Hypnotising Power: The Story of Master of Puppets (2020) - Review

An essential documentary on the band who pioneered thrash metal.

Stuart Kirwan’s Directorial debut also sees him take the reigns of producing and editing in what I can imagine was an intensive quest into countless hours of interviews, footage and whatever other formats Metallica’s members spoke on in an attempt to collate and straighten out, the entire making of story of Metallica’s third studio album.

Form is by far the cleanest element of this title. Progressing through the album track by track in direct order, it edits stock footage, photos or whatever is necessary to demonstrate the point it’s making. It’s superb, the man is clearly beyond skilled with regards to editing and has previous on elite titles such as Britain’s football highlights show: Match of the Day.

I only intended on this being a quick review as the film itself is relatively short, but also because I find music related titles are often incredibly hard to review as they cater to a niche audience but also are extremely formulaic. Now this isn’t the first treatment of a Metallica album/the band themselves with the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster (something I’ve yet to see) but if that has half the atmosphere this fan made project has then I’ll be impressed. With interviews being firsthand accounts of quality from the bands then line up, including late bass player Cliff Burton, with Master of Puppets proving to be his last album, I feel this works manages to sell itself as a worthwhile piece for anyone. You see the decisions that the musicians made during the process of recording, what a song means or a deep dive into its inspiration and even a sense of how the band were around the peak of their powers at the time, documenting that natural progression the band took from album to album. Though unlicensed, it is no doubt an essential watch for Metallica fans and people interested in ‘heavier’, faster music alike. It’s the perfect example of ‘lightning in a bottle‘ as a phrase. The album, contextually secured Metallica’s legacy and the film communicates that as well, you can sense the excitement from the band members and get a clear sense of its cultural significance as an album.

The mark of a good documentary is leaving the title feeling though you’ve learnt something and that’s very much the case for me here. You get a glimpse at the behind the scenes and feel as though, to some degree as if you were part of the process.

A fantastically crafted film, I’d urge you to track it down and give it a watch, after all, it is available on YouTube, you won’t regret it!

A link to the film can be found here: https://youtu.be/XQ-XIOUe0jI

And enjoy some BTS from Mr. Kirwan as well: https://youtu.be/uyNUmx1olco

Reviewed by Tom Jay