Cover of Master of Puppets by Metallica
Cover: Master of Puppets

Song · Metallica

“The Thing That Should Not Be” by Metallica

From the album Master of Puppets (1986)

“The Thing That Should Not Be” by Metallica appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1990. It was first released in 1986 on the album Master of Puppets. Its best result is #901 on the Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,239 hard rock song of all time.

1countdowns
1stations
#901best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
1990years charted

"The Thing That Should Not Be" comes from Master of Puppets, the third Metallica album, which Elektra put out on March 3, 1986. James Hetfield wrote the lyrics and built the music with Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich, and he and Ulrich worked out the arrangement between them. Like the rest of the album, it was cut in Copenhagen at Sweet Silence Studios, with Flemming Rasmussen producing and engineering alongside the band, and Michael Wagener mixed it into one great slab of dread.

All four players are on it: Hetfield singing lead and playing guitar, Hammett on guitar, Ulrich on drums and Cliff Burton on bass. It was Burton's last album with Metallica. He died on September 27, 1986, when the band's tour bus crashed in Sweden while Metallica were still on the road behind the record.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.

RockLists rankings

Hard Rock & Metal

All Rock Formats

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1990 901 Z-Rock Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) 1000

Comments

Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica.

Be kind and stay on topic. Guidelines

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.