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There’s nothing you would change about\u00a0Metallica<\/a>‘s\u00a0Master of Puppets<\/em><\/a>, right?<\/p>\n Released on March 3, 1986, the band’s third album is widely regarded as their masterpiece<\/a>, the point at which they took thrash metal to unprecedented levels of sophistication.<\/p>\n But like any band recording a new album, at several points Metallica faced creative decisions that could have made Master of Puppets<\/em> turn out differently, in both big and small ways. Here’s a look at five of those “what if?… moments:<\/p>\n In a 2015 interview, Geddy Lee<\/a> confirmed that he could<\/em> have been the producer on Master of Puppets<\/em>.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s sort of true,” Rush<\/a>‘s legendary singer and bassist\u00a0explained<\/a>. “There was some discussion with Lars, back in the day, about working with them.\u00a0 I was friends with their management, and I met Lars back in England.<\/p>\n “I remember going to see them here in Toronto when they played at the Masonic Temple [in 1985]<\/a>. We talked about it, and I liked their band a lot at that time. But it just never came together.”<\/p>\n Master of Puppets<\/em> was instead co-produced by Metallica and Flemming Rasmussen, the same team credited on 1984’s Ride the Lightning<\/em><\/a>. Rasumussen would later team up with Ulrich and singer \/ guitarist James Hetfield<\/a>\u00a0as co-producers on 1988’s …And Justice for All<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead of the deceptively soothing acoustic guitars that kick off “Battery,” the first thing you hear every time you put on Master of Puppets<\/em> might have been the strangled cat vocal stylings of comedian and Police Academy<\/em> star Bobcat Goldthwait.<\/p>\n “The band had just loaded all the session tapes back into their car [when] Lars remembered that they were going to use a sound bite from the comedian Bobcat Goldthwait at the beginning of the album,” mixing engineer Mchael Wagener recalled in the liner notes to the 2017 box set edition of Master of Puppets<\/em>.<\/p>\n “Suggestions were made to get all the tapes back out of the car and set up the studio again,” he continued. “But in the end, we all decided against it, thinking it could be added in mastering, which never happened, as far as I know.”<\/p>\n Read More: 30 Battering ‘Master of Puppets’ Facts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The fourth and seventh songs on Master of Puppets<\/em> were at one point joined together in a nine-minute epic known as “Only Thing.” You can hear them together in this form in a late June 1985 demo, taken from the 2017 box set edition of the album.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Confession: This is by far the smallest change on this list. But if you listen to the June 1985 demo version of “Disposable Heroes,” you’ll hear a familiar riff (right around the six-minute mark) which was later removed and donated to Master of Puppets<\/em>‘ closing song, “Damage, Inc.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a 1986 interview with Metal Forces magazine, Ulrich reveals that Metallica recorded two cover songs during the Master of Puppets<\/em> sessions, intending to release them as B-sides at they did with “Am I Evil?” and “Blitzkrieg” on Ride the Lightning<\/em>‘s “Creeping Death” single.<\/p>\n “We didn’t finish the recordings because we didn’t like the way they sounded, as they sounded too much like the album material, so we binned them,” he explained. We should have made them sound like [the] previous B-side stuff.”<\/p>\n One of the two 1985 tracks, a cover of Diamond Head’s “The Prince,” was later re-recorded with Jason Newsted on bass, and released as an …And Justice for All<\/em>-era B-side. The Puppets<\/em>-era recording was eventually released on the 2017 box set.<\/p>\n So was the other song from those 1985 sessions, a cover of Fang’s “The Money Will Roll Right In,” which lead guitarist Kirk Hammett said Metallica didn’t get exactly right.<\/p>\n “The reason [our version] wasn\u2019t released in the first place was that it had none of the punk-rock charm when we recorded it; it was too slick, and it was a bit overplayed,” he told\u00a0Revolver<\/a>. “I mean, Cliff and I don\u2019t even play on it, and it\u2019s a bit overplayed. [Laughs] It was just something that we tried and thought, ‘You know \u2026’ It doesn\u2019t have that raunchiness and that humor that the original had.”<\/p>\n They became the most successful heavy metal band in history, but not without the occasional personnel shift.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Ed Rivadavia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n1. Geddy Lee Once Discussed Producing ‘Master of Puppets’<\/h3>\n
2. The Album Was Originally Going to Begin With… Bobcat Goldthwait?<\/h3>\n
3. ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ and ‘Orion’ Started Out as One Song<\/h3>\n
4. ‘Disposable Heroes’ Donated a Riff to ‘Damage, Inc.’<\/h3>\n
5. Two Cover Songs Were Recorded for B-Sides, Then Scrapped<\/h3>\n
Metallica Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide<\/h2>\n