Damage Inc.

I've got a lot of classic albums that are still on my Want List...favorites from my teenage years, that are still holes in my collection. Near the top of that list for the past few years has been the early Metallica albums. I'd consider their first four to be solid gold classics, and after slowly picking them off one by one over the past few years, the only one that I was still missing the original vinyl pressing for was Master Of Puppets.

Master Of Puppets was the album that got me into Metallica. I checked them out when Ride The Lightning was released, but it was too overwhelming for me at the time...especially with the over the top thrasher Fight Fire With Fire kicking things off. I'd never heard anything like it at the time, and it was too much for me. By the time Master Of Puppets came out in '86, something clicked, and suddenly I'd found my new favorite band.

I've been after a copy of Master Of Puppets for a while now, but I couldn't seem to find a copy that was what I was looking for. Sellers were either pricing the original vinyl pressing too high, or they were too beat up for me to bother with.

Last month, I had the opportunity to meet long time record blogger friend, Mark Sandwell, in Boston for the day. We had known each other for around 7 years or so through our record collecting blogs, so it was cool to meet up with him for some record shopping while he was over from the UK on vacation for a few days.

It has been years since I'd spent any time in Boston, but it was a trip to check out the neighborhood where The Channel used to be, and reminisce about the number of trips that I'd taken to that area around 1990. Mark and I had a good day, hitting a couple of stores, and while at Armageddon Shop I finally found a copy of Master Of Puppets. Priced at $30, I glad to finally grab a copy.