Oh, what could've been. Metallica's Master of Puppets is regarded as one of the landmarks of the band's catalogue, and some argue it is their best album. But it could've ended up sounding much different.
In a new interview with Noisey, Rush frontman Geddy Lee was asked about the rumor that he was set to produce the landmark third full-length from the Bay Area thrashers, and revealed it's sort of true:
“It’s sort of true. There was some discussion with Lars, back in the day, about working with them. This was before Master of Puppets came out, I think? There was talk, you know. I was friends with their management and I met Lars back in England. I remember going to see them here in Toronto when they played at the Masonic Temple. That’s when the original bass player was still happening. You know, before that tragedy. And, you know, we talked about it and I liked their band a lot at that time. But it just never came together.”
The previous question, where Lee was asked if he gets the correlation between Rush and metal, was a bit eye-opening, in how Lee is not-at-all really a fan of metal:
Well, I don’t listen to a lot of metal. Even though there’s an aspect of our sound that can be quite metal, I sort of attribute it more to early metal, in the way that Zeppelin were metal and in the way that Black Sabbath were metal, and Blue Cheer were metal. And that’s the sort of tradition of metal that we took on. I like Metallica. I’ve got great respect for them. But, you won’t hear too much speed metal or death metal in my house.
So what could've this album sounded like? Could Lee have encouraged the band to go for a more accessible sound, like they did on their eventual breakout album, The Black Album? Or would Metallica have just ignored Lee's advice and do what they wanted, while Lee manned the boards?
I guess we'll never know.
