MANAGEABLE METALLICA MONDAY (ON TUESDAY) #2 (OF 4)

Okay, now that we got yesterday’s cavalcade of the new out of the way, let’s go back in time once again…

The seminal album Master of Puppets represents the time period when Metallica’s sharp, relentless sound noticeably became something more. The songwriting was a lot more grown-up, the sound full-well rounded-out, the risks were loftier…it was immediately apparent to anyone with ears and a set of ballz that this was the future of metal. With the line-up that many believe to be the band’s greatest — whiney skinsman Lars Ulrich, gruff aristocratic white-trash frontman James Hetfield, wiry, stab-ya-for-lookin-at-me-funny-eyed lead guitarist Kirk Hammett (replacing the recently-booted Dave Mustaine, who would go on to form Megadeth, metal’s greatest revenge band), and bass-player-from-the-beginning Cliff Burton, who tragically died when the band’s tour bus overturned in Sweden whilst promoting this album — this sound was destined to go down in history.

If you’ve never heard this album, then you are a virgin to the crystallization of aggressive music, and you are doing yourself and everyone else in the pit a disservice.

Obviously the title track is a classic and one of the cornerstones of this brilliant record, but for my money the two best songs are this guy right here, and the album opener, “Battery”.

METALLICA – “Battery”, from Master of Puppets (1986)

-KW