Written by Maasai Mara on 02.01.2019 at 22:35

The single most overrated album in the history of heavy metal. Battery and the title track are good but the rest of the album is as average as average comes. This album in essence killed Metallica and derailed what was on course to be the greatest melodic thrash acts of all time. These bastards should have dissolved Metallica after the magnificent ride the lightning and started a new band altogether to produce the garbage that began taking root here and Metallica fed us with afterwards.

The most overrated album ever?

I don't know, I really don't get it. I like other Metallica stuff. This often seems quite generic, honestly.

The mighty title track alone is superior to anything released by this band afterwards.

I honestly also thought this album was the most overrated thing ever until I actually listened it through few times. Nowadays it's one of my favourite albums of all time. Sadly, they haven't released anything even remotely this level of brilliance since.

If I remember correctly, Flemming Rasmussen wasn't happy with the rushed release and production of Master of Puppets, so when he later worked with the band Artillery he utilized some the original plans he had for this album. But this is just my wage memory, I don't remember where I actually read it.

After Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind and Deep Purple's Machine Head, Master of Puppets was the third "heavy" album I ever bought. That would have been around Feb/March '87. I was 15 and it changed my world. For the best part of six months, I listened to little else than Metallica. These days Ride & Master vie for position but usually, I say this is my favourite album of all time as it was the first.

Ride arguably contains more of their best songs but this contains it's fair share and is probably more consistent. Both are fucking classics. 10 out of 10. There should be no argument as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who disagrees is a fucking poseur or just doesn't like metal. You look at that track listing and there isn't a bad second of music on that record, let alone a bad track.

Kill Em All and Justice are almost as good as well in my view (if a little bloated in the case of Justice). I always viewed the Black album as a solid but unspectacular record but since, it's been a case of ever diminishing returns. You could make a case for the odd good song scattered among the rest of their albums but I never play them.

This album is the Nirvana "Smells like Teen Spirit" of heavy metal.

It killed heavy metal.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 03.08.2020 at 08:28

This album is the Nirvana "Smells like Teen Spirit" of heavy metal.

It killed heavy metal.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 03.08.2020 at 08:28

This album is the Nirvana "Smells like Teen Spirit" of heavy metal.

It killed heavy metal.

I don't get it. Is this some sort of ironic reference to that infamous rant in Metal Archives? You know, this one: https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Metallica/Master_of_Puppets/547/UltraBoris/147

Written by Metal Rasputin on 03.08.2020 at 13:01

I don't get it. Is this some sort of ironic reference to that infamous rant in Metal Archives? You know, this one: https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Metallica/Master_of_Puppets/547/UltraBoris/147

I had no idea this pile of crap existed. I only managed to read the first 3-4 paragraphs and it stopped being funny fairly quickly. I wish we had it here for the comments alone.

01. Battery - 10/10 (killer)
02. Master Of Puppets - 8/10 (minus two points for the slow part)
03. The Thing That Should Not Be - 5/10 (boring)
04. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - 9/10 (great, could be thrashier)
05. Disposable Heroes - 6/10 (nothing special, not bad either)
06. Leper Messiah - 5/10 (eh)
07. Orion - 6/10 (starts good, drags later)
08. Damage, Inc. - 10/10 (another killer)

Overall: 7,375/10

Additional comments: One of the most overrated metal albums the world has ever seen, in my opinion. I cannot vote it very low though because there's some good songs to it. I can see the band going somewhat astray already on this album, something that more people acknowledge happening on later albums; it is in the overly long songs IMO; more thrash or some more interesting songwriting is needed. Anyway, I don't think this album killed metal: maybe it wasn't the best possible influence for the copycats, but whatever (grunge?) killed thrash came from outside rather inside of the genre.

Written by gavdann on 15.04.2020 at 12:02

Ride arguably contains more of their best songs but this contains it's fair share and is probably more consistent. Both are fucking classics. 10 out of 10. There should be no argument as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who disagrees is a fucking poseur or just doesn't like metal. You look at that track listing and there isn't a bad second of music on that record, let alone a bad track.

I disagree, and am I poser LMAO? Other possibility is to say whoever agrees with you has either heard only two songs from MoP (=poser) or is being unrealistic

Written by Joppe on 05.08.2020 at 00:16

Written by gavdann on 15.04.2020 at 12:02

Ride arguably contains more of their best songs but this contains it's fair share and is probably more consistent. Both are fucking classics. 10 out of 10. There should be no argument as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who disagrees is a fucking poseur or just doesn't like metal. You look at that track listing and there isn't a bad second of music on that record, let alone a bad track.

I disagree, and am I poser LMAO? Other possibility is to say whoever agrees with you has either heard only two songs from MoP (=poser) or is being unrealistic

How you can say Disposable Heroes and Leper Messiah are "Nothing special" or "eh" is beyond me.

Then again, I fucking despise Manowar so we're never going to agree!

Written by gavdann on 05.08.2020 at 11:35

How you can say Disposable Heroes and Leper Messiah are "Nothing special" or "eh" is beyond me.

Then again, I fucking despise Manowar so we're never going to agree!

I haven't seen anyone saying that Disposable Heroes and Leper Messiah are masterpiece songs or even best from this album. Of course fanboys will say that these songs are couple of points better than what I say, but if you translate their evaluation to my scoring -- aka minus the fanboy bias -- it will match almost perfectly: just lower 2-3 points from both songs

I'm not a Manowar advocate, look more closely -- I agree with you about Ride The Lighting though

Written by Joppe on 06.08.2020 at 13:38

I haven't seen anyone saying that Disposable Heroes and Leper Messiah are masterpiece songs or even best from this album.

Disposable Heroes is a stone walled classic in my opinion. It might not be THE best on MoP but it's in my top 3 or 4. And although not many would claim Leper Messiah is one of Metallica's best tunes, as we're comparing with RtL it is better than "Escape"! It's a proper head banger.

It's alright I guess, never been too big on them and this album certainly doesn't help, I'd put it in the most overrated albums of all time alongside judas priest's painkiller. I still like most track and definitely enjoy listening to it but it's not really what I'd call a masterpiece, there's no song I particularly love so yeah I'd put it somewhere along the lines of a 6 or a 7

Metallica's writing style annoys the shit out of me.

Banger thrash song for 3-4 minutes, sounds good? SYYYYYYKE, let's add 4 more minutes of guitar noodling for no reason.

Repeat for 40 minutes.

Written by Roman Doez on 28.10.2020 at 21:26

I'd put it in the most overrated albums of all time alongside judas priest's painkiller.

Can't agree about Painkiller, it's pretty amazing album really. Has some authority in metal started brainwashing people to hate it Puppet's being overrated I agree and the another one would be Countdown to Extinction by Megadave.

Written by Joppe on 29.10.2020 at 15:51

Written by Roman Doez on 28.10.2020 at 21:26

I'd put it in the most overrated albums of all time alongside judas priest's painkiller.

Has some authority in metal started brainwashing people to hate it

I don't really watch a lot in terms of metal content on YouTube and other social medias, and pretty much everyone I know loves this album, I just listened to it a few times and found it immensely boring. And also I wholeheartedly agree with countdown to extinction being overrated, truly not the greatest megadeth album and a big letdown from rust in peace

It's Master of Puppets, one of the best albums of heavy metal

Battery, Master of puppets, Orion = Classics

It's certainly a good album, but I much prefer Ride the Lightning, obviously the title song is a classic, and one of their best, and Orion is a very good instrumental song, with some great guitar work.

I personally didn't think that much to the rest of the album, a few too many average songs for my liking, it's not got as many classic songs as RTL imo, it is less interesting than RTL, I found some of the songs too boring in parts, which doesn't tend to happen with most Thrash Metal albums of that era.

Obviously one of the greatest and most influential albums ever made, and one of a small handful that I would consider to be a perfect 10/10.

Breakthrough album for popularity of trash metal.

No question, it is the best heavy metal album of all time. It's really Beethoven gone thrash!!!

What an insult to Beethoven.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 03.07.2021 at 13:19

What an insult to Beethoven.

Kinda, kinda not

The album is slightly overrated. I loved it at first - then I found it boring - and now I find it pretty good again.
Battery is an average song (just shouting battery over and over isn't a very creative chorus), even though the intro is great.
The title track is actually as amazing as they say (with a chorus that's still catchy and a great melodic section in the middle).
Thing That Should Not Be is boring (repeats the same riff too. many. times!)
Welcome Home and Disposable Heroes are the best songs after the title track.
Leper Messiah has cool riffs and Orion is good, although maybe too long.
Damage Inc is a nice thrash song, but I think it would have been better to end with an intrumental (Orion) just as they did in Ride the Lightning.
Overall, it's enjoyable, but not as good as Ride the Lightning. I'd give it around a 8.6/10
To me, Master of Puppets is Metallica's second best (tied with ..And Justice for All) and will stay among my favorite albums

I still have the same view regarding RTL versus MOP that I've always had.

Side 1 of RTL is possibly the greatest single side of music ever committed to wax but Creeping Death aside Side 2 is a slight let down IMO.

Over the course of a whole album I think MOP is slightly stronger. It has less stand out tracks but there is nothing I'm tempted to skip. I'd probably agree (as would most) that The Thing is the weakest track on here. It's not a patch on For Whom the Bell Tolls but it's still a solid 'tallica doomy tune.

Written by gavdann on 08.07.2021 at 13:56

RTL... Side 2 is a slight let down IMO.

Master of Puppets' stronger side is side 2. And Escape on RTL is a weaker song. That said, the rest of side 2 on RTL is amazing: Trapped Under Ice is a great thrash song (better than Damage Inc, for example), Creeping Death is one of Metallica's best songs ever, and Call of Ktulu is super epic and haunting (I slightly prefer it over Orion).
Plus, if we compare weakest songs on MoP and RTL, Escape is better than Thing because it has more variety within 4 minutes, while Thing is just one riff for 6 minutes.
So in my opinion RTL > MoP (I'd probably give RTL a 9.8/10 and MoP a 8.6/10)

Written by F3ynman2000 on 08.07.2021 at 19:52


Master of Puppets' stronger side is side 2. And Escape on RTL is a weaker song. That said, the rest of side 2 on RTL is amazing: Trapped Under Ice is a great thrash song (better than Damage Inc, for example), Creeping Death is one of Metallica's best songs ever, and Call of Ktulu is super epic and haunting (I slightly prefer it over Orion).
Plus, if we compare weakest songs on MoP and RTL, Escape is better than Thing because it has more variety within 4 minutes, while Thing is just one riff for 6 minutes.
So in my opinion RTL > MoP (I'd probably give RTL a 9.8/10 and MoP a 8.6/10)

I agree that RTL is superior to MOP, as far as I'm concerned Escape is the only song on RTL I thought was slightly weak, but it's still better than a few songs off MOP.
My opinion on MOP has changed a lot over the years, first I really liked it, then that quickly wore off, now I'm liking it a little bit more again.

There has always been a debate with Metallica fans over which one of these two is their best, but RTL will always be my favourite Metallica album.