A Five-Part Review of Metallica’s Earliest Albums

By Garrick Hoffman
Liberal Arts Major

Master of Puppets

If Ride the Lightning was an evolution of Kill Em All, Master of Puppets proved to be twice the evolution.
Beginning with “Battery,” MoP kicks off with fury and carnage. One of my favorite songs in their catalogue, “Battery” is arguably the song that exhibits whatever percussive prowess Lars Ulrich holds. “Up-tempo” and “heavy as f#$!” are accurate words to describe “Battery.”
By the time their landmark title track comes on, we find we don’t even have time to breathe between songs. “Master of Puppets” comes crashing down on us and barely stops for the next eight minutes, save for a nice, mellow bridge with a classical sound to it. Then it relents, returning us to that same carnage and fury levied unto us. What an epic song.
Perhaps the only weak song on the album, “The Thing That Should Not Be” is still an excellent listen. It has a somewhat “filler” feel, coming across as a bit uninspired. Still, I find my veins pulsing and my face distorting as I lip sync the eponymous lyrics when James Hetfield bellows, “Face the thing that should not be!”
Their 1984 album Ride the Lightning boasted “Fade to Black,” and Metallica apparently decided to take the same route on MoP when they wrote “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” a beautiful, yet haunting tune whose theme – like “Fade” – centers around emotional wreckage. It begins with a melancholy, down-tempo sound, then – also like “Fade” – sends us into a vortex of heavy, thus rendering it a “power ballad.” One of the best songs on the album.
“Disposable Heroes” took some warming up for me, and it took Guitar Hero: Metallica years back to achieve this. The sheer speed of it is incredibly appealing, with the guitars and drums both mercilessly unrelenting. If a train were going as fast as this song, you would not want to be in its way.
With the sound of the hi-hat being hit five times, we have entered “Leper Messiah.” I find that this is an underrated gem in the Metallica catalogue. I feel my hand slowly turning into a fist and I want to just strike the air when I hear this song. My head bounces up and down in its rhythm. The song serves as commentary on blind faith and how religion can be diabolically deceptive.
Orion might be a constellation in the sky, but it also happens to be what I consider Metallica’s best instrumental song. The bass riff sounds like the cousin of the riff in Kill Em All’s “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth).” Infectious and catchy, it’s enough to tickle anyone’s fancy, and the main guitar riff will also infect your ears – pleasantly. Next time you take a look at the night sky and you see Orion, make sure to go inside and take a listen to its own heavy metal song.
MoP comes to an end with “Damage, Inc.” When I first heard the solo in this song, I was a sophomore in high school. It’s structured similarly to “Battery,” with a slow, hypnotic beginning that has this wonderfully hypnotic quality to it, but it doesn’t continue that way. We find ourselves suddenly submerged in a riff storm, and when Kirk’s solo hits – well, let me put it this way. I first heard this when I was a sophomore in high school, and thought it to be impossibly fast. It seemed superhuman, beyond the capabilities of man, totally exempt from the laws of nature. I made my friends listen to it and they had the same amazed reaction as I. A killer tune, and a killer way to end a killer album.
Overall, the release of Master of Puppets proved to be yet another step forward for Metallica, the Kings of Thrash. Flexing their metal muscles with “Master of Puppets,” “Battery,” and “Welcome Home,” this was their strongest release to date, and kept the locomotion of Metallica in full speed. It’s no wonder why MoP came to be so highly revered, and considered their masterpiece. (Overused puns, anyone?)