Metallica: Master Of Puppets Songs Ranked

Master of Puppets stands as one of the greatest albums that has ever come from the grand halls of heavy metal. In just 8 tracks, Metallica were able to craft a brilliant sonic opus about the darkness of humanity undercut by menacing power chords and shredding solos. The lyric sheet of the record tackles pertinent topics from war to addiction to the mentally insane.

Even without the stirring lyrical themes, the music is fantastic, with James Hetfield's greatest riffs, Kirk Hammett's most lyrical guitar solos, Cliff Burton's monstrous low ending, and some of the most impressive drum performances from Lars Ulrich. After this record, every metal band was expected to be faster, meaner, and darker than the ones before them.

Each track on this album could be considered an outright classic, but there is definitely a pecking order of how important each track is. This album is best when taken in as a whole, but each individual track seems to offer some element of magic throughout its runtime. So as we journey through Master of Puppets, let's unpack just how much concentrated kick-ass Metallica delivered to us on just one disc.

A core theme of Master of Puppets is the idea of control and humans losing their sense of self. In this case, Hetfield spits with enhanced venom at televangelists who use religion as a ploy to manipulate followers to do their bidding.

Coming as it does after the slamfest of "Disposable Heroes," "Leper Messiah" is a great way to calm down the listener by settling into a nice midtempo groove (well, midtempo for Metallica, anyway) that chugs with gravitas without ever seeming lethargic. That is, up until about halfway through when the tempo shifts and we get a galloping riff on both guitar and double bass drums followed by a solo from Hammett that can only be described as cascading. And after lambasting these wicked religious figures, the midtempo groove returns to close the song out.

It's not necessarily fair to put this song at the final spot, given that this would be a marvelous standout on any other Metallica release. However, while it is a great Metallica song, it doesn't make it past any of the other songs into full classic mode. The tune is a bit of Metallica by numbers, but it's still better than thousands of bands at their best.