In the nearly two-and-a-half-hour Stranger Things season finale, newcomer Eddie Munson (portrayed by Joseph Quinn) was tasked with distracting a swarm of villainous bats linked to their evil ringleader Vecna. So how did he do that, exactly? By delivering a grand performance of Metallica’s 1986 single “Master of Puppets,” of course. The epic scene has since shot the track to the top of the charts, joining Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” in the tidal wave of musical resurgences brought on by the show’s fourth and penultimate season.
In a statement shared on Instagram, Metallica praised series creators the Duffer Brothers for including the track in the show, saying they were “stoked” to see the scene come to life.
“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,” Metallica shared.
The standout scene takes place midway through the final episode as the group plots to kill Vecna. When the group splits up to take down the villain once and for all, Eddie and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are tasked with luring Vecna’s protective bats away from him in order to leave Vecna alone and vulnerable.
Standing on top of a roof in the Upside Down, Eddie expertly shreds the song on his electric guitar. Once the performance ends and the mission proves to be a success, the pair celebrate as Dustin proclaims, “Dude. Most. Metal. EVER.”
“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!!” the band’s statement continued. “How crazy cool is that?”
“Master of Puppets,” a song about being taken over from the inside, was the perfect choice to blast through the Upside Down. In an interview with ET Online, Quinn said: “I think it might be the only world where a sequence like that kind of can exist and it not feel ridiculous. I mean, obviously it is ridiculous, but it feels earned and it feels fun and it feels like the perfect crescendo to this kind of crazy sequence.”
Metallica added: “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.”