TOP 5
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Master of Puppets
“Master of Puppets” is a song from Metallica’s third album Master of Puppets. Rolling Stone magazine commented, “Many of the songs on Master of Puppets are about the loss of control in some form or another. The epic title track addresses addiction. ‘It deals pretty much with drugs,’ James Hetfield says.” Hetfield had written the lyrics to this song based on how drugs control an addicted user and initially came up with the idea because of seeing people on the road who were drug users (“Readers Poll”). This is one of Metallica’s faster-paced songs coming in at 212 beats per minute and is notorious for the strained wrist from playing through the long song. Overall, the song conveys and maintains a theme of evil and struggle with its key set in E minor, and is able to “find that sweet spot between control and chaos” (“All 151 Metallica Songs”).
This song encapsulates Metallica’s ultra-fast down picking along with an intense combination of notes packed into an eight-minute and thirty-five-second song. The timbre of the song is one of oppression and belligerence towards those who are described in the song. It achieves this timbre with the lyrics explaining the mental torture and oppression on the addicted user's mind.
Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name 'cause I'll hear you scream
Also, it achieves the feeling because, as mentioned previously, it is about drugs controlling its addicted user and affecting their lives as a whole. Likewise, the rhythm of this song matches the timbre with its rapid beat coming from the drums and guitars. As are the instruments played in “One,” there are not many spaces between the notes and the only break is given halfway through the song. With this given, the dynamics, apart from the transition portion of the song, are consistently loud. The tracks are filled with Hetfield and Hammet’s guitars, Lar’s drums, and Jason’s bass which heavily increase the sounds the listener hears. With this intention of laboriously placed tracks, the texture is in parallel with the dynamics. “Master of Puppets'' has a blend of monophonic and polyphonic texture along with other musical elements. Some points show the monophonic sound when there is only one melodic line with no other harmony or counterpart to join in. This is shown in the main riff of the song starting at fifty-two seconds which has the guitars playing the same melodic line in unison. On the other hand, there are times where the texture turns to a polyphonic melody as Kirk and James split and make multiple riffs occur over themselves. This occurs at three minutes and fifty-two seconds where Kirk is around a half octave higher than James' guitar.
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