Corey Taylor Reveals What He Thinks Is ‘The Perfect Metal Album’
The buzz this year has been all about the 30th anniversary of Metallica's self-titled "black" album, but is that Corey Taylor's favorite offering from the Bay Area metal icons or did he choose something else? It turns out that Taylor's Metallica album of choice came a few years earlier with Metallica's 1986 release, Master of Puppets.
Taylor shared his affinity for Master of Puppets during a chat with Knotfest.com's Ryan J. Downey promoting Taylor's contribution of "Holier Than Thou" for the Metallica Blacklist compilation. The singer told Downey (in the video seen below) that Master of Puppets was "the perfect heavy metal album," adding, "There's no fat. I mean, you can put it on and listen to the… The only bad thing I can say is that it's too short. Before you know it, it's over, and you're, like, 'Wait a minute,' and you've gotta start it over again. So, it's crazy. It's just a beautiful, beautiful album."
Elsewhere in the chat, Taylor told Downey that Metallica were definitely a part of his formative years. "That was the sounding gun for a whole new generation of psychos, because those bands appealed to so many different — I don't wanna say 'cliques,' but so many different crowds. The punk kids loved them, the metal kids worshipped them. It was still too underground for the straights — quote-unquote the straights. But even the alternative kids dug it, because there was so much ferocity in it and there was just something different," he explained.
Taylor continued, "It felt heavier than Sabbath and heavier than Deep Purple, but those were the bands that fueled these bands. Between that, and then you could feel that undercurrent of the hardcore scene — the punk scene, the hardcore scene, the stuff that we, the skater kids, were listening to, as well as the hip-hop or whatnot. So this was this burgeoning explosion of attitude, fast music, just in your face, and we just knew as soon as our parents heard it, they hated it, which made us love it even more. Nothing is better than listening to something that scares the hell out of adults."
This isn't the first time Taylor has shared his love for Master of Puppets, revealing to Rolling Stone in a 2017 Favorite Albums feature, "This one would be my number one, if we were going from 10 to one. It’s my favorite metal album. It is the perfect metal album. There is no fucking way that you could improve on that album. Ever. And I have gotten in fucking arguments with people that are like, 'Well, what about Sabbath? What about this or that?' It’s like, 'Yeah, but Black Sabbath wasn’t a fucking full album from top to bottom.' It was cool, you got into it later. But fucking Master of Puppets is perfect from the first strum of the guitar on fucking 'Battery' to the last fucking hit of 'Damage, Inc.' It is perfect! And I will fight anyone who says differently, and win! Because I will have the righteousness of God on my side [laughs], and just take no shit."
He also added, "It’s got some of James [Hetfield’s] best performances, and the whole band is amazing on it. And it’s got some of his best lyrics on it. You listen to it and you’re like, 'This is criminal, how fucking good this album is.'"
Though Metallica's mainstream breakthrough was a few years away, Master of Puppets definitely had its share of fandom. The album peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, whereas its predecessor Ride the Lightning had topped out at No. 48.
As stated, Taylor is one of the 53 artists saluting Metallica on their Metallica Blacklist covers collection. The singer took on "Holier Than Thou." The set is available to pre-order here. Metallica are also issuing a remastered 30th anniversary "Black" album box set on Sept. 10 and you can get details on that here.