Originally Posted by The Batlord

I've been learning to appreciate Master of Puppets a lot more recently. It doesn't have the individual songs to compete with Ride the Lightning or And Justice for All, but it does have a near perfect album flow. It hits you in the face with "Battery", then the epic thrash of the title track, then it slows down at just the right point to batter you with the mid-paced but heavy as sin "The Thing that Should not Be", and then ends the A-side with "Sanitarium". The B-side follows the same idea as the A-side, it hits you with straight up thrash with "Disposable Heroes", then throws another slow, heavy, but absolutely vicious number with "Leper Messiah", then the instrumental "Orion" to give you a breather, before finally putting you out of your misery with "Damage Inc".

At no point are you allowed to get bored and the songs never run into each other and turn into a blur where you can't remember which song you're on. Every song is memorable and perfectly placed. I don't think I'd call it the best metal album ever, but Metallica were certainly perfectly in control of their craft from start to finish on that album.