Master of Puppets
The most impressive thing about Master of Puppets is how easy its complicated music is to follow. Metallica pack these songs with changes, but the important ideas stay clear. A riff, a vocal phrase or a change of mood gives each long arrangement a recognisable shape.
Battery sets that standard immediately. The acoustic introduction widens into heavy guitars before the song accelerates, and the transition makes the speed feel even more violent. James Hetfield's rhythm playing supplies much of the excitement. His guitar has precision without sounding detached from the anger in his voice.
The title track turns that discipline into a full drama. Its opening riff is memorable enough to carry a shorter song, but the quieter middle section gives the eventual return greater weight. The subject of addiction connects with the arrangement's repeated pull back towards its main figure. The song makes its argument through the music as much as through the words.
Control takes other forms elsewhere. Disposable Heroes gives its war story an exhausting forward drive, while Welcome Home (Sanitarium) places a vulnerable melody inside an increasingly threatening setting. The singing is still rough, yet Hetfield uses that roughness well. The emotional changes register without requiring a radically different voice.
The slower The Thing That Should Not Be supplies a useful physical contrast, although its heavy tread is less immediately engaging than the album's quicker turns. Leper Messiah also asks the groove to do more of the work. These songs are effective parts of the sequence, even if the title track offers more to return to.
Then Orion opens another space entirely. Cliff Burton's bass contributes melody and character to an instrumental that has its own emotional development. Damage, Inc. brings the speed back for a decisive finish. Across those final songs, Metallica balance care and aggression unusually well. The arrangements invite attention, and the riffs make that attention feel like pleasure rather than homework.
