I know Metallica gets a lot of flack for a lot of things. I'll be the first to admit that their later output is largely inconsistent. At least I feel that way as a fan, but hopefully they are following their own muse in the way they want to do so. I'd like to take you back to 1984 when this album came out, though, and discuss just how ground-breaking it was to a lot of fans.

I still remember hearing this disc for the first time. I worked in a record store, and a customer came in and told us we had to hear this thing. So, we opened a copy for store play and put it on. I was a metal fan at the time and a prog head, but I was not prepared for this. It completely changed everything. These guys were incredibly heavy, and yet they were also fast and technical. I had never heard those things put together before. It was like everything I loved about heavy metal merged with much of what I loved about progressive rock and then turned up to 11. It's hard to grasp that now, but it was really mind-blowing for the time.

The thing is, this album still holds up incredibly well today. There are really no weak tracks. The weakest piece here "Escape" would be a monster success on a lot of albums. It only seems a little less than special because of everything else around it. Say what you will about Metallica, but for me they are legends for their two best albums (Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets). Everything else is just bonus material. Those two releases alone make them worthy of any praise you want to heap upon them. Having one album that stands that tall would be a dream for a lot of artists, and Metallica have at least those two from my point of view.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2021  Volume 3. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2021.