31. "Disposable Heroes" by Metallica
People can say what they want about Metallica, but I will always defend them to some extent. And when it comes to the album Master of Puppets, I think they created a metal album to stand alongside Sabbath's Paranoid as one of the finest examples the genre has to offer. This has been my favorite song by the band, (closely followed by the song "Four Horsemen" off of their debut... I'm a sucker for a good gallop), and it proves why I love them so much. This was the band in their prime, coming straight off of the groundbreaking Ride the Lightning. Ulrich's drum beat is monstrous, (many a great band have simplified the beat slightly when they cover it), Hammett's riffs and solos are top-notch, Hetfield's in his lyrical element, singing about war and death and the cost and consequences of such, and the late great Cliff Burton, who knew exactly when to synchronize with the guitar and when to go his own way, is stupifying. Am I saying this is the best metal song ever? No. I'm saying it's one of the best, though, and it's probably my favorite metal song. And for the record, I think a lot of people hate Metallica for BS reasons. Metallica, by "selling out" and gaining MTV and national radio airplay, reached out to a kid in the 5th grade who was dumbfounded by what he heard, and the kid awoke from some trance, threw down his previous albums consisting simply of whatever was popular at the time, and went out into the world to discover what else was out there. I'll never badmouth Metallica, because without them "selling out," I might not have heard, or cared enough to really listen to, almost every other song on this list. Metallica was the first band I really got into, and I discovered them on my own, without someone handing me something and saying "check this out," which I think made all the difference.
I amazingly still have my Puppets T-shirt from 10th grade. Their cotton merchandise has aged just as well as their music!!!!
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