The following summer, while on a family vacation (with my best friend, Chris, along for the ride), I'd finally gotten on board.
Some time after getting the Live Shit boxset, I vividly remember a phone call from Chris where he was praising the Puppets record, having just gotten it himself. He even played part of the title track for me over the phone (this is not the way I'd recommend listening to a song). Again, I wasn't interested...maybe because the songs were too long?
Back to that summer road trip though; during that entire trip, Chris was letting me wear some of his Metallica shirts -- Ride The Lightning being one of them, as I only had an original Damage, Inc. shirt that I'd found while rooting through the left behind belongings of the my grandmother's neighbors! On that trip, we visited Delaware's own Fort Delaware. During a tour of the fort's ground and empty, cavernous halls, I recall Chris singing the lyrics to "Sanitarium", as the sights we saw resembled just that! For the rest of that trip, I borrowed Chris' cassette and digested it completely -- I was hooked!
Battery - the acoustic intro was interesting. As the beautiful melody swelled and gave way to that crushing intro riff, it was ON for me. While I don't recall my initial reaction to the song's lyrics, the line "cannot kill the family / Battery is found in me" always stood out for me. As a pre-teen struggling to find his own identity and be a part of "something" (I wasn't a jock, a thug/pothead/rapper kid, or a nerd), I finally found my family. Back then, I remember fondly struggling to sing along to the chorus since it was so damned fast! The Live Shit Mexico City '93 version was an early, instant favorite though, that still ignites the same early feelings with its galloping riffs and tempos. Today, the song gets me pumped when I'm needing some motivation!
Master Of Puppets - Let's put this out there right now: I was never a druggie or a pothead. Never was and never will be. In the 7th grad, a lot of my friends got into that stuff because, I guess, they wanted to be seen as cool or fit in with the older kids (this was, after all, the height of Gangsta Rap and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg were all over MTV). It never appealed to me, though I did try and fit in with my own friends and their older friends -- some of who were the very same kids who bullied and tormented me in elementary school...no idea why I'd want to hang with those assholes, right? Acceptance I guess?
Anyway, on the posi side of this coin, there's always been my older cousin Tim McMahon. He's been the older brother I never had and I've always looked up to him, even now as an adult in my thirties! He introduced me to Hardcore Punk music and, more specifically, the Straight Edge lifestyle through various great bands and even his own band, Mouthpiece. This lifestyle doesn't do drugs, smoke cigarettes, or drink booze. All that indulgence just never appealed to me and still doesn't to this day. It was in the 7th grade when I started identifying as Straight Edge, so discovering this song and getting its full impact at that time made perfect sense.
While its lyrics aren't specifically about that positive lifestyle, they paint a horrible, painful picture of what I can only imagine to be a never-ending nightmare of a life.
The laughter at the end of the song still scares me a bit! The line "now your life is out of season" (specifically the way Hetfield sings it on the Seattle '89 video) always gives me a chill. For sing-alongs, it doesn't get much better than the call and response of the verses and choruses to this track as far as I'm concerned. Riff-wise? There's an unbeatable main riff derived from the intro riff. The solos and entire middle section are beautiful and crushing in the same breath.
The Thing That Should Not Be - if you don't know by now, Horror movies are kinda my thing, right? "Thingy" is a musical Horror film. Monster riffs that obliterate your eardrums and even your bones, this song has it all. The echo effects on the vocals (especially during live performances) always strike me as evil and moody as hell. One of the first import CDs I ever bought was an interview disc where Lars Ulrich discusses the soon-to-be-released Puppets record. In it, he describes this track as being related to "The Call of Ktulu" from Ride The Lightning and how "Thingy" was a neighbor of Ktulu's who lived a few caves down from him. That comical image has remained with me ever since! VERY heavy riffs and tempo that make me wanna stomp!
Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - not as great as "Fade To Black", but still a favorite. The intro and main riff are incredible and I find myself humming them all the time in any given situation throughout the day. Lyrically, I can't relate exactly, but their sense of rising up from oppressors rings true to my elementary school bully days for sure...especially "Leave me the fuck alone" from classic live versions.
Disposable Heroes - epic story-telling. Amazing, galloping riffage. I instantly see the images portrayed in the lyrics while singing along.
Leper Messiah - going back to that interview disc with Lars from '86, I love the images he paints of Jim and Tammy-Faye Baker types profiting off others who blindly follow and give their riches to greed in the name of being holy. Great riffs, too. The ending of "Lie...Lie...Lie..." is pretty sick, too.
Orion - to quote Cochise from The Warriors, "Magic. A whole lotta magic." While it's an instrumental, the riffs and melodies speak for the lack of lyrics. When "Orion" is playing, I'm usually in a reflective mood, reminiscing days gone by and face I don't see anymore. This one stirs up great memories and thoughtful smiles for me. The middle section, of course, is the highlight...pure Cliff Burton. There is so much emotion in this section whether it's the album version, the guitar/bass jams from the early '90s and '04 (or the other jams from '93), a proper live version, or the Through The Never sound check version. Much like the photo montage over the end credits of Cliff 'Em All, I'm always thinking about friends or family members who have passed on while listening to this part of the song. Also, riff-wise, Hetfield is a beast here.
Damage, Inc. - "fuck it all and fucking no regrets" . . . that line pretty much sums up the entire song and Metallica's general attitude (to this day). As a fan, it sums up what being a fan means too; we're a family of jackals, rabid to the very end. In some perverse way, both "Battery" and "Damage, Inc." resonate the Metallica Family message the same way that "Nothing Else Matters" does these days. In elementary school and high school, this was the song that got me vibed up to take on the tasks at hand. I'd easily rank this as my favorite song (depending on the day) or at least in the top 3 or 5. The only (!) time I saw it played live, I just about lost my voice during the taped intro of Cliff's bass solo!
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