Ten 1986 albums that are better than Master of Puppets (and 5 albums that aren't)

    

    You know what I don't think is all that good that's turning 40?  Metallica's Master of Puppets.  Now as the title gives away, I don't think it's the worst album of 1986 either.  So since it turns 40, I figured I'd remember the record accurately, but fairly, so let's start with 10 albums I think are objectively better than Orion and the betas.  These are in no-order, any-genre, and reverse alphabetical order seems more satanic, so we'll go with that.

So here are at least 10 albums that beat Master of Puppets fair and square:

The Smiths- The Queen is Dead

Jangle-acoustic pop rock masterstroke.  This ranks higher than the album on the official 1986 RYM album list.  I agree, but they both are outflanked by....

Slayer- Reign In Blood

The most obvious alternative ever.  No cleans, no quiets, just pure loud, vicious rage.  Certainly not the only album to do this, but arguably the most legendary.

 

Run DMC- Raising Hell

What this did for hip-hop/rap cannot be overstated.  But it's influence is so permeating you just don't notice it anymore

Motorhead- Orgasmatron

The title track alone is ten times more atmospheric and nightmarish than anything on MoP alone.  Sepultura covered it for a reason (and admittedly sucked alot of said atmosphere out of it), the rest is the best since Ace of Spades.

Megadeth- Peace Sells But Who's Buying

Pathetic how Dave only seems to care about outselling them, because it's really right here where he overtakes them and never looks back.  There are cleans and quiets here, but they are brooding and menacing, never letting go of any sort of tension.

Kreator- Pleasure To Kill

If it wasn't for the quiet/serene intro of "Choir of the Damned," this would pound for pound be better than Reign In Blood. Never underestimate the ability of European bands to be more violent and dark than American ones, especially the Germans.

Iron Maiden- Somewhere In Time

This album unfortunately seemed to be a victim of Master of Puppets' hype where once a trend comes along, they want every band to follow that trend regardless if it fits or not.  40 years on this album still sounds like the future.

Dark Angel- Darkness Descends

To be truly fast, you can't just have your drummer be fast, your vocalist needs to be fast as well.  Don Doty spits out more syllables than Treach and TI could ever hope to.

Cocteau Twins- Victorialand

The ultimate in fluffy calmness.  There aren't even any drums on this album.  Not my favorite Cocteau record, but still better than....you know.

Candlemass- Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

With respect to Saint Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram and others, it is here where doom metal declares that it isn't 2nd rate Black Sabbath ripoffs, it's something brand new with something to say.

And here are five albums that I would prefer Master of Puppets over:

Destruction- Eternal Devastation

This should wipe the floor with Metallica, but 80s production was kind of a dice roll, and this is where it rolls snake eyes with a laughably thin, bereft of low-end presentation.

Judas Priest- Turbo

Even I ain't enough of a contrarian to pick this.  Judas Priest always had one foot in speed, one foot in pop sensibility, but its here they try to go for the Hysteria (1 year before might I add) and fall flat on their faces.

Manilla Road- The Deluge

I'm totally on board with the internet's love affair and revival of this US cult-metal act, but The Deluge just leaves me cold.  Like Eternal Devastation, the production really dulls the edge here.  And there are riffs here that would be put to better use on the follow-up

Possessed- Beyond The Gates

I don't know what it says about thrash that a death metal band taking a step back to thrash yields catastrophic, irritating results, but there ya go.  The follow-up EP was a much better execution of the style.

Sodom- Obsessed By Cruelty

This should be held in higher regard than Puppets because of it's status as first-wave black metal, but a combo of mediocre songs and mediocre production just prevent it from happening (and that's both versions, one just has more annoying drums than the other).  Shame because that's such a fucking awesome album cover too.

and as a bonus, here are four albums that aren't better, but also aren't worse.  On equal footing if you will.

Saint Vitus- Born Too Late

"Dying Inside" is one of the top 50 heavy metal songs of all time.  A perfect musical microcosm of many who lose their lives to alcoholism.  The title track is great too.  The rest?  I'd like to tell you they're better than anything on Master of Puppets, if I could remember how any of them go.

  

Exumer- Possessed By Fire

Obviously has better production than two of its three German counterparts, but not nearly as strong or violent as the other one.  Still, it belongs in a proverbial German big 4 a hell of a lot more than Tankard ever did.

King Diamond- Fatal Portrait

Like Born Too Late, I'd love to [insert meme of a young boy yelling at young girl here] why Master of Puppets is inferior to this....if I could remember it.  The best song here was the B-side to the single "Halloween."  That alone makes the album lose points.

Ozzy Osbourne- The Ultimate Sin

Through a series of autistic events that you'll lose brain cells trying to understand, this was actually my first metal album.  "Does the events happen because you got it at 1 when it came out?"  No, I got it at 15, 14 years later.  That in theory should put it in the 10 better, but I don't know.  The drumming is really bland.  and I can never decide how I feel about the band photos here.  Sometimes they're cool (they did get a pass from Beavis & Butthead whatever that's worth), sometimes I'm annoyed he hopped on the glam train.  But he weathered it way better than Priest did.

So yeah, happy 40th anniversary to an album that's more low effort than this engagement post!         

And remember.....

Even back when I was a dumb "Load and Reload are actually good" teenager, I still thought Orion sucked ass.