In 1984, Kerrang magazine coined the buzzword “thrash,” signaling the arrival of an unprecedented heaviness in rock music – not only in volume and aggression, but precision, velocity, complexity, and social messaging.
Alongside fellow seminal thrashers Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer, Metallica represented the zenith of the form’s evolution, personified by larger-than-life sonics and challenging commentary beyond the machinations of ’70s metal bands from which they sprang.
Representing the vanguard of this movement inspired by predecessors Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Tygers of Pan Tang, Saxon, Diamond Head, and the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal,” Metallica made its dramatic debut with Kill ‘Em All and established their hegemony by year’s end with Ride the Lightning and attained preeminence with Master of Puppets.
Metallica was formed in ’81, when guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and Danish drummer Lars Ulrich met through an ad in the The Recycler and began collaborating on “power metal,” a hybrid offspring of NWOBH and punk rock. They recorded “Power Metal,” a demo for Metal Blade Records, were sporadically augmented by Dave Mustaine (founder of Megadeth), and in ’82 released “Hit the Lights” with lead guitarist Lloyd Grant and Hetfield on bass and rhythm guitar. They recruited bassist Ron McGovney to play their first gig on March 14, 1982; by their second gig, they were opening for Saxon. Cliff Burton, who’d impressed Ulrich and Hetfield with his virtuosic wah-colored bass solo at L.A.’s Whiskey a Go Go at a concert by his band, Trauma, joined in late ’82 on the condition they move to El Cerrito in his native San Francisco Bay Area. The relocated lineup debuted at The Stone nightclub in March ’83. In April, guitarist Kirk Hammett replaced Mustaine (who suffered from substance abuse and was prone to violence); he played on the debut album recorded in May.
Released in July on the indie Megaforce label, Kill ’Em All epitomized thrash’s dynamic approach, distinguished by fast tempos and musical precision emerging from the underground, and paved the way for its more-ambitious, sophisticated successor, Ride the Lightning, recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen with producer Flemming Rasmussen (of Rainbow’s Difficult to Cure fame). The latter, released in July ’84, received overwhelmingly positive critical attention, led to an eight-album deal with Elektra, and catapulted Metallica into the mainstream bolstered by an auspicious performance at Monsters of Rock. The stage was set for their masterpiece.
Every Metallica piece offers a wealth of guitar riffs; the nuclei of their music organisms. “Master of Puppets” is a mini symphony, with numerous sections defined by explicit riffs. Two exemplary riffs of differing characters are presented here; exhibiting two distinct sides of their musical persona. Both contain identifiers that pervade modern metal. Note mixed meters in each – 4/4 and 5/8 in the first [A], 2/4 and 4/4 in the second [B]. The first (0:52) is the driving main riff that dominates the verses. Played at a 220-plus bpm, it highlights thick, distorted guitar sounds and combines a pedaled low E in steady eighths with slurred power chords. Note the characteristic insertion a the tritone Bb5 in the second bar. The second (3:33) occurs over a contrasting mid-tempo rock feel and exploits clean-toned arpeggiations for a pastoral, almost bucolic effect. Note the modal progression Em-D-C-Am-B7 in first-position chords with ringing open strings contributing to the folksy mood.
Master of Puppets, recorded from September through December of ’85 at Sweet Silence, was also produced by Rasmussen, though Ulrich originally sought Geddy Lee’s supervision. Its music eclipsed thrash/speed metal categorization and embodied Metallica’s perfectionism and disciplined work ethic. Avoiding the era’s slick production and overreliance on keyboard synthesizers, they pursued a more-organic production laden with extensive guitar orchestration. Motivated to surpass Ride the Lightning, primary songwriters Hetfield and Ulrich composed and crafted material in an El Cerrito garage, shaping riffs and ideas to be presented to the band, then arranged and graced with Hetfield’s lyrics. To prepare, Ulrich and Hammett studied with instrumental teachers to sharpen their skills – Hammett with Joe Satriani. Almost every piece was preserved on demos, leaving room for only minimal changes before entering the studio; only “Orion” and “The Thing That Should Not Be” had to be completed during recording sessions.
Metallica’s growing complexity was evident throughout. Each song was analogous to a mini symphony, with interludes and instrumental bridges that required considerably more studio time than previous efforts. Their guitar sounds became the de facto metal tone of the era. Hammett played his ’74 Flying V, ’85 Jackson Rhoads, and Fernandes superstrat with EMG pickups. Hetfield favored a Jackson V and Gibson Explorer. Both played Mesa Boogie Mk IIC+ heads (sometimes as preamps) and Marshall cabinets with 65-watt speakers. The Mk IIC+ became the signature Metallica sound and is currently the most-coveted vintage Boogie.
Final mixes were done in January ’86 by producer Michael Wagener (Accept, Dokken, Ozzy Osbourne). Like other works that changed history, such as Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, the band considered it an exemplary but routine recording at the time: “We were just playing music and drinking beers,” said Ulrich. Like its forerunners, it boasted assured mastery and transcended its genre and historic period.
“Battery,” the opener, became a favorite among fans and received numerous covers. Like “Fight Fire” and “Blackened,” it’s a shorter song with terraced dynamics and tempo changes that acts as a prelude to the album’s title track. Beginning with acoustic guitars layered to produce a medieval-consort impression, it proceeds to a heavy reorchestration (0:37) with drums, bass, and distorted guitars, then segues to a fast metal riff (1:06) that establishes a verse figure. The tritone E-Bb, a defining interval since Black Sabbath, dominates the main riff (E-Bb5-A5) juxtaposed against requisite low-E gallop rhythms. That mixture and variants are identifiers of Metallica as are odd bars of 5/4, 2/4, and 7/8 punctuating 4/4 phrases, and Hammett’s thrashing wah-inflected solo that acknowledges the influence of Michael Schenker, an early idol. The storyline’s ethos pledges allegiance to San Francisco’s familial underground metal scene, a reaction against L.A.’s glam-metal poseurs.
Hammett’s ear-catching solos enliven every track on Master. “Battery” boasts a definitive flight that captures the energy and abandon of his style. This excerpt (3:29-3:38) finds him building momentum with a series of fast pull-off sequences moving up the fretboard. Each pull-off is a small three-note cell, two of which are fingered while the third is the open third string. These are repeated as ostinatos and sequenced up in whole-step increments – a synthesis of Angus Young, Randy Rhoads, and Van Halen resulting in interesting chromatic relationships and dissonance. The phrase is answered in measure 5 by a straighter eighth-note melody that acknowledges the blues-rock/modal influence of Michael Schenker, exacerbated by prominent use of the wah as a rocked pedal and EQ filter.
“Master of Puppets” was the album’s sole single. Reputedly composed by Ulrich, the lengthy (8:36) multi-textured sectional piece reaches back to Mustaine’s tenure in the band and was Burton’s favorite track. Exceedingly popular with audiences, it remains their most-played song, with a grim storyline of drug addiction underscored by idiomatic metal mannerisms. Its heavy, muted riffing at 220 beats per minute (a speed-metal standard) includes bars of 5/8 in the oblong truncated verse phrases executed with machine-like precision. A half-time interlude (3:33) of clean-chorused arpeggiation with inserted 2/4 bars overlaid with a repeating neoclassical harmonized counter line leads to the first solo (4:10), a melodious medieval-tinged modal statement played by Hetfield. It builds to a heavier ensemble orchestration (4:49) and contrasting Phrygian (F#5-G5) down-stroke riff (5:10) for an additional verse before returning to 220 bpm (5:39) to accommodate Hammett’s speedy solo. The latter features Blackmore-like arpeggio riffs as well as tremolo picking, Satch-inspired whammy-bar antics, blues-rock string bending, and metallic shredding. The final section contains a reinterpreted quote from Bowie’s “Andy Warhol” (6:19) as transition riff into the last verse, and an effects-laden coda (8:00) with processed guitar and overdubbed laughter.
“The Thing That Should Not Be” reopened the vault of H.P. Lovecraft, venerated author of weird horror stories about unimaginable creatures from other dimensions; it had earlier unleashed “Call of Ktulu.” Its atmosphere personified metal’s occult imagery with a slower, menacing groove and eerie intervals played by acoustic guitar building to distorted electrics rendering dissonant chromatic and tritone progressions. Metallica enlarged its customary low-end girth by using Drop-D tuning for acoustic and electric rhythm guitars. The brief Hammett solo has an eccentric quality emphasized by wah sounds in conjunction with trills, whammy-bar zaniness and a careening harmonized phrase in mid flight.
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” was the single’s B side, a masterpiece conveying Hetfield’s heartfelt depiction of madness with progressive tangents, intricate guitar orchestration, and rhythmic fluctuations. The brooding rock-ballad feel supports its hypnotic main theme, comparable to asymmetric prog-rock figures – a cycling arpeggiated riff of 28th notes (8+8+4) rendered on clean guitar and enlarged by Hammett’s theme-conscious solo interludes in E minor illustrating his handling of mixed pentatonic and minor modes (0:47), command of diatonic semi-classical sequences, and modernistic slurred fifth intervals (2:09). An aggressive solo in double time (4:27) develops further pentatonic/modal combinations (Phrygian, Dorian) while a fourth (5:25) at the original ballad tempo explores alternate melodic colors over a harmonized riff. The cohesive arrangement is united by extensive doubled and harmonized guitar parts decorating each episode.
“Disposable Heroes,” a term borrowed from Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, trumpeted an anti-war theme about expendable soldiers controlled by superiors. The master take re-created the demo with the exception of a riff cut and moved to “Damage, Inc.” One of the album’s faster tunes, it rivals earlier speed-metal tempos and was another sprawling (8:17) epic replete with unpredictable mood shifts and meter changes: beginning with the intro’s 6/4 time and 4/4 verse leading to complex combinations of 4/4 and 3/4 resulting in 11-beat (4+4+3) phrases at 1:58. A recurring Hammett part in verse endings alludes to old war-movie music while his solo, almost a minute long (4:26-5:24), is a strong personal statement – the epitome of shred-guitar heroics repurposing influences from Page, Blackmore, Schenker, Rhoads, and Malmsteen.
“Leper Messiah” is unflinching social commentary excoriating the greed, subjugation, and hypocrisy of televangelism. Origins remain elusive. While Hetfield and Ulrich claim authorship, it has become a Burton trademark song with fans for its instrumental style. Mustaine insisted he wrote the main riff, and in ’72, Bowie referenced a “leper messiah” in “Ziggy Stardust.” In any case, it sports all the right Metallica ingredients – heavy mixed-mode power-chord verse riff, inserted 3/4 and 5/4 bars, extensive chromaticism, feel and tempo changes, section-defining figures, and a concise Hammett solo merging arpeggio ostinato patterns, sequential runs, neoclassic shred, and blues-rock licks.
In “Leper Messiah,” Hammett mixes neoclassic shred, chromaticism, and pattern playing with diatonic scalar melody and pentatonic blues rock. This noteworthy solo (3:57) begins with keyboard-inspired arpeggios that have been stylistically correct since Blackmore and Deep Purple. He outlines Em, F, and G triads in the triplet patterns of measures 1-6. The slurred sequential run in 7-8 alludes to Rhoads in its tonality-defying mix of notes that culminates in E minor. The final passage, measures 9-12, conveys a contrasting bluesy feeling emphasized in its phraseology, string bends, and pentatonic note choices.
“Orion” is an instrumental opus intended as an extended bass solo. Written primarily by Burton, it begins with a faded intro of heavily processed bass parts layered to resemble an orchestra, then revolves around a moody bass line and overdubbed guitars; combining two solos by Burton (one unaccompanied in 6/8), one by Hetfield and three by Hammett. The title refers to the constellation with its “spacey sounding bridge.” Originally part of “Welcome Home,” it was separated in the studio and remained an instrumental.
The closer, “Damage, Inc.,” begins with atmospheric swelled chords and light guitar harmony suggesting a reinterpretation of J.S. Bach’s sacred song for voice and continuo, “Komm, susser Tod, komm selge Ruh” (“Come, Sweet Death”) (BWV 478). The final track mirrors the terraced dynamics of the opening song in a clever piece of bookending. However, gentleness inevitably gives way to thrash mayhem (1:19) with a heavy, punctuated metal riff that moves through various modes before establishing the main riff (verse), which spells an E diminished arpeggio in power chords – Bb5-G5-E5. Hammett’s solo is emblematic of his style, with Eurometal phrases colored with wah (rocked in time and as fixed filter) but contains some clear references to Rhoads and Van Halen in his closing chromatic patterns and ostinato tap-on sequence (4:27).
Master of Puppets was released on March 3, 1986. It reached #29 on the Billboard 200 and #7 on the Top Rock Albums chart, spent 72 weeks on charts and eventually garnered six-times Platinum. Heralded by many as the genre’s greatest album – one that redefined heavy metal, it found the band at their creative pinnacle foreshadowing …And Justice For All. It was the first metal recording honored by the Library of Congress for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic relevance. In its wake, Metallica toured with Ozzy Osbourne from March through August of ’86, increasing their fanbase in metal and mainstream hard rock. Tragedy struck during the European leg of their Damage, Inc. tour when Cliff Burton was killed in an accident that September 27, when their bus rolled off the road and he was thrown through a window. The album remains a triumph but a bittersweet work accorded an even deeper reverence for its connection with their lost bandmate.
Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His latest book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: The Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar. A list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.
This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
