Metallica, "Master of Puppets" (Elektra, 1986)

The kids take over the car stereo when I give them a ride anywhere. That's fine with me. I don't mind hearing some music I wouldn't hear otherwise. I might even like some of it.

On a recent trip, one of my sons popped in a disc that sounded at first like any of the other loud, heavy, over-the-top recordings he likes to play. But this sounded a bit different. There actually were some melodic elements to the music, and the singer, while obviously testing the limits of his vocal cords, still managed to sound like a human being.

Then the piledriving pace ended abruptly, and clean guitar sounds replaced the overdrive, leading into a well-constructed bridge that wouldn't seem that far out of place on some '70s-era progressive-type tunes I enjoy. Then it was back to the loud stuff, but I was impressed enough to ask my son if he'd leave the disc in the player after I dropped him off, so I could hear more.

And that was my formal introduction to "Master of Puppets," the breakthrough album from heavy metal heroes Metallica. Sure, I'd heard of the band before, but I'll admit that primarly from watching "Beavis and Butt-head." I pretty much missed out on the '80s, as far as new music was concerned; being forced to hear radio fare like Duran Duran and Cyndi Lauper convinced me I wasn't going to like anything that decade had to offer.

So I was kind of surprised to learn that "Master of Puppets," Metallica's major-label debut, is 20 years old now. But, hey, that's new compared with most of the stuff I usually spin.

The song that initally attracted me turned out to be the title track, which is an example of Metallica's penchant for constructing song-suites. That's nothing new in heavy metal; Black Sabbath got the ball rolling with that kind of format a decade and a half before.

Those fathers of heavy metal, though, rarely reached the levels of intensity on display throughout "Master of Puppets," both the song and album. Even the slower-paced sections contain an air of foreboding that prepares the listener for another onslaught. A good example is the the middle part of the 8 1/2-minute "Orion," in which the guitarists start playing in a major key, sounding on the stately side. But a menacing undercurrent persists as it builds to a thrashing jam to close the tune.

Considering Metallica's name and reputation, it throws the listener off a bit to hear the start of the album's opening track, "Battery," as an acoustic, Spanish-flavored guitar piece. Less than a minute in, crunching guitar sounds replace the clean ones, and then comes the machine-gun attack that sounds more in line with what a band called Metallica should deliver.

While "Master of Puppets" provides quite an adrenaline rush, it might be a bit overwhelming for listeners whose ears for heavy metal are a bit rusty. The album clocks in at nearly 55 minutes, with each individual song at five-plus minutes, which can prove a lot to handle with barely a letup.

The 1986 release of "Master of Puppets" and the band's subsequent tour supporting Ozzy Osbourne established Metallica as a top-flight attraction, but there was a price: A tour bus accident claimed the life of bassist Cliff Burton, who was just 24. The band soldiered on for greater successes, including the No. 1 album "Metallica" in 1991.

I'll have to give that one a listen if my kids happen to pop it into the disc player.