MASTER OF PUPPETS

I'm a huge Metallica fan, it was one of the bands I first made fan of, so I wanted to hear, since this official bootleg was released, how this technical monsters cover this metal classic, "Master Of Puppets", one of the most influential albums in (trash) metal, that has obviously influenced Dream Theater a lot. I think it was a lot of fun for them playing this, like going back to their good old days, and I guess, through the years they've played at least one of the songs from this album, it's still a lot of fun to play all of them.

The covers: as I expected, the covers were very practised, extremely calculated, any solo, arrangement, part. I have in my mind the original Metallica album, I can 'play' it in my head every time I want to. The ONLY mistake commited was at the end of Battery, maybe a stupid mistake, but things were fixed out quickly, in two seconds. All the members did a great job, and an special mention to Mr. Petrucci (again), to carry all the power of the original two guitars (lead and rhythm) on one guitar, I mean, I didn't realise there was one guitar, it seemed to me like two ! It was so powerful, every Hammet solo very well learned and practised, despite some blows on some moments, but that's predictable. If you listen specially to "The Thing That Should Not Be" you'll realise the guitar is much more louder than the other instruments. I really couldn't hear the keyboards on ANY part, except on the solos: the keyboard solos (a bit changed than the original ones) were on "Master Of Puppets" (the second part of the solo), "The Thing That Should Not Be" (which features all keys solos), at the end of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "Battery", and (as expected) in the (yeah, this one is Prog!) instrumental "Orion", in which I had lots of expectations about how would it sound, and they didn't disappoint me. But, is it really a problem that the guitar was louder than the other instruments? NO, definitely not. It's a trash metal album, turn the guitars LOUD and blow my head apart, man!! Myung, I really couldn't hear him along the album (except on the quietest moments, which are few here, and in the middle pary of "Orion"), but the same happened to me with Cliff Burton (R.I.P.), so it's not a problem, considering that the guitar was very loud. And about Labrie, he didn't use his kind of operatic skills, he directly imitated Hetfield, getting the rawest and loudest sinde of his voice, and he did a good job, not as great as Petrucci, but good at least. Portnoy, played with Lars' style, every groove and part very calculated, as I expected, and he did a very good job.

Overall, I can't give this more that two stars, it's an excellent cover album, recommendable to hard Dream Theater or Metallica fans, or to any collector out there. This is a big example of how a cover should be done! Believe me!

Rating: 2.2/5