Metallica released a message reacting to “Stranger Things” using their 1986 track “Master of Puppets” in a very creative way in the season finale…
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR STRANGER THINGS SEASON 4:
From the very first trailer for “Stranger Things” season 4, there was a moment when a new character named Eddie Munson was seen standing on top of a building shredding an epic guitar in what eventually became one of the most anticipated moments of the year.
In the season finale titled “The Piggyback,” that brief look finally paid off when Eddie Munson — leader of the Hellfire Club and self-professed metalhead who wore a Dio jean jacket vest to school and praised Iron Maiden as real music — took a guitar and headed to the top of his trailer in the Upside Down as part of a mission to bring down Vecna.
Eddie’s job was to play a song so loud that the demobats swirling around the Creel house in the Upside Down, which serves as Vecna’s base of operations, would get distracted by the sound and leave their master unprotected.
As soon as Eddie’s fingers hit the strings, fans immediately recognized that he was playing “Master of Puppets” — the title track to Metallica’s 1986 album of the same name. On Tuesday, Metallica released a statement praising the use of their track in the series, which the band has reportedly been a fan of since the beginning, as well as throwing support behind actor Joseph Quinn, who actually learned the main chords of the song so he could play the guitar for real during filming.
“The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include “Master of Puppets” in the show, but to have such a pivotal scene built around it,” the band wrote on Instagram. “We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away… it’s so extremely well done, so much so, that some folks were able to guess the song just by seeing a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hands in the trailer!! How crazy cool is that?
“It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the other amazing artists featured in the show.”
Quinn actually grew up playing guitar but he had to take some time to learn the riffs that make up “Master of Puppets” for that scene. The only part he wasn’t able to play was the intense solo and that job actually ended up in the hands of Tye Trujillo — the 17-year-old son of Metallica bass player Robert Trujillo.
According to Nora Felder, who serves as the music supervisor for “Stranger Things,” the Duffer brothers actually wrote the scene with “Master of Puppets” in mind with no guarantee that the band would approve use of the track in the show.
It turns out, Metallica was more than happy to hand over the song.
“It was another one of those ‘it has to be this song,’ moments,” Felder told Variety. “This part of the story was anticipated to be a pivotal and especially hair-raising scene in which Eddie heroically stood tall for the fight of his life. I believe the Duffer Brothers felt that playing ‘Master of Puppets’ throughout the extended scene was the clear choice. No other song was discussed further, and we jumped in to clear it straight away.
“I got in touch with Metallica’s management office and carefully went over the scene and what the intent would be. I knew the clearance would be taken seriously as we had used one of their songs (‘The Four Horseman’) in season 2 and had learned at that time that they were fans of the show. ‘Master of Puppets’ is a pretty significant song in their catalog, and I think it’s considered a favorite in their live shows. I wanted to be respectful in making sure that Metallica fully understood what context the song was being used in, plus how integral it was to the scene and for this exciting new character, Eddie Munson, who no one had met yet in previous seasons.”
Metallica also was more than happy to welcome new fans just now discovering the band’s music through “Stranger Things.”
“FYI – EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica family. Whether you’ve been a fan for 40 hours or 40 years, we all share a bond through music,” Metallica said on TikTok.
The band obviously approved and now “Master of Puppets” is receiving similar new life as Kate Bush’s track “Running Up that Hill,” which became the theme song for the first half of “Stranger Things” season 4.
The song is already No. 1 on the rock charts through Apple Music and the vinyl version of the album has been selling through stock at a rapid pace since the episode debut this past Friday.
