‘Stranger Things’ music supervisor reveals how the show landed ‘Master of Puppets’

You might be cool, but you’ll never be Eddie Munson playing Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” with an electric guitar on top of a van in the Upside Down cool.

Fans have yet to recover from all the chill-inducing moments in the final two episodes of Stranger Things season four, but if you’re curious about how the Duffers managed to get the iconic thrash metal track from the 1986 album of the same name in their official soundtrack, Nora Felder is here to explain the process behind the dopest scene in all of 2022 television so far.

Felder, who serves the Netflix banger as a music supervisor, explains to Variety that the showrunners came up with “Master of Puppets” to accompany that scene as early as the pre-production phase. So, it really wasn’t a question of choosing the music, but getting what the Duffers unquestionably wanted from the get-go.

“It was another one of those ‘it has to be this song.’ 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.”

As for how they convinced Metallica to give them the green light, Felder says that they were already fans of the series.

“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 Horsemen”) 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.”

The song is already rising through the charts just like Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” did a few weeks back. Interestingly enough, Metallica actually helped out with that scene, so the “Master of Puppets” you hear in the show is a slightly remixed version of the song, adjusted to fit the atmosphere and the context of the scene better.