MASTER OF PUPPETS

'Master Of Puppets' has been widely called the 'greatest metal album of all time.' And while my opinion would likely stray from that vote, it would certainly not be 'wrong' to deem it as such. There is high-quality music throughout, and an innovation that was rarely found in the genre at the time.

What suprises me about this album however, is the true progressiveness of it. As Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater) once said, Metallica may well be the world's first progressive metal band, but no one knows it yet. 'Ride The Lightning' while thrashy and decent, didn't have much progressive style to it, save for one or two songs. 'Master Of Puppets' is a major development for the band however. The sound production is all cleaned up, and there are signs of real identity that separates the band from other average thrash metal bands.

Songs like 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' and especially the instrumental 'Orion' show great progressive sensability, and it's easy to see where some of prog-metal's later bands were inspired to write their material from. 'Sanitarium' has a main riff that sounds a bit more than familiar with Dream Theater's 'hit' song 'Pull Me Under,' which would be released a good six years later, when prog-metal would really hit off. 'Orion' best shows why this band can be considered prog. There are complex arrangements, irregular guitar rhythms, and really strange lead tones. Most of the songs on 'Master Of Puppets' are 6-8 minutes long in length, and are complex compositions that are a far cry of Metallica's debut 'Kill 'Em All.'

Five stars for prog fans, six stars for metal purists. An essential, defining moment in the world of progressive metal.

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