This time, though, the band had a big-label budget and nearly four months to make the record. Related: Metallica Mixes It Up: Monsters of Metal Roar in the Round, by Sarah Benzuly, Mix, Jan. “Just Ride the Lightning times ten in terms of sound.” “We wanted to do Ride the Lightning better, louder, more well played, better songs,” Rasmussen says. In the fall of 1985, the Bay Area band, then living in Los Angeles, returned to Sweet Silence Studios in faraway Copenhagen to reunite with producer Flemming Rasmussen, whom they had hired on their previous record, Ride the Lightning, after being impressed by his work with Rainbow.ĭespite being vehemently “anti-producer” at the time, the band members, who were barely in their 20s and still learning their way around the studio, had an ideal creative partner in Rasmussen. Puppets, which was written in eight weeks over the summer of 1985, saw the band become more refined, more powerful and more in control of its direction, on a record that was more intricate, complex and dynamic-more everything. (This would be the final project with Burton, who was killed in a tour bus accident in Sweden that fall.) Five years into their careers, they were maturing as artists, with all four members-frontman James Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Cliff Burton and drummer Lars Ulrich-contributing equally to song material. Master of Puppets, Metallica’s third album, was released in March 1986 as the band’s major-label debut. Soon enough, Elektra Records and Q-Prime Management took notice, and everything changed. Of these acts, Metallica was the behemoth, building a massive cult following of tape-trading fans and blowing away crowds of 80,000, opening shows for Bon Jovi, Ratt and Ozzy. The pioneers of thrash-Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth-were carving out a new genre that was spreading like wildfire despite the bands’ steadfast refusal to conform to the music mainstream. Thrash metal, with its face-melting assault of blistering tempos, heavy themes, chugging riffs and a caustic attitude borrowed from hardcore punk, was the antithesis of glam rock, and it was being eaten up by the disenfranchised youth of America.
Meanwhile, a dark fury was raging in the music underground, and it was about to bust wide open.
Over on MTV, “metal” music was a rotation of camera-friendly bands slithering around in Aqua Net and Spandex, whipping their hair to shout-along anthems about parties and girls. With Wham, Whitney Houston, Sade and Dream Academy dominating the Billboard charts, you’d be hard-pressed to find a distorted guitar anywhere in the Top 10. In the spring of 1986, pretty-sounding pop ruled the airwaves.
0 kommentar(er)
