I remember a couple of dreams about Cliff and in one he was sitting on a high stool and showing me how to play arpeggios.
His parts on Master of Puppets are as superlative as Hammet’s guitar harmonies or Ulrich’s dynamic playing — that muted cymbal grabbed mid-riff in the title track, for example.
This was the heaviest album in the world for half of 1986 before Slayer released Reign In Blood, and I can still remember the way it challenged my ears when I heard it in '88 or '89.
These days I have difficulty reconciling that Metallica with the one that found wider fame singing about going to bed in ‘Enter Sandman’ the following decade.
Much has been written about the precision of the playing on this album and the massive sound achieved through layering over a dozen guitar recordings, which is testament to Hetfield’s role as one of the greatest rhythm guitarists.
The anger in his lyrics is palpable and I think I’m right in saying this was the last Metallica album to have a song inspired by HP Lovecraft.
A lot of the difference between Metallica in the ‘80s and the rock band that emerged in the ‘90s comes down to the death of Cliff Burton.
Burton’s basslines are as distinct as Ulrich’s famed drum parts, with their dynamic fills and propulsive rhythms.
Sadly, Master of Puppets is one of the last times bass playing would be a feature of the band.
When Jason Newstead replaced Burton Metallica ruined the sound of bass in heavy metal -- I argue it does as much as the dry cardboard box-like drum sound on the album Justice For All, particularly their first single ‘One’:
“[After] Lars and James heard their initial mixes the first thing they said was, 'Take the bass down so you can just hear it, and then once you've done that take it down a further 3dBs.'”
Cliff Burton accentuated Metallica’s European influence in particularly Bach-inspired parts, including the penultimate ‘Orion’:
Burton arranged the middle section, which features its moody bass line and multipart guitar harmonies. "Damage, Inc." [...] starts with a series of reversed bass chords based on the chorale prelude of Bach's "Come, Sweet Death",
Those chords were otherworldly with their volume swells and added atmosphere.
I remember opening the Master of Puppets tablature and feeling aggrieved that the chords were transcribed for guitar when they were clearly Burton’s bass.
