Metallica - Master Of Puppets 2017 Remastered Deluxe edition announced*

But how much shelf space is he gonna need! Have you ever looked at @Vinyl Fan 1973 sig pic? Dudes encircled floor to ceiling with vinyl lol

Just saying

 

Well here goes - I've now got 3 of them!!!

As Amazon UK made a right mess of my original order I placed another one with Amazon US, who were showing them in stock. It took 5 days but eventually I got an email saying it had shippped, eta (estimated time of arrival) 27th November. The way things were going I didn't want to cancel the UK order just in case it ever got sorted & the US one failed to arrive.
In the meantime after the 3rd UK ship date failed to happen I was advised to cancel my original order & place a new one as my order was stuck in the fulfillment centre (whatever that means!). I placed a new order (the price had gone up £20ish but they said they would refund the difference) but still didn't cancel the 1st one as I figured the more orders I had the more chance of getting one (after reading all the other horror stories here & elsewhere). After the 4th!!! failed ship date passed for the 1st order & the 1st failed date for the 2nd order I just about gave up with Amazon UK, sent them 2 more emails but only got a reply to one!
Then at about 4.30pm on Monday 20th November a knock came on the door with a courier holding a large box!! (I'm off work with a bad back, probably stress over this!!) It was the Box Set from Amazon US a week early.
In my excitement/disbelief I forgot about the UK orders & guess what, yesterday I got 2 emails saying both orders were being dispatched, arriving today, which they now have.
The US one is numbered 22,389 (which made sense) but the 2 that came today are 328 & 15,067!! All were packed in the outer black box with the foam inserts so are damage free. However the 2 from today look like the outer boxes had already been opened.

I've started working my way through the contents & so far I'm loving it.
My main album vinyl is a bit noisy with 1 or 2 minor clicks/pops which I think I can live with. The actual sound quality is excellent. I always thought the sound was a bit "thin" & bass light - not any more!!
The double live vinyl quality is fine & the energy coming off the discs is phenomenal.
I'm only 2/3rd through the Rough Mixes but again excellent sound & weighty!! Only wish there had been more vocals (there's no pleasing some people ).

I can now relax but need to decide what to do with the extra 2 copies - send them back to Amazon (as long as they refund the full price) or help out some people who have had not luck getting one so far. I'm not interested in making a profit, as long as I'm not out of pocket all is good.

 

My MOP-boxset is numbered 20897/25000 (the first damaged box that I received and returned was numbered something around 8-thousand)
As I mentioned earlier (in the summer of 2016 when I bought them) the first 2 boxsets are numbered as follows:
KEM: 00090/30000
RTL: 08441/30000

By the way, Im not sure if it has been hear mentioned before, but kinda cool that Metallica acknowledges David Bowie-influence (from his song "Andy Warhol" from his 1971 album "Hunky Dory") on the song "Master Of Puppets".
I heard that bit many years ago, but never actually looked anywhere if there was interview or anything where they actually mention it:
KIRK HAMMETT: DAVID BOWIE 'Was A Pretty Huge Influence On Me And Other People' In METALLICA

This is the bit that I heard long time ago:

 

That reminds me of a magazine interview with Lars, during the black album era, where he claims the Sad But True riff dated back to 1986. But, wasn't used due to being too different to what they were doing at the time, or something.

 

I have that edition. Bought on release. Never been tempted to part with it. Listened to it last week and then took the plunge for this big box. My word this is a beast. The Bellman cut album is very good indeed. I’m 23 again obsessed with this album. Great stuff!

 

Lmao- truth

 

Glorious, isn’t it LOL

 

Speaking of Cliff, for some reason I was thinking of the spoken word he did on To Live is to Die. It's kinda crazy that was his last song before he passed on. I wonder if there are some demos of him playing it in the MOP deluxe set.

 

I'm pretty sure that's Hetfield talking.....

 

Yeah, that's Hetfield. Cliff's words. From all that I've read there seems to be some ambiguity over which musical parts, if any, that Cliff wrote for the song. I've heard different things from multiple sources.

On another note, pouring through the box set book, there seems to a 10 minute multi-track take (take a few seconds off for leader and count-in) of "Master of Puppets" that was recorded on 10-14-1985. This is a different take from the multi-track master on 10-17-1985. This first take didn't make the box set.

There's also an additional take of "Orion" that didn't make the box.

At one point - it looks like Lar's handwriting - "Green Hell" was considered as a B-Side all the way back in 1985.

Very interesting stuff. It looks like we'll never hear the unused takes, as they would have to go back to the multis. 40th anniversary maybe? 50th? Heh.

 

This has been a great week for Metallica stuff. First the boxset and just today this CD arrived from Japan. Makes the anticipation for the Justice box even bigger.

 

I believe it would have hit the box, as I just can’t see his family refusing to give their permission. I think Cliff played the section to James, and James recorded himself practicing it. The reason I bring it up is because the same question was asked on the Metallica forums and the webmaster confirmed that James didn’t write that section. The inclusion in the boxset was simply him practicing.

 

Which makes me think there must have been a tape at one time, because those are several different parts, and pretty indricate to memorize. I say this because, yes, Cliff could have shown all of the parts to James over time, but how would James know how to replicate which bass harmonies went where if he didn't have a guide? Maybe they had involved Kirk in the garage practice. However, all of that kicks against several sources starting that Cliff was genuinely surprised, and a little upset, that they wanted to do all of the melodies in the guitar. It seems that at least James sprung it on him at Sweet Silent. By the time Cliff got back to The States, he told one of his friends, "See what they did? That was supposed to be bass!"

It's anybody's guess. If there was a tape it's probably long gone.

 

Oh really? I didn’t know that. Now things start to make sense when I’m reading in the boxset books that there was tension with Cliff and Lars during that tour. In fact, they only seemed to reconnect right before he died. There was some stuff about that in the back to the front book as well.

 

Yeah, for quick reference check out pgs 113 & 119 in "Back to the Front."

It was a strange relationship they had with Cliff. On one hand, Cliff was quality control in that James would play something he had been working on with Lars, and then kind of look over, and if Cliff was digging it they knew they had a song. They also listened to Cliff when it came to arranging a song, if Cliff had anything to say, even on the Hetfield/Ulrich songs. On the other hand, Hetfield and Ulrich would cut out Cliff, and Kirk for that matter, on things that were stupid to cut them out on. Of course, Lars would often cut James out of the business side of things, too, but I think James was relieved that somebody would work those angles for him - that he didn't have to get off of his ass to do it.

 

Get yourself a promo copy of the red face disc with the promo Sony wristband next. Man up!

 

Well, they only listened to the other two so much, because anyone can look on the rear of the album cover to find this:




All Arrangements By Hetfield & Ulrich

 

I believe that's legalese by arrangement/agreement.

It harkens back to Lennon/McCartney.

Hetfield has since spoke numerous times about them looking to Cliff, or simply Cliff coming out and offering, parts that should be changed or rearranged and/or guitar parts being altered based upon what Cliff was playing, whereupon Cliff would then change the baas part to offset what the guitar was playing.

The flip-side question is how much was Cliff a self-editor?

On the boxset, all of the early versions of "Battery" have Cliff playing this bass run during the "Cannot kill the family" parts, between the guitar chords. Eventually that bass run went away. Did Cliff make it go away, or did someone else ask Cliff not to play it?

Yeah, I'm fascinated with Cliff Burton. When I was 12 and 13 years old, when I looked at their photos I always gravitated toward Cliff and Kirk. Cliff because he always seemed so separate, so every-day-guy, just so naturally cool. Kirk because he looked like a kid, like me.

When Cliff died I was devastated. Then came AJFA. It was good, great even, yet something was missing (and I'm not talking about Jason's bass guitar). Mettalica would never be as good again. They could be awesome, but just not as impactful.

It might just be me, but I believe their ultimate quality control left the planet on September, 27th, 1986. It's the same QC that helped them make the leap from KEA to RTL.

 

Sorry, man, but that just sounds like the same ol' everything died with Cliff speech. They got even angrier on Justice, and to plenty of people, their artistry reached even greater heights, which isn't to say that Master Of Puppets isn't absolute greatness. Of course it is. But I've always hated that stance, because there was no better band in the world during the late 80's.

I haven't had time to dig deep into the box set yet, but the logical reason for that bass line disappearing is that you can't hear the bass guitar very well on Master Of Puppets, for all intents and purposes. Of course you can hear it nicely on parts of Orion and the intro to Damage, but beyond that, it's tough to find.

Jason Newsted himself - who would know Cliff Burton's bass lines better than anyone in the world - once commented on Through The Never's bass line by saying, "It's fairly similar to the main bass part of Master Of Puppets, if you could hear it."

 

For some reason, this image is blocked and I can't see it, but as i went to the photobucket, I see that you posted "One", EP from japan.
I got that one aswell and I remember long time ago when I bought mine. Still got the OBI stored inside the sleeve. Very cool and nice EP to have in the collection!

 

Heh. You're right; there was no better band in the world during the late '80's. Then the '90's happened.

I don't know, though; whether it's merely perception, or some larger reality that the majority of people share, I believe the "Cliff speech" has merit. It's not I feel that everything "died," nor did I dismiss Metallica then, or now, as an artistic force. I certainly didn't dismiss Jason Newsted. As you know, it wasn't long after that the $5.98 EP came out, which sounded very much alive and hopeful.

What I'm saying, however, is that AJFA was the sound of a band who had just enough gas left in the tank to close that chapter of the career. Most of it is hindsight, yet even at the time of AJFA's release I remember thinking that it sounded very "major." It was bright: so very different from what sounded like three "minor key" albums in a row, and while I know that the songs on all four albums (KEA through AJFA) has nothing to do with the actual keys to the songs, major or minor, I still feel, to this day, that AJFA has something missing, even for all its brilliance. It sound like a facsimile of the aforementioned anger, wrapped in a candy-coating.

This dovetails back to the MoP boxset. I know it should be; I feel it should be; historically it is accurate; nevertheless, it feels odd to have so much Jason Newsted in the MoP boxset. This goes back to perception, right? To me the album, the tour, and everything else is Metallica with Cliff Burton in it. I think a part of that is because I only got my metal news from magazines, before the internet, etc., and I don't recall being aware that Metallica was doing anything (especially touring Japan, where Cliff really wanted to go), that I had this perception that they were grieving. It was only until the $5.98 EP was I able to acknowledge they had turned a new page.

I know more now. Still, as they say our personalities are essentially formed by the time we are 5 (or whatever), I think my experiences of 1986, trumps the ensuing 31 years. It's a choice. I won't deny it. At the same time, because of that, I don't know how much I'll listen to the Jason shows from the boxset.

I love Newsted, but more so when Metallica started fresh with him (even though you can hear less of his bass guitar then you can Cliff's).

 

Thanks!

Sounds great too!

 

Question for those getting the box from European shops:

Do they all have that stupid, German DVD age sticker on it, and more importantly; are you able to peel it off?
Metallica - Master Of Puppets

I wonder if this is limited to 25,000 worldwide, or if there are 25 for Europe (and elsewhere) and 25 for the US (and elsewhere)?

Because there seem to be a box for EU with the sticker (above) and one for US without the sticker (below). Both have slightly different sheets attached to the back... Of course it could be 25,000 worldwide, with just a different info sheet depending on where in the world you are.
Metallica - Master Of Puppets

 

Well I couldnt be less interested in another copy of this album, given I have good AAA ones...
But the demo stuff is phenominal, and I usually HATE demo/riff stuff as extra's on anything.
Hetfield just works riffs like no one else can, incredible player.
Lars is quite on point as well. Is Cliff even there on any of em? I think I hear him once or twice...
Remarkable how little Leper Messiah changed from its later demo.
In fact, if your a engineer/producer and band comes in with this kind of stuff, you would HAVE to try to cock it up.
We usually underestimate the importance of that, and tend to over estimate the importance of gear/engineer/producer.,

 

What’s your favorite live performance from the box?

Anyone else...favorite?

Tossup for me right now: “Country Club” & “Aragon” (Vinyl)

Still need to download to iTunes. Flying out to a warm & sunny island on Sat. Gotta have the iPod loaded.