03 MASTER OF PUPPETS METALLICA

(1986)

Most bands are lucky to have one great guitarist, but Kirk and James both star on the greatest thrash album of all time. Hetfield’s right hand is like Cristiano Ronaldo’s right foot, a marvel at the pinnacle of achievement in its field. If the timing is at all off when double tracking, the attack of each note gets ‘smeared’, losing the crunch. Hetfield triple-tracked his guitars with laser-guided precision, some of the tightest and most brutal rhythm playing ever laid down. It helped that the band had riffs to burn, churning through an album’s worth in the title track alone.

One consistently underrated aspect of Kirk Hammett’s playing is his ability to create melodies over clean breakdown sections. The harmonised lines over Hetfield’s arpeggios in the title track are a moment of beauty amidst brutality, and it makes everything sound more crushing when the band starts breathing fire again. Kirk’s whammy bar action is also top notch, in a decade of tremolo shenanigans.

The Puppets guitar tone was transitional between their early, nasal, Marshall-and-tubescreamer tone and their later scooped Boogie sound. Kirk and James slaved the preamp from Mesa/ Boogie Mark IIC+ heads into the power amp of a Marshall 2203.

James had not yet discovered EMG pickups, and was using a Jackson King V equipped with Seymour Duncan Invaders. Kirk mainly used a Jackson Randy Rhoads with EMGS, but his stock Gibson Flying V appears on some solos.