MOST METAL EVER
Metallica have long been strict about doing soundtracks. So how did Master Of Puppets end up on Stranger Things?
Metallica used to have a blanket policy when it came to requests to use their music on TV and in movies. “We’d say no to everything,” says Lars Ulrich. “Then a few years ago, we did a 180 – we basically said, ‘Why are we not sharing our music? It should be out there. Stop being so fucking protective of it.”
Since then, Metallica’s songs have been heard in everything from TV show Billions to horror/comedy sequel Zombieland: Double Tap. But it was the inclusion of Master Of Puppets in season four of Netflix’s Stranger Things that blew the doors wide open.
The day Metallica dropped Lux Æterna, Lars Ulrich couldn’t help himself. He had to look at what people were saying about it online.
“Stranger Things was a cool show, we know about it from our kids, so when we got the opportunity, we said, ‘Yeah, have at it ,’” says Lars. “And then it just became this cultural phenomenon.”
His curiosity was understandable. Released with zero warning on November 28, 2022, Lux Æterna was the first brand new Metallica song in six years, and a taster for their upcoming 11th album, 72 Seasons. Big news by any measure, and Lars knew people would have opinions on it because everybody has an opinion on everything Metallica ever do. And they’re not always positive.
The band had already seen how the show had propelled Kate Bush’s 1985 single Running Up That Hill to viral success, but that didn’t make the impact of Master Of Puppets – played in a climactic scene by beloved metalhead character Eddie Munson – any less surprising.
“If you decide to go down into the comment sections, at least for me, you have to prepare yourself for not taking any of it overly personally,” says Lars today. “You have to kind of remove yourself from it. But I’d like to challenge anybody in a band to say they don’t look at comments.” And so the co-founder and drummer of the world’s biggest metal band braced himself for a look into the bear-pit that is the internet to see what people thought of the song.
“It’s a heavy metal song that’s over eight minutes long, that was released in 1986,” says Lars. “The fact that became a phenomenon in the summer of 2022 is pretty mind-blowing. It was totally unexpected to meet kids on the street and at gigs: ‘Hi, I’m 10 years old and I saw you for the first time through Stranger Things and Master Of Puppets.’”