For what now seems like forever, the popular music domain has been dominated by two songs: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and Metallica’s Master of Puppets. Why? Well, thanks to their roles in Stranger Things season four, the two songs have undergone stratospheric resurgences in recent months.
Running Up That Hill ended up as the de facto anthem for the whole season, while Master of Puppets was used during an epic finale that saw character Eddie Munson riff through the track in an act of heroism with the help of a Stranger Things B.C. Rich Warlock.
However, in an effort to go one step further and concoct the most Stranger Things-sounding sonic creation of all time, YouTuber Anthony Vincent has reimagined Kate Bush’s track in the style of Master of Puppets.
What’s more, he’s recruited Trivium frontman Matt Heafy on electric guitar to help him do it.
Swapping serene synths for urgent, unrelenting riffs, Heafy and his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop provide a suitable foundation for Vincent’s Hetfield-esque vocals, which transform Bush’s own wistful lyrical flow into a visceral Metallica-inspired alternative,
Heafy gets in on the vocal action, too, providing some borderline-screamo action before letting loose on a guitar solo at the 3:00 mark. It’s a stellar effort, with a slight hint of Kirk Hammett-style wah pedal and plenty of fretboard acrobatics.
Now we just need Master of Puppets in the style of Running Up That Hill, but something tells us that might not hit quite as hard.
It’s the latest example of the Master of Puppets / Running Up That Hill hysteria that has gripped the internet since the release of Stranger Things 4 Volume 2.
After it was confirmed that the much-discussed trailer clip did indeed show Munson shredding Master of Puppets, the song’s popularity spiked. According to Yousician, it became the number one song aspiring guitarists want to learn, while downloads for the track on Spotify increased by 17.5 million a mere week after the series’ final installment aired.
It had a more direct impact on the wider guitar world, too. As per online gear retailer Reverb, searches for Stranger Things increased by 202 per cent – no doubt a result of those looking to find out what guitar Munson was playing. As such, searches for the B.C. Rich Warlock also increased 33 per cent in the aftermath of the show.
That B.C. Warlock in question was later seen in action in a behind-the-scenes clip of Joseph Quinn, the actor who played Eddie Munson, rehearsing for the scene – a video that Metallica themselves dueted with on TikTok.
While Quinn did most of the guitar work himself during the scene – save the more complex soloing passages – he didn’t feature on the actual recording. Instead, Robert Trujillio’s son Tye was recruited to provide additional guitar for the Stranger Things version of the track.
“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,” the band wrote in response to the track’s scene-stealing role.
“We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away,” they continued. “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 – how crazy cool is that?”
“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.”
