Album Review - Master of Puppets - Metallica ***** Erm, Ysoul ? This album was released in 1986. I know, and it is still fantastic. The 3rd full Metallica album showed the original line up at the height of their creative and musical powers. Master is fast in parts, slow in others, very heavy in all. Although 'Thrash Metal' spawned a thousand wanneba stadium fillers there was something about the top few acts that set them apart from the speed freak multitude, control. Metallica were very fast indeed, but their sound never devolved into the guitar blur used by many in the genre. The other big speed bands showed a similar control over their instruments, albeit in a variety of styles, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax made up the so called 'Big 4', and where they led, other bands followed, and broke new ground, Nuclear Assault, Suicidal Tendencies, Coroner all brought their own particular style to the genre. For a couple of years thrash caused a schism in the metal fraternity, you either loved thrash, or you hated it, at the beginning there was no middle ground. Master of Puppets then, just 8 tracks, but every one awesome. Cliff Burton and James Hetfield combining to produce malevolent, crunching rhythm's, Lars Ulrich tight and fast on the drums and Kirk Hammets spiraling solo's lifting and moving the music. Hetfields lyrics are at his most potent on the anti-drugs title track, the anti-war 'Disposable Heroes' and the anti-evangelist 'Leper Messiah', in fact the young James was anti a whole pile of things, and his youthful rage brought a powerful and cynical edge to the songs. Musically, Metallica were at their peak, 'Battery' is non stop aural aggression , 'The Thing That Should Not Be' hammers away slowly for it's six and a half minutes broken only by Hammet's cacophonous solo perfectly evoking the madness of Cthulu that Hetfield strives for with his lyrics. Every serious metal fan should have this album (as well as Ride The Lightning, Justice and Black) pride of place in his collection. It was groundbreaking for the band and for the genre, it put thrash metal at the mainstream of rock, sold millions of copies and turned Metallica in to the most popular band on the planet for a couple of years.