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Metallica - Master Of Puppets review



Reviewer:
8.3

3836 users:
9.25
Band: Metallica
Album: Master Of Puppets
Release date: February 1986


01. Battery
02. Master Of Puppets
03. The Thing That Should Not Be
04. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
05. Disposable Heroes
06. Leper Messiah
07. Orion
08. Damage, Inc.

I know I am in the minority here, but I don't care. Coffee is not as bad for you as everyone says it is, ten million Coldplay fans are wrong and Master Of Puppets is not Metallica's best album. This album is considered to be a classic and it is a great effort, but it is no Ride The Lightning. Master Of Puppets may have become more popular than Metallica's first two albums and it may be every critic's darling but that alone does not make it a better album or the greatest thrash record of all time. What matters is the music itself and therein lies my problem with considering this album a mind blowing masterpiece, which it is not.

I can find no better analogy for how Metallica's first three albums sound than their respective cover art: Kill Them All has a murder weapon on its cover, Ride The Lighting has an execution device, and Master Of Puppets simply has graves. This is most fitting, because Metallica's inspiration (with the exception of writing good lyrics) was somewhat dead too by the time they got to their third album. Master Of Puppets does sound epic just like Kill Them Alll and Ride The Lightning, but the epicness is forced this time. The solos, the vocals and even some of those famous riffs lack the true killing spark that made the previous albums so great. Many of the tracks are long for the sake of being long; they outstay their welcome by a good few minutes and become repetitive. While it is undeniable that Master Of Puppets contains some awesome riffs, it is also undeniable that when a good thing is repeated too much, it becomes boring. "The Thing That Should Not Be" is a good example of this. It is a good riff, but when you hear it for the hundredth time, it isn't quite so exciting anymore. The sign of a truly great song is the feeling that you want to hear it again immediately after it's over, only a few songs on Master Of Puppets have this effect and the rest leave one exhausted from the repetition. To sum it all up: professionalism and repetition do not make up for the loss of true inspiration, which is the problem with Master Of Puppets even though - I need to emphasize this - it is still a good album.

The reason for the comparisons to Kill Them All and Ride The Lightning in this review were not to praise those albums, but to point out that Master Of Puppets is not that great for one simple reason: Metallica's previous albums demonstrated that they could do much better than this. Master Of Puppets will no doubt remain a favorite for most Metallica fans, for this reviewer it will remain a good, but somewhat disappointing follow-up to two thrash metal masterpieces.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 9

Written by Cal Wolvington | 06.06.2012




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Guest review by
Iced Iñigo
Rating:
10
A classic between classics and the top of Metallica like a band. The album that made history, the cd of the cds, the best album of the best band. The album that any person who wants to know what is that world called Metal music needs to have, and listen to.

From the intro of "Battery" to the last guitar riff of "Damage Inc." the cd is just perfect, incredible and all the adjectives you want. In this album Metallica composed the song of songs: "Master of Puppets", astonishing. 8 minutes 38 seconds of pure Metal. The virtuosity on composing of Metallica appears clearly in that song. In Master of Puppets some songs are really dark and paranoid like "The Thing that should not Be". A ballad is also included, which is called "Welcome Home " and Metallica still includes in this album an instrumental track: "Orion"

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published 22.09.2003 | Comments (125)

Guest review by
Motoroverkill
Rating:
9.3
Master of Puppets is a master class in structuring an album, The tracks and the way they're ordered is near perfection. A landmark album. Master Of Puppets is a timeless classic, A hybrid, Which features the best characteristics of many different kinds of metal. Many people consider it one of the greatest albums of all time and for good reason.

Read more ››
published 25.01.2010 | Comments (23)


Comments page 3 / 3

Comments: 67   Visited by: 301 users
09.06.2012 - 16:26
Rating: 9
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 09.06.2012 at 13:43
Jason also co-wrote Dyer's Eve and One, on the cd his credits there have been removed but they are there on the original vinyl pressing of the album (just checked it to make sure)


Couldn't the credits on the cd have been a correction, rather than a mistake? I had the cassette version years ago too, and as far as I can recall, on that too, Jason was only given a co-credit for "Blackened"...
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09.06.2012 - 16:31
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Angelic Storm on 09.06.2012 at 16:26


Couldn't the credits on the cd have been a correction, rather than a mistake? I had the cassette version years ago too, and as far as I can recall, on that too, Jason was only given a co-credit for "Blackened"...


Last off topic post here, from me as well, no the credits on the vinyl I am sure were right. Because I remember from interviews prior to and just after the release of AJFA that Lars and James mentioned that Jason co-wrote Blackened, One and Dyer's Eve.
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09.06.2012 - 16:55
Timmeh
Dudeman
I agree with what you say about 'The Thing That Should Not Be', it most certainly is the thing that should not be on this album. It makes the 6 minutes it goes for seem like 15 because of the overload of boring.
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27.07.2012 - 18:56
ADIresiduos

Definetley the best Metallica album..... for me and............ well........... some millions more out there...... \m/ \m/
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26.07.2015 - 17:19
Rating: 10
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
You're not alone I also think this is best and Coldplay lol where is that band, no MTv2 what show their stupid videos, band is in I don't know, this band , this album specially still kicking , good example
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08.05.2016 - 21:08
Rating: 10
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Coldplay fans who cares its like talking about Romanian dude what Is metal and what is not and about films to ... like talk about prog fans ehjhh
This is decent album I like long songs, its a bit emotional, maybe most emotional album in whole thrash genre, maybe that's why band is bigger, rest just was copy? who cares, I personally think Welcome Home is awesome song and best what band ever wrote.
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
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I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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29.03.2019 - 00:25
Rating: 9
NortheRnmost

Quote:
Metallica's inspiration (with the exception of writing good lyrics) was somewhat dead too by the time they got to their third album.


Maybe because Mustaine's licks were already exploited on previous albums 8)
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