attempt to review Master of Puppets. I mean, what can I add to the volumes rightfully heaping praise on one of metal's all-time greatest releases? I have related elsewhere how I discovered thrash metal through Metallica's previous album Ride the Lightning and so when MoP was released I was looking forward to it with great excitement. Even that didn't prepare me for how awesome a record Metallica had laid before the metal world. The progression from RtL to MoP was every bit as impressive as from the debut to that classic.
Bookended by the two most straight-up aggressive tracks, Battery and Damage Inc., the album was a masterclass in jaw-dropping metal songwriting and flawless execution. Complex songs with one of the absolute tightest ever metal performances committed to record, this album single-handedly took metal to a whole different level. Master of Puppets itself may be the single best metal track of all-time, a perfect storm of controlled aggression and meaningful songwriting that is one for the ages. The crawling menace of The Thing That Should Not Be and it's Lovacraftian imagery of unspeakable evil should set your neck hairs on end. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) closes out side one and is as sorrowful a song as Metallica ever wrote, the despair and helplessness of the song's protagonist laid bare for all to see.
Side two kicks off with Disposable Heroes, it's galloping main riff has always been one of my favourites and Cliff's bass-playing here is fantastic. It's anti-war sentiment is also atypical for a metal band and yet another thing that set Metallica apart from the herd. Next up is Leper Messiah and despite still being a good song, I feel it is the album's weakest link. Orion is one of the great metal instrumentals, it's throbbing riff is a great foundation for the guitar work of Hetfield and Hammett. In light of future events, the bass line halfway through the song after the first pause brings a metaphorical tear to my eye every time I hear it, particularly when the mournful-sounding guitar solo kicks in over the top of it, almost like a portent of things to come. Damage Inc. closes out the album in violent style, both musically and lyrically.
It's easy to knock Metallica in hindsight and they rightly deserve a lot of the kicking they get, becoming a complete joke in later years with their rock star crap. But no matter what, they will always have made this album and no amount of Some Kind of Monster or St. Anger bullshit can change that. The sad passing of Cliff Burton had some bearing on the direction Metallica went in later years, of that I am sure, but this is as fine a memorial to that legendary human being and metal musician as it is possible to have. R.I.P Cliff. You have been missed.