Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 59: Metallica's Master of Puppets (+ Dream Theater results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, April 24 at 8:00 AM EST - though if you are for whatever reason listening to the album around that time, just say so in the topic and I can delay a bit
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).

Metallica - Master of Puppets track list:
1. Battery
2. Master of Puppets
3. The Thing That Should Not Be
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Disposable Heroes
6. Leper Messiah
7. Orion
8. Damage, Inc.

User Cycle:
4/24: Snake5555555555 (Black Marble - It's Immaterial)
5/1: Jesse_Custer (The Eagles - Hotel California)
5/8: ZaziGuado
5/15: firefdr
5/22: SpikeSetsFire
5/29: Johnbobb
6/5: VeryInsane
6/12: CasanovaZelos
6/19: Seanchan
6/26: Giggsalot
7/3: RyoCaliente
7/10: darkx
7/17: neonreaper
7/24: Great_Paul
7/31: jcgamer107
8/7: ChichiriMuyo
8/14: BlueCrystalTear
8/21: MetalmindStats
8/28: HBJDubs
9/4: Raetsel_Lapin
9/11: TheArkOfTurus

Dream Theater - Images and Words results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
neonreaper (10)
ZeroSignal620 (10)
Steiner (14)
lordjers (14)
TheArkOfTurus (16)
CasanovaZelos (16)
HBJDubs (16)
Snake5555555555 (16)
Seanchan (16)
Toxtricity (18)
BlueCrystalTear (18)
HanOfTheNekos (20)
NFUN (20)
Raetsel_Lapin (22)
MetalmindStats (28)

General Album Comments

HanOfTheNekos: Love this album

Under a Glass Moon has one of my two favorite DT guitar solos.
Metropolis has the duet which is stellar.
Surrounded is a guilty pleasure, but way way way better in some of the live versions that it affects my ranking here

Pull me Under is kind of boring and overrated

neonreaper: This album was huge for Dream Theater and for progressive metal. It's awesome and doesn't really have much in the way of weaknesses. The biggest flaw is that the label prevented them from having Change of Seasons on the album. can you friggin imagine this album with Change of Seasons on it??

CasanovaZelos: My first time listening to Dream Theater outside of a song in the Rock Band series. Didn't quite hook me at the start, but that middle section has me wanting to check out the rest of their work.

Toxtricity: songs being low does not mean i'm knocking them here. this album is insanely good to me, to the point where not placing everything in the top half is painful

BlueCrystalTear: This wasn't exactly what I expected from an early 90s metal album; I was expecting something screamier. This is really, really good stuff. I am LOVING this.

Just one problem: It's gonna be hard to rank. Really hard. Especially due to my self-imposed short notice...

HanOfTheNekos: Under a Glass Moon so polarizing it seems

BlueCrystalTear (re: above): This is the kind of album that's going to have wild rankings, because while there are tracks I like less than the others, I still really enjoy them. This album has the right balance of ballads like "Another Day" with the soaring rockers. There's not a single song on here that I dislike. So even the ones I'm gonna rank lower (I'm finishing listen #3 right now... of probably 4), I still like.

BlueCrystalTear: Take the Time is the only one I felt went on for too long, though "Under a Glass Moon" came close. The name Dream Theater is clearly evocative of epics, and boy do they deliver there. I really enjoyed my top 6 every time I listened and am definitely going to check out more of their stuff. No idea why I didn't before!

Seanchan: What a fantastic album! There's not a bad song here and it really grew on me with each listen, which is good because I felt oddly ambivalent after the first spin. The instrumentation is great but I think what really makes it is the vocalist; not necessarily the words but just the tone and sound. Definitely makes me want to check out more Dream Theater, something I probably should have otherwise done 20 years ago...

HanOfTheNekos: Dream Theater also can be hit or miss. Images and Words was their breakout album, but Metropolis pt. 2 is generally considered their opus. As already said, A Change of Seasons is worth lumping in with Images and Words as well.

NOBODY listens to their first album (it's pre-Labrie as vocalist). Falling Into Infinity is generally considered the worst of the Portnoy albums but it has one of my favorite tracks (and all the rest I literally can't remember).

I think the thing that really sticks out for Dream Theater, pre-self-named-album, is that Mike Portnoy is probably the most musical drummer in a band. He doesn't play the drums as drums, he plays percussion as its own clear voice, melodic and accompaniment.

I haven't really listened to post-Portnoy Dream Theater, but if you want to listen to more after Metropolis pt. 2, I like to push people in the direction of the Score live album (they did the Metallica S&M thing, but unlike Metallica, they didn't sound like shit).

NFUN: I knew a few Dream Theater songs and generally what the band was like, plus I love Planet X which was founded by Derek Sherinian, so I thought I had an idea of what the album would be like. I was wrong lmao. I was expecting much more prog and much less glam rock or hair metal or whatever you'd call this... I guess Rush probably a meaningful comparison. Don't get me wrong, that genre is fine, but it's not what I wanted from this, and not what the band could be. Luckily it gets better as the album progresses.

wow the opening to surrounded sounds like Snowball ~ Franca's Cafe!

Damn I have listened to Images and Words (several times, it's a great album) but didn't get to the ranking in time

Images and Words track ranking

8. Take the Time (Track #3)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 5.27/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Steiner, MetalmindStats, lordjers (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, BlueCrystalTear, ZeroSignal620 (#8)

7. Wait for Sleep (Track #7)
Score: 64 (Average Rank: 5.27/8)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Steiner, CasanovaZelos, Snake5555555555 (#8)

6. Pull Me Under (Track #1)
Score: 69 (Average Rank: 4.87/8)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper, BlueCrystalTear, ZeroSignal620 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HanOfTheNekos, Toxtricity, Seanchan (#8)

neonreaper: They made a commercially viable song that has always been fun to listen to. I don't want to overstate this, but it's a very important prog metal song. At the same time, sure, there's a lot of Dream Theater that far exceeds this. It's hard to rank - there's a lot of nostalgia here for me, it's an important song, it's enjoyable, yet I do ultimately prefer other songs.

5. Under a Glass Moon (Track #6)
Score: 71 (Average Rank: 5.07/8)
Biggest Fan(s): HanOfTheNekos, CasanovaZelos (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, HBJDubs, MetalmindStats (#8)

neonreaper: Everyone is firing on all cylinders here. You listen to the album and you just finish with Metropolis and wow.

4. Another Day (Track #2)
Score: 75 (Average Rank: 4.87/8)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): TheArkOfTurus, lordjers, NFUN (#8)

3. Surrounded (Track #4)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 4.53/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): TheArkOfTurus, MetalmindStats, Snake5555555555, NFUN (#7)

neonreaper: I don't even know why this song gets me, it just does. I always liked Moore's songwriting. And if you like Kevin Moore - check out Chroma Key. It's what he left Dream Theater to do and it's good!

2. Learning to Live (Track #8)
Score: 106 (Average Rank: 3.6/8)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs, Toxtricity, lordjers, NFUN, ZeroSignal620 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HanOfTheNekos, CasanovaZelos (#7)

neonreaper: Whoa oh haaaaaaaaaaaaa

1. Metropolis - Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper (Track #5)
Score: 125 (Average Rank: 2.53/8)
Biggest Fan(s): TheArkOfTurus, neonreaper, Steiner, Snake5555555555 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#6)

neonreaper: This song always stuck with me and if you wish it was 80 minutes long, I have some good news for you!

ZaziGuado's comments on this week's poll choices:

I wanted to do albums that I enjoy mostly front to back, would (maybe probably hopefully) be recognizable to most users, and that I'm unsure of how I would actually rank.

Folklore is currently my number one choice for an album that I'll play when I want to relax and the album that made me truly realize how excellent Taylor Swift is at her craft, even if all her previous albums never enticed me. She's not just an expert at creating radio singles, but rather she is a total and complete powerhouse of a songwriter.

Stunt feels like a quintessential 90s album to me. BNL (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdTnpV03p8) are most known for their singles, and admittedly I haven't listened to many of their albums in full, but Stunt is able to hold my attention and showcases their ability to write a humorous song as well as an emotional one.

Plans is not, in my opinion, the best Death Cab For Cutie album (that would be Transatlanticism), but it has better tracks when taken individually (including one of my all time favorite tracks). As such, I feel it works better for ranking. The 2000s era of Ben Gibbard might be my favorite songwriter and the way he crafted verses, if not necessarily their content, was a huge influence on my vocabulary and the way I use words.

woah what the hell why is Pull Me Under that low

Like don't get me wrong Metropolis Part I is a great winner but goddamn

1. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
2. Master of Puppets
3. Disposable Heroes
4. Orion
5. Battery
6. Damage, Inc.
7. Leper Messiah
8. The Thing that Should Not Be

That's the most participants we've had in a while. I suspect it'll continue again this week, with an album most of us are likely very familiar with.

1: Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
2: The Thing That Should Not Be
3: Master of Puppets
4: Orion
5: Disposable Heroes
6: Leper Mesiah
7: Battery
8: Damage, Inc.

I definitely think fewer tracks is helpful for the ranking part, even if they're long like Dream Theater or Metallica. Both of those are 7+ minutes longer than the 12-track Face Value, for instance. But album length isn't as much of a challenge as having more tracks to rank. The more tracks, the harder the actual ranking is.

Giving this a spin tonight (before I assemble my new PC, at which point I'll be doing a lot of other things that would make this ancient thing overclock). Haven't heard it in forever.

First listen down. I can see why I didn't go back to this. Lots of noise. Lots of yelling. This was the kind of thing I expected Dream Theater to be. Is the musicianship great? Absolutely. But the heavy, thrashy stuff is simply not my speed, even if it's genre-defining. I did really love a couple tracks though. Will listen again tomorrow to see how this first take holds up.

1. Master of Puppets
2. Disposable Heroes
3. The Thing That Should Not Be
4. Damage, Inc.
5. Battery
6. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
7. Orion
8. Leper Messiah

You know, I don't often give much thought to what my ACTUAL favorite album is - I prefer let to my favorites float in a nebulous void amongst others which have affected my life and emotions so, but if I did have to choose one, if it really came down to the wire, I would choose Metallica's magnum opus, Master of Puppets. An absolutely blistering powerhouse of thrash metal. A game changer for music. My personal heavy metal Year Zero, the one that started it all. This album still holds a certain power over me, a certain mystique and monolithic mythology placed behind every riff and drum hit, even after 500 or so plays later. It's an ever-evolving beast of a record - there's always something to be gleamed again from its frightful lyrical content and adrenaline-pulsing music. Indeed, Metallica's peak would be more defined by warnings of drugs, total control, insanity, and horrific war than it would be about kicking ass and taking names (though that's certainly here too). It's an album of terror heralded by the Four Horsemen - James' hypnotizing rhythm guitar and effortless vocals entrancing the listener with a barker-like flow, Kirk's blistering solos dragging the listener down to hell and spitting them out again, Lars' anxiety-inducing drumming constantly setting the tone no matter the point in any given track, and Cliff's god-like bass providing the bumping heartbeat and tension for a truly complete listen that's a monumental tour de force that takes the breath away, from the opening acoustic of Battery to the last angry snarl on Damage, Inc.

Battery is a sort of "false start" to the album - a ruse. The dazzlingly beautiful acoustic intro gives way to intense power and the ass-kicking part of metal - it's a transition from the early days of Metallica to the darker middle years. Kill 'Em All was all violence and strength, Ride the Lightning slowed things down here and there but the control was still in your grasp, and at first glance at the album, Battery appears to continue that tradition. The title is obvious - Battery, power, guns, assault on another - I mean choose your definition. It's a song that spits on the weak and positions those that don't stand with the band as lesser individuals - but look deeper and you can see the cracks of insanity beginning to show, that control loosen, this feeling of power slowly being lost. Musically, there's a lot of tricks being done to make the standard metal beat feel a little "off", especially in Lars' and Kirk's playing at the beginning before the vocals come in, that I feel really make the listener drawn into the song instantly.

Battery is amazing, but Master of Puppets is where the album truly begins for me. The opening staccato, the three follow-ups, then the iconic riff. I've heard this song way too many times - and yet it always feels fresh again once I hear that intro all over again. The band is on a WHOLE different plane of existence on this whole track and I think it demonstrates Metallica's biggest strength - their catchiness. There's always some kind of hook to look forward to - little guitar passages here, a bass line there, the way the lyrics all flow and rhyme and fit together and make you sing along despite the dark subject matter. The change in mood mid-way through is brilliant as well, a faux heavenly break giving in to your inner demons in beautiful irony. What keeps me coming back ultimately is this song's message - whatever your vice is, if you're not careful, it will control and destroy your life. Drugs, alcohol, gaming, whatever it is, and the fact that Metallica paints such a grim portrait while still making a song this "fun" is a testament to how good they were here.

The horror continues on The Thing That Should NotBe, the greatest musical ode to Lovecraft there is. Metallica trades the thrash for doom here, and the atmosphere is created with tense, teeth-gritting guitar work from Kirk, with the rising dynamic terror of Lars' drumming and the constant pulsing of the bass giving the cosmic fear the reverence it deserves. This track doesn't do anything TOO crazy, it's just a solid piece of moody doom metal that fits into the themes of control and horror all over the album with the literal fear of the unknown, whether that be a monster lurking beneath the sea or the capacity for violence found in any individual.

Welcome Home (Sanitarium) is the epilogue to "Side 1" of Master. It's the culmination of the control and insanity that was beginning to show in Battery, preyed upon in Master, and festered upon in Thing. Welcome Home is a relatively more peaceful break in the album at this point, though it by no means holds back in the lyrical side of it harshly criticizing the mental health system and how it's quick to judge those who seek or need help. This song has one of my favorite climaxes and solo in any Metallica song and overall the rising tension controls the flow of the song perfectly.

Disposable Heroes is the beginning of "Side 2" or "Act 2" if you wish to be cinematic. To me, this is actually Metallica's scariest and most scathing song on the whole album. It shows a different side of control - from an institution, continuing on the themes from Welcome Home but this time turning sights towards America's war machine and becoming a mindless cog in said machine. This song contains some of Kirk's most desperate playing (emotionally not actually desperate playing because he kills it here), with constant ascending and descending dynamics like the tides of war itself, a cry for help amongst meaningless death.

Leper Messiah features a theme I enjoy a lot - religion. The older I get, the more I grow disillusioned with the nature of it and how controlling and more specifically, strangling it can be to certain people. I believe people should be in charge of their own destinies, not told it or ordained it by someone else. Yet, the song isn't strictly critical of religion itself - but rather the people in charge of delivering it - money-grubbing priests and trickster televangelists stealing the money right from your very pockets. Musically though, Leper is honestly not one of my favorites on the album - the riffs feel a bit more clunky here and the drumming more forced. If it's forgettable, it's only because the rest of the album is so astounding and effortlessly jaw-dropping and ultimately I still like it of course. The little outro break section at the end is really fun!

Orion is an impressive instrumental track. Cliff Burton really takes the center spotlight here, and for good reason. You just need to point here to show how marvelous a bassist and musician he was. This song is as much metal as it a sort of updated take on the classical passage - anyone could stumble on this without knowing it's Metallica and find it really sort of beautiful and moving I think. It's enigmatic and spacey and progressively dynamic throwing up new surprises every new minute or so. ~4:30 just makes me shut my eyes and nearly brings me to tears. In an album so full of darkness and dread, Orion is the hope in that darkness and the shining beacon of human creativity and wonder in the world.

We conclude the album with Damage, Inc., a perfect bookend together with Battery. Back to the ass-kicking side of metal - we wrestled back our control with Orion, and we're ready to give back to others as much as we took ourselves. Yet, true to the album, there's still a certain shadow hanging over here, as in the end vengeance solves nothing and perhaps we are just doing what those in charge always wanted from us to begin with. Metallica ends riotously but with a warning of caution, and in riffs and lyrics that call back to Kill 'Em All, the band looks to the past just as much as it sets up warning for the future. Perfect capstone to the album.

In short, yeah I fucking love this album. There's so much to chew on, and absorb, and just plain rock out to when you want to. Metallica solidified themselves here as a band with as much depth as hooks to latch on to, and that's what really makes this album so timeless for me and countless others. Here's to another 500 more plays to come!

I definitely enjoyed my second listen more than the first. Going in knowing just how loud this was compared to The Black Album singles I've heard helped. The ass-kicking riffs are something, even if it's something I need to be in the mood for. My rankings are gonna look different from everyone else's so I'm expecting to have the highest deviation already lol

hoo boy

1. welcome home (sanitarium)
2. battery
3. master of puppets
4. thing
5. leper messiah
6. disposable heroes
7. orion
8. damage inc

1. Battery
2. Master of Puppets
3. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
4. The Thing That Should Not Be
5. Leper Mesiah
6. Disposable Heroes
7. Orion
8. Damage Inc.

up

Master of Puppets
Battery
Disposable Heroes
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Damage, Inc.
Orion
The Thing That Should Not Be
Leper Messiah

Enjoying this more and more by the listen, even though thrash metal isn't my speed. My rankings keep changing a lot. I've decided on my top two and bottom two (and probably my #3), but I'm gonna need a couple more spins before posting it.

I think I'm happy with this. I love the beautiful instrumentation of Orion - and that shouldn't be a surprise because I'm not one for the screaming. While my rankings kept changing as I listened, the #1 and #8 were the same the whole time. The Thing That Should Not Be went from enjoyable on my first listen to forgettable, dwarfed by the great hooks of the effectively creepy Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and the epic title track surrounding it. Only Disposable Heroes went on for too long and just felt too noxious to be enjoyable for me. I enjoyed every other song at least somewhat - the higher it is, the more of it I enjoyed. Definitely plan on coming back when I'm in the mood, but to me, that's all this is - I need to be in the right mood for it. And that's just me.

1. Orion
2. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
3. Master of Puppets
4. Battery
5. Damage, Inc.
6. The Thing That Should Not Be
7. Leper Messiah
8. Disposable Heroes

bump

i only just processed this but take the time dead last is INSANE wtf

I hope people aren't overlooking Folklore because of Speak Now being covered earlier. As someone who found Speak Now merely average, Folklore is an instant classic.

*Don't Blame Me plays in my head*

CasanovaZelos posted...

I hope people aren't overlooking Folklore because of Speak Now being covered earlier. As someone who found Speak Now merely average, Folklore is an instant classic.

I'm "overlooking" folklore because I don't think I could rank the tracks on it, since a lot of them are very similar musically. Speak Now wasn't like that. I also prefer Speak Now, in large part since it was my jam back in the day and Taylor selling out to go pop never sat right with me. folklore is a course-correction, but I still can't say it would be ideal for this.

Gotta keep in mind the ranking aspect to this too.

I haven't voted yet but I'd lean against Swift if only because we've covered her before. There's so many artists out there that I'd rather not double dip. Even us covering a 2nd Beatles album already didn't sit well with me, and that's the freaking Beatles!

guess I will enter the queue

Master of Puppets
Battery
Damage, Inc.
Disposable Heroes
Orion
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Leper Messiah
The Thing That Should Not Be

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Master of Puppets
Battery
Disposable Heroes
Damage, Inc.
Leper Messiah
The Thing That Should Not Be
Orion

Metallica instrumentals are always bad. Other than that I like every song on this album but even the best tracks are only good, not great. Definitely falls short of the high points on Ride the Lightning.

1. Master of Puppets
2. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
3. Battery
4. Orion
5. Damage, Inc.
6. Leper Messiah
7. Disposable Heroes
8. The Thing That Should Not Be

Just an absolute classic of an album, and the title track is one of my favorite songs of all time.

As I've probably said previously, I wasn't much into music as a kid. I didn't start paying attention to music until the late 90s with the local rock station. And the band that always had me stop to listen was Metallica. Hearing Master of Puppets (the song) for the first time was revelatory. Sanitarium, Ride the Lightning, Enter Sandman, Unforgiven, One, etc.; the amount of great songs they had which got radio play was staggering.

I think Metallica is the first band that I really dove into to explore their full catalog, rather than just the radio hits. And so in many ways they feel like the first band that was "mine", rather than being the result of family musical tastes. Hell, I even enjoy some of their "hated" albums like Load and Reload, though I think some of their general vitriol has subsided over the years. I also want to shout out Garage Inc.'s disc one, which is one of my favorite "deeper cut" Metallica albums.

Of course, the funny thing is that the next big album Metallica released was St. Anger, which is dog shit. I remember trying so hard to like it and knowing it wasn't good. Those fucking drums were atrocious! I've never really given Death Magnetic enough listens, though I've always liked what I heard. And in all honesty, I didn't even know they had released the album Hardwired to Self Destruct until just a few days ago.

Very strong album, the top five have all been #1 at some point in my life

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Orion
Disposable Heroes
Master of Puppets
Battery
Leper Messiah
Damage, Inc.
The Thing That Should Not Be

Panthera posted...

Metallica instrumentals are always bad.

This is so, so wrong.

Seanchan posted...

Garage Inc.

It's actually my most listened to Metallica album. Absolutely incredible to me. I'd love to feature it in this series but to feature the whole thing is just too long.

You should give Hardwired a spin though! It's got some amazing songs I think - I especially love Dream No More (another Lovecraft inspired song) and Here Comes Revenge (the music video for this is worth a watch too). Some are forgettable, sure, but it's a solid album all things considered.

Master of Puppets
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Battery
Orion
Leper Messiah
The Thing That Should Not Be
Disposable Heroes
Damage, Inc.

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Disposable Heroes
Master of Puppets
Battery
Orion
The Thing That Should Not Be
Leper Messiah
Damage Inc

1. Disposable Heroes
2. Master of Puppets
3. Battery
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Leper Messiah
6. Orion
7. Damage, Inc.
8. The Thing That Should Not Be

Never really thought about how lopsided this album is until now - the top two tracks are incredible (likely my two favorite Metallica songs) and then the bottom half is all just okay.

Damn I should have posted right after BCT's ranking so that Disposable Heroes could go from the back to the front

final day

1. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
2. Disposable Heroes
3. The Thing That Should Not Be
4. Master of Puppets
5. Damage, Inc.
6. Battery
7. Leper Messiah
8. Orion

As someone who often struggles with listening to metal, Ive nevertheless generally enjoyed a lot of Metallicas catalog. Id never heard this album before. Im very familiar with S&M, their collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony, but this was my first time hearing the original versions of a lot of these songs. I was also familiar with the Apocalyptica version of Welcome Home (Sanitarium), which had spurred me on to look up the original recently.

So these songs take themselves probably too seriously for my tastes, but I did appreciate how playful they were with things like tempo and meter. I was always kept on my toes, even with the songs I sort of already knew. Ive always liked James Hetfields vocals too. The sheer ferocity of the guitars and drums made this an album I had a hard time putting on in the background it really demanded my full attention.

The instrumental section of Master of Puppets was my highlight of an otherwise ponderous song and one of the highlights of the album overall. However, I thought Orion, the all-instrumental song, was a bit boring, lacking a lot of the fun flair of the rest of the album.

I listened to some of Hardwired today. I was enjoying it at first but then I kind of switched to "this is fine"? I just find it hard sometimes to listen to new material from a band you know so well. Their sound changes/evolves and it's not the same as the songs you've grown accustomed to. It's an unfair comparison but that's just how it goes.

SpikeSetsFire apparently hasn't logged in since January. So, I'm not sure if they will see my PM and I guess that means everyone might be bumped up a week (not sure if they are in the Board 8 Discord or anything)

1. Disposable Heroes
2. The Thing That Should Not Be
3. Master of Puppets
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Damage, Inc.
6. Orion
7. Battery
8. Leper Messiah

There's lots of ways I could have ranked this album, but they all would have had Disposable Heroes at the top.

Master of puppets
Disposable heroes
Orion
Battery
Sanitarium
Leper messiah
Damage inc
Things that should not be