"Master of Puppets": 40 years of unlikely metal history
40 years ago, Metallica set new standards for everyone in their wake and vicinity. Here's how.
Welcome to Where Time Stands Still
In 1986, while heavy metal had risen to a certain level of fame, it was still widely scorned in mainstream culture. The Cold War was nearing its end. Gorbatchev was implementing his Glasnost reform campaign, signifying the advent of more freedom of expression in huge parts of the world.
However, Reaganism was nearing its peak in the United States. Conservative-Christian institutions like the PMRC, based on ignorance and paranoia, had started popping up as a counter-reaction to "unclean" music, and especially to metal's growing pervasiveness, seeking to further stigmatize and ostracize the genre. Sure, up-and-coming musicians still had 20+ years before having to compete on YouTube against millions of peers. But the established record companies were still dictating the order of the day – not necessarily in favor of the artists.
In the midst of all this, Metallica transcended thrash metal by releasing an LP so ambitious, dynamic, and, at the same time, often paradoxically humanly relatable that eventually, the mainstream had to stop and take note. Whether they liked it or not.
And as nobody would have predicted back then, the result wrote itself into music history. Whether music history liked it or not.
Lashing Out the Action
Once again learning and growing from their preceding studio LP – in this case, 1984's "Ride the Lightning" – primary songwriters James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were inspired and hungry like never before. Having learned invaluable music theory from then-bassist Cliff Burton, the duo deliberately set out to, once again, both one-up themselves in terms of meticulous composition and distinguish the new LP from its predecessor. And you hear it right from the beginning.
Where "… Lightning" started out with an almost baroque-like high-note clean intro in a pure Major key, new opener "Battery" builds up with ominous chromatics on the deepest end of the fretboard. But it does so in a melodically recognizable progression, severe chord hammer-blows escalating into a more complex and sophisticated, yet equally crushing version of thrash metal than the world had ever known.
Unless you count aforementioned opening intro from "… Lightning", nobody had ever heard a metal album start out like that. Because that album didn't exist until then. This is one of those moments that not only helped define and solidify thrash, but immediately stated that this band was just that bit more original and memorable than everyone else. – If not much more. And also renowned Danish producer Flemming Rasmussen, having learned from certain flaws on "…Lightning", created a noticeably warmer, thicker, and more present sound on "… Puppets".
That opener itself is enough to leave anyone breathless – metalhead or not. The uneven time meters, the superbly harnessed chromatics, that half-second breathing space post-chorus, and the pummelingly intensifying ending collectively transcend the sum of their parts. But, as it turned out, the jaw-dropping, borderline-progressive structure of that all-dominating title track ended up taking those newly-established listener expectations and double-whammy pounding them upward, raising the bar once more.
Also utilizing the chromatic scale immaculately, Hetfield created what many will consider the perfect thrash metal riffs in the title track. And Ulrich – say what you will about his performance in latter decades – plays up against those riffs like an actual musician playing an actual instrument – not just like any other rhythm-keeper. However, it is upon the midway break that the title track irrevocably transcends any restrictions – in thrash metal, in metal, and in music overall.
There is a reason why "Master of Puppets" is Metallica's all-time most frequently played song in concert. It's more than just good metal; it's flat-out great music. Irresistible to headbangers and non-headbangers alike. This, right here, is where metal fused its aggression with the playfulness and sophistication of titans like Rush and Genesis. If not reaching their levels of technical proficiency, then still inarguably fueled by the same winning combination of artistic curiosity and creativity.
Once You Have Seen It You'll Never Be the Same
The creative statements only continue, however, with the follow-ups. And this is where the real depth, dynamics, and variation show themselves. While the band caught flack for straddling the power ballad brink with "Fade to Black" on "… Lightning", the clean intro and verse along with Hetfield's clean vocals on "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" showed that he and Ulrich didn't care much for naysayers. – Perhaps rather taking inspiration from them to further explore the dynamic range of the band.
But "… Sanitarium's" uneasy, irregular verse time meters, desolate tension, and ceiling-smashing release also do keep things metal rather than ballad. And whereas even the Sabbath-esque coda in "Fade to Black" remained in the power ballad genre, "… Sanitarium" goes full-on thrash. The melody was there, the melancholy was there, but they were amalgamated with undeniable metal.
Even further widening the span in dynamics and creative ideas compared to "… Lightning" were the contrast between clean, eerie chromatics and merciless mid-tempo steel hammer-pounding of "The Thing That Should Not Be". And apart from said contrast and the hypnotically creeping tonal ascension, its lyrics, although drawing upon an obvious Lovecraft-inspiration, also sees a matured Hetfield eminently painting ominous atmospheres without ever becoming too explicit:
"Fearless wretch / Insanity
He watches / Lurking beneath the sea
Great Old One / Forbidden site
He searches / Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell"
Indeed, it is worth dwelling upon the entire lyrical aspect. As many a retrospective and more academically-minded review has since pointed out, Hetfield managed to write virtually an entire record about forces more or less outside of one's own individual control. – Be it drug addiction, being trapped in a mental asylum, being sent off and killed in war, or a Great Old One arising to have his way with mankind. External forces pulling your strings, as it were, in various ways.
It hardly matters whether this is by deliberate design or not. Because once you realize it, it makes the album and Don Brautigam's iconic cover all the more of a powerful entity.
So Close, No Matter How Far
While instrumental "Orion" not only shows an even softer and more musically adept side of the band, it also traverses further into the prog-like territory heralded by the openers. Building upon what Metallica did with "The Call of Ktulu" from "… Lightning", "Orion" sees the band undertaking yet another line of evolution. And while succeeding to a large extent, cultivating even more new and unique soundscapes, it could still be argued that "Orion" might have benefitted from being a bit shorter.
Indeed, "… Puppets" is arguably one among many records whose side 1 is superior. While both "Disposable Heroes" and the blistering closer "Damage, Inc." are fine vintage thrash, especially the latter still being impressively fast and aggressive after all these years, none of them surpass any of their predecessors by any standard.
And while "Leper Messiah" also does add to the album's variety, it would still have to be everyone's least favorite track. Variation or not, its constant mid-tempo pace eventually becoming a bit meandering. Apart from the opener, this is the only cut on which the primary songwriting duo isn't assisted by either Burton or lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, which does testify as to the positive influence of those two.
(Its title, however, borrowed from David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" lyrics, teased the wide span of musical preferences within the band. – Perhaps we shouldn't have been so surprised about their further ventures into more plain rock music 10 years later.)
The Memory Remains
In spite of any and all shortcomings, "Master of Puppets" is a classic that's a classic for many a good reason. Metallica's first record to sell gold and spending 72 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, it saw them rising above their thrash metal brethren irrevocably. In the words of pop culture commentator Christopher Knowles, the album "ripped Metallica away from the underground and put them atop the metal mountain".
The band's former guitarist Dave Mustaine released the second LP with his new outfit Megadeth the same year. Arguably a better guitarist than Hetfield or Hammett, he, too, saw his band evolving creatively and achieving critical praise. However, his former group was still at least one step ahead in terms of production and composition.
Also Slayer made thrash metal history with their much-revered third LP "Reign in Blood" that same year. However, that one still only showcased the much darker and more consistently destructive end of a sonic spectrum which only Metallica fully covered. If not all the way to Slayer's infernal far end, then still as far to the opposite end as possible while maintaining their credentials with the widest possible span of headbangers.
As the first thrash metal album in the world, "… Puppets" eventually sold platinum. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified an 8x platinum status in 2025. Music Canada later certified 6x platinum. The British Phonographic Industry also reported a single platinum certification. But even album sales notwithstanding, in 2015, the American Library of Congress selected the album for preservation in the National Recording Registry along with other recordings which, according to the criteria, "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States".
Even 37 years after its release, the title track was featured in the season 4 finale of "Stranger Things". This showcased the group for a new generation of fans and brought the song to #2 on the Spotify charts. (Only beaten by Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", by the way – also resurged by "Stranger Things".) According to UCLA Musicology Ph.D. Glenn Pillsbury, critic and fan polls of thrash metal albums tend to see "… Puppets" taking 1st place. Indeed, just try to see how many lists you can find of all-time essential metal albums on which it's NOT included.
Blackened is the End
However you'd personally rank "… Puppets", there are many who will claim that the band peaked right there. And while one might not personally agree, there is something to be said for that sentiment.
In September that same year, on an early morning in Sweden, the band's tour bus driver hit a patch of ice and lost control. The accident killed Burton instantly – at only 24 years. This sent Metallica into an existential crisis, leading them to cut the tour short and go back to San Francisco to contemplate their future. Agreeing, however, that Burton would have wanted them to continue, the remaining trio started having auditions and eventually chose Flotsam and Jetsam bassist Jason Newsted. (Over, among others, Hetfield's old childhood friend Les Claypool – whose avantgarde-metal band Primus would later cover "The Thing That Should Not Be".)
The follow-up LP "… And Justice For All" (1988) saw the band moving even further into musically complex and demanding territory. This one implemented even more odd time signatures and even more riffs and sections in each song, most of which stretch beyond the 6-minute mark. While applauded amongst music critics, Metallica still felt that they'd taken themselves to the logical conclusion. And with their shift into far less dangerous territory on their next, self-titled "black" album, things really never would be the same.
As hard-hitting today as ever, "… Puppets" is more than the sound of a young, ambitious band reaching a peak that can never be recreated. It's the sound of metal reinventing itself and fusing its own aggressive logic with both the sophisticated creativity of more artistically accomplished and acknowledged groups, and with an undeniable flair for irresistibly catchy twists and melodic phrases, only heard amongst the all-time finest songwriters in rock itself.
Smashing through the boundaries, indeed.