Customer Reviews

Master Of Puppets

5 star:		(1,138)
4 star:		(74)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(67)

 

 

THIS is one of the finest albums every produced, not just in the genre of thrash metal. Metallica rocked with their first two albums, but this is the album that I listen to most out of all of them. There is not a single dull moment on this masterpiece of puppetry. All the songs are played with lightning fast precision, and glorious heavy metal power. And yet, 1) The songs clock in mostly between 5-12 minutes long, and 2) Amidst the mayhem of wailing guitars and pounding drums is the sound of melody and classically influenced arrangments and composition. This is largely in part to bassist Cliff Burton, the most classically trained member of the band. Sadly this would be his final album, but if he had to give a final farewell before his sudden and unfortunate death, this album screams with a power that engraves into the listeners' minds, "Cliff was here!"

-"Battery": great acoustic intro leading into a maniacal barage of Hetfield's harsh vocals and Ulrich's pounding drums that literally batter their way through your ears.

-"Master of Puppets": a classic in the truest sense of the word. Like "Battery," this song is fast, hard, and it beckons with energy the question of who is truly the puppet and who is the puppeteer.

-"The Thing that Should Not Be": again, a great acoustic intro that leads into a hardcore thrash rhythm.

-"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)": the lyrics are the real gem here, telling the story of a mental patient from inside the patient's mind. The music is great, but the lyrics can haunt you if you're not careful.

-"Disposable Heroes": while I may like their later song "One" better in terms of the lyrical device of the soldier's point of view, I still give this one credit since it came first, and let's face it...everything on this album kicks serious arse, including this one.

-"Leper Messiah": I could say again that this song is fierce in its brutal greatness, but I've been saying that about every other song, so...let's just say this is still yet another great song on this great album.

-"Orion": great instrumental, with a militaristic march that echoes the gradeur of Wagner, but without being oppressive. This is something for the Metal Militia to use as a warcry.

-"Damage Inc.": the intro to this song is absolutely incredible. It is my favorite part of the song, and thus that makes it my favorite song on the album. As a closer...it is amazing, and it has to be one of the best songs Metallica ever recorded.

Top-notch production, speed-licks only Hammett and Hetfield could dish out to give Eddie Van Halen a run for his money, and let's face it...like I said, it is a sad, but glorious and powerful farewell to Cliff Burton. He left us too soon. Behold his legacy! DANCE PUPPETS! DANCE!

Metallica truly shows their maximum talent in this amazing album. This 24k gold CD holds beautiful sound quality that will blow any fan away. This spectacular CD is defenitely worth the purchase, especially if you are a die hard fan...10 times better than regular "puppets" album.

I own the CD of MoP and in comparison to the CD, I'd say the 1/2 speed mastered vinyl release, done by the originators of "audiophile" vinyl in the late 70s into the 80s, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, breathes a different kind of life into the album.

Comparing this vinyl release to the CD, I have to say the CD does a very nice job in recreating the original sound and feel of the recording. If you're looking for a "WOW" factor from vinyl, then I don't believe the Metallica vinyl are the LPs for you to invest in.

However, if you're looking for audiophile quality vinyl recordings, knowing that what you're hearing is as close to being in the studio as you can get, you can't find better than this! MoP was done using a 1/2 speed mastering system from the original analog recordings. What this means is that the master vinyl created is given more time to accurately form the audio, pulling every tiny detail from the analog source. To facilitate a cleaner sound, it is then etched on virgin 180g vinyl. The heavier vinyl, less noise (hiss) is heard from the record itself. Playback is set at 45 RPM, allowing for more of the vinyl per song, which means better playback from your turntable. Mo-Fi Sound Labs really has this down to a science.

Why re-release on vinyl? Because this is the format "audiophiles" supposedly prefer, given the original recording is unmolested with dynamic range compression or cut off at the knees by the 44khz sampling rate. Vinyl makes an album sound closer to the music as it was played (on a good system).

On a decent audio system the music is allowed a better dynamic range that really shines. On the same system the CD also sounds really good.

As far as the album itself, more than likely you've heard all of the tracks considered true classics in the metal scene. Master of Puppets, Battery, The Thing That Should Not Be and Welcome Home (Sanitarium) aren't just Metallica classics, they are metal classics that stand the test of time. What of the other tracks then? They are classics that most non-fans don't know. Orion stands as a marvelous sounding, well written and perfectly executed musical and on this album there are nuances you hear, such as more accurately reproduced cymbals and snare that actually gives the vinyl an edge over the CD (if you have a good sound system).

So should you invest in Metallica on vinyl? The answer to that question is... it depends. If you have a moderately priced audio system and a good turn table, I'd say you would do worse than picking this album up. If all you have is tiny surround speakers connected to a budget priced surround system, purchasing this album won't sound better than the CD.

Master of Puppets illustrates why Metallica was one of the most important metal bands ever.

After giving birth to thrash with Kill 'Em All, Metallica began refining their innovations with Ride the Lightning, which added a bit more maturity and compositional quality. Master of Puppets is a much larger step in the same direction, and had the band incorporating more progressive elements into their music. It'd be hard to count the metal bands doing half the pioneering things Metallica was doing.

The acoustic, quiet introduction to "Battery" explodes under an aggressive onslaught of hyperkinetic, muscular riffs and thick, heavy arrangements that characterize the entire album. That's not to say it's redundant, though. All eight songs are excellent, featuring enough variation of tempo and texture to ensure that they never get boring, which is crucial when some songs extend for eight minutes ("Master of Puppets," "Disposable Heroes," "Orion"). Cripes, you could dissect the riffery of the title track and probably create half a dozen normal metal songs. That"s part of Metallica's appeal: they cram a ton of ideas into their music, but all songs are perfectly crafted without the slightest sense of disjointed songwriting.

Speaking of the title track, it in particular sports a dynamic composition, where its middle section diminishes into a quieter, evocative guitar solo (one of the few played by Hetfield) before taking off all over again. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" mirrors "Fade to Black" in its progression of intensity. It starts with haunting melodies, turning up the crunch for the chorus, then kicks into high gear with a weighty, fast riff and a glistening lead that carries the song to its vengeful apogee. Hetfield isn't quite a master lyricist, but for the first time in Metallica's career, the lyrics were insightful with effective diction. Note the telling and vitriolic "Disposable Heroes" or "Leper Messiah." Hetfield was never a great singer, but he was a good metal vocalist. Although his ferocity was tempered by youthful pipes, he still managed to convey the viciousness required of music so heavy, so furious.

And even when the band eschewed words and singing, they could impress. "Orion" is a marvel of metal songwriting, being an eight minute instrumental with precise, articulate solos (including a short-but-sweet one from the late bassist Cliff Burton) and big, chugging riffs. Most metal bands wrote instrumentals that were three or four minutes long...never eight. But Metallica did it, and they did it well enough to make songs like "Orion" and "To Live Is To Die" (from ...And Justice) among my favorite metal instrumentals.

Add my voice to the many, many fans who have rated this album five stars (about 362 at the time of this writing). If Master of Puppets isn't the best metal album ever, it's very very close.

Metallica's third full length release, Master of Puppets, is possibly their finest work. The lyrics are smart, the fast sections(and I mean fast) are impossibly tight, and the slow sections are melodic and chilling. James Hetfield's vocals aren't exactly pretty, but his intensity matches the music perfectly. Drummer Lars Ulrich manages to hold things together through myriad tempo changes and time signatures(not an easy task) but bassist Cliff Burton seems to get lost in the mix at times. Not to knock Cliff. Listen close in "Sanitarium" and "Orion" and you'll hear some of the best rock and roll bass ever recorded. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett is a chameleon, blending in as the situation calls; he is at times frenzied, at others morose. James Hetfield's rhythm guitar work is so fast and precise one wonders how in the world he manages to sing while playing. The production is a little rough but even that seems to fit. All in all, it's scary how good this album is. Listen and see why in 1986 all of the heavy metal haters were scratching their heads and saying, "wow, these guys can really play."

these days i spend a lot more time listening to overkill and megadeth and tool than metallica, but no one can deny that Master of Puppets is, simply put, what metal should be. It is, without a doubt, the best heavy metal album anyone has ever done. Better than Megadeth's Rust In Peace, better than Black Sabbath's We Sold Our Souls For Rock And Roll, and that is no light statement. Battery lulls you in with masterful acoustic guitars then bashes you over the head with power and fury. Amazon.com may say the theme is power, but it is actually insanity. The insanity of domestic abuse(battery) drug addiction(master of puppets) the insanity that results from seeing things not meant to be seen(the thing that should not be-which takes its lyrics almost directly from a H. P. Lovecraft story) being locked in an institution(welcome home) the insanity of war and sending your children off to be slaughtered for the greater good(disposable heroes) then pure insanity made audio-orion, this instrumental sounds like beethoven done electric. That may sound uninteresting to metal fans and blasphemous to fans of classical, but i am a huge fan of both and i challenge metal fans to listen to beethoven and beethoven fans to listen to orion, you will find they hold much in common. i don't know if hetfield and the rest of metallica is insane, as beethoven was, but they at least know how to express the feeling. the final track, Damage, Inc.-doesn't appear to have a theme really, it is pure metal, a la Kill 'em All. If you are a fan of Heavy Metal, or are even curios about it, or simply wonder if you've given it a bad rap, buy this. Listen. If you don't like this cd, don't bother with another metal cd ever, because this is exactly what metal is meant to be.

One of the best metal albums of all time, Master of Puppets is the album that would best define the genre. After releasing Ride the Lightning, Metallica decided to team up with Flemming Rasmusen yet again to produce Master, and quite litteraly took over the world. This is a metal fan's dream come true, I mean this album opens up with Battery : a thrash classic that begins with a beautiful classic guitar intro. Then onto the title track, an eight minute long epic filled with enough solos and crunshing guitar work to put a permanent smile on any metal heand's face. My favorite song off here is Sanitarium, wich tells the sad tale of metal patients who are locked up in cells rather than treated or helped. The only breather you get on this album, to soothe the pounding in your head is track 7 : Orion, an instrumental that stands the test of time as beeing one of the most incredible pieces of music ever written. This song was played at Cliff Burton's funeral, after he died in a car accident. The song brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it. There really is no bad track to be found on this work of art, and believe me you get a great record that you will enjoy till the end of your days. You don't have to love metal to love this album, though it would help if you are into heavy music (I don't mean Limp Bizkit). This is the best album to buy if your new to Metallica, great introduction to a band that changed the face of heavy music. (RIP CLIFF!!!!!)

Master of Puppets is the second chapter of what I like to call Metallica's Trilogy. It is considered by many fans (myself included) to be not only Metallica's best album, but also the greatest heavy metal album ever. Metallica made a quantum leap from RIDE THE LIGHTNING, which in turn was a quantum leap from KILL'EM ALL.

On MOP, it became evident that Metallica wanted more than just being the heaviest, fastest, loudest band on the planet. They combined the dark heaviness of Black Sabbath, the speed of Motorhead, plus the musical and lyrical intelligence of Rush. Smarter lyrics, stronger melodies, and more diverse songs were what the band strived for then. MOP focused on all of that with a vengeance using eight masterfully constructed songs that contained not one wasted note. The band improved upon all of their song styles that I mentioned in my review of RIDE THE LIGHTNING. Only this time the prevailing theme was CONTROL.

Lyrically, this album was an indictment on the (mis)uses of power. "Battery" dealt with being controlled by one's violent urges; "Master of Puppets" is about drug addiction; the horror of war and the military establishment is made painfully clear in "Disposable Heroes"; and one my favorites is "Leper Messiah", a song about TV evangelists that was released one year before the PTL scandal. Unfortunately, Metallica never wrote a song about the MTV/radio trend control that they would later fall prey to. But I think I attacked that little mishap on my review of LOAD.

MOP showed something that you very rarely see, people working at the top of their potential. This is Metallica at their most diverse, best produced, and at their most intense level. Though they came close on 1988's ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, they would never again reach anything near this level of creativity.

Altough Metallica seems to make popular music right now, Master of Puppets is probably one of the best heavy metal albums released in the 80s. Complex, yet catchy, it gives a great view of what Metallica was like in the 80s (and how good they were) All the riffs are pretty heavy(even scaring) Metallica sometimes plays sonic-fast, and sometimes becomes so slow. The albums start out with the powerful "Battery" and continues with the epic "Master of Puppets". Probably one of the heaviest songs ever "The Thing That Should Not Be" is a frightening song, and the biggest reasons are James Hetfield's deadly vocals and the way too overdriven guitars. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" starts slow and fastens to the end, closing with a rhythm guitar, bass and lead guitar solo. "Disposable Heroes" is a hyper-fast song with a faboulous guitar solo. "Leper Messiah" is a "questioning the religion" song with fantastic lyrics. "Orion" is the second Metallica instrumental, showing how successful they can be on instrumentals. The closing song "Damage Inc." is another fast one, including the fastest solo I've ever heard until Steve Vai. In conclusion, there aren't any songs on this album which you will not like. They're all metal classics, making the album one of the best

Master Of Puppets(1986). Metallica's third album and last with bassist Cliff Burton.

By the time Metallica released Ride The Lightning(1984), it was clear that the band had a promising career ahead of them, as they amassed a great underground following, and didn't give a care about money or fame on MTV (at least in the 80s anyway). Two years enabled the band to build on RTL's success and release a follow-up that was not only worthy of RTL, but also improved upon that album as well.

Master Of Puppets: eight tracks of pure thrash perfection, and perhaps Metallica's finest hour. Hetfield, Hammett, Ulrich, and Burton are all playing in top form here. Hetfield's vocals especially are perfected on this album, delivering growling, angry, and melodic (on this album's slower tracks) vocals alike. Lyrically, MOP is mostly about the abuse of different types of power, oppression, war, and/or drugs and its effects on people. Battery kicks off the album extremely well, starting off as a spanish-acoustic guitar piece and then EXPLODING into a balls-to-the-wall speed thrash number. The title track and Disposable Heroes are equally impressive and full of lightning fast riffs. The Thing That Should Not Be and Welcome Home(Sanitarium) are two of MOP's slower, yet very haunting tracks, in the same vein as RTL's Fade To Black. Leper Messiah and Damage, Inc. are more outstanding thrash tracks, not as noteworthy as the previous ones mentioned, but by all means they still belong here. Like RTL, there is also a lengthy instrumental called Orion, where the band shows off its playing power.

If you don't already own this masterpiece of metal, then don't hesitate to grab it! MOP is undeniably a 5 star album. Unfortunately, shortly after the tour for MOP, Cliff Burton (God rest his soul) was killed in a bus accident, which only leads fans to wonder "What if..." It was sad having the world become 1 bass-playing perfectionist less. The band did persevere with the next album ...And Justice For All, though lyrically and instrumentally it was more complex than MOP, it was also plagued with shoddy production. Forget all the new popular [stuff] this band has been playing on MTV and the radio. MOP remains to this date as the strongest and best produced Metallica album of all time. 17 years later, this album hasn't aged a bit. Have you?