Metallica: Master of Puppets

Disagree if you must, but Metallica was probably the most important metal band of the 80s and 90s. They cracked the Top 30 on the charts with Puppets in 1986, with absolutely no radio airplay or MTV. But who cares about charts, these guys were bringing serious shit on every album they made between 1982-1992. They were reinventing metal with each new album -- making it truly epic for the first time -- and all this in an era when bands like Cinderella and Poison were most listeners idea of metal. They weren't the first band to play thrash, or to stretch a song past the 8-minute -- but they pieced it altogether on this album. There are so many compositional tricks the band empoys on Puppets -- Hetfeild's rhythm playing, the beats Lars picks to hit his cymbals, etc -- but they all sound commonplace because this album influenced everyone that ever played metal after it.

Link:
Metallica: Master of Puppets

A couple quickies

It's been a few days, so here's a couple of quickies to keep you busy, including Andrew Bird as requested. I also found new ones from White Rabbit, Battles (hot), Elliott Smith, Spoon and the long-dormant Greyboy Allstars.

This self-titled release from Besnard Lakes is also one of the more interesting rock listens of the year. BL might have actually one-upped My Morning Jacket in terms of heaviest vocal reverb ever used on a single release.

LINKS:
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
The Besnard Lakes - (s/t)
Greyboy Allstars - What Happened to TV?
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
White Rabbit - Fort Nightly
Battles - Mirrored
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Elliott Smith - New Moon

Mastodon - Leviathan

Here's some future-classic metal combining early Slayer-style thrash with the melodicism of 80s Metallica and dose of modern grindcore. Look out for some highly intelligent melodies and time changes and some brutal drumming.

Yuppie-ified as it may be, I've been listening to this record when I jog, and I feel like I'm being chased by something.

DOWNLOAD:
Mastodon - Leviathan