10 Things You Didn't Know About Metallica
1. Kirk Hammett screws up solo of Master of Puppets
Master of Puppets will forever be known as Metallica’s magnum opus. As opposed to just being another great metal album, this helped the genre of thrash rise beyond its niche market to become one of the biggest genres in the world. The whole album is stuffed with classics, but there is something special about the title track that has kept it resonating with metalheads.
For as many great elements are in this track, it’s actually messy as hell.
There are subtle nitpicks like Cliff hitting a wrong note during the breakdown, but the most audible screwup comes when Kirk takes his solo. Coming right after the breakdown, Hammett ended up being a bit too enthusiastic about the solo, and at one point you can hear his fingers accidentally fly off the fretboard.
Instead of sounding like a screwup, this actually worked out pretty well, with the fretboard flying acting like an extra layer of craziness in the song. Though it will always be linked with Metallica’s greatest track, Kirk has said that he has never been able to replicate this performance when playing the song live.
Metallica were already on an upward trajectory by Master of Puppets, but it takes a certain type of finesse to have one of your errors seem badass.