There is a special kind of humility reserved for the moment you confidently launch into Master of Puppets, realise three notes in that you started on the A string instead of the low E, and also somehow at a tempo Lars would refuse. That is the exact moment this clip captures, lovingly, on camera, for the internet to enjoy forever.
This is the intro riff (and a little bit past it) of Metallica's Master of Puppets on guitar — arguably the most iconic downpicked riff in thrash metal. It looks simple on the tab. It is not. It is a forearm endurance event wearing a friendly E-minor costume.
How the Master of Puppets riff actually works
The engine of this riff is all-downstrokes, no cheating with upstrokes. That is what gives it the aggressive, uniform attack Metallica is famous for. Under it sits a tight palm mute, the heel of your picking hand resting lightly on the strings by the bridge so each note is a short, chunky bark rather than an open ring. Add the low pedal E hammering underneath a chromatic descent up top, and you get that unmistakable menacing crawl.
The useful takeaway: do not chase the ~212 bpm tempo first. Set a metronome to something embarrassingly slow, nail the downstroke-plus-mute at, say, 100 bpm, and only bump it up in small steps once your forearm stops filing complaints. Speed is a side effect of clean, relaxed downstrokes — not a thing you attack head-on. Small movements, loose wrist, no death grip on the pick.
And yes, in the video I start on the wrong string a bit too fast, because apparently even after all these years my hands like to keep me humble. If you enjoy watching a guitar teacher get bullied by a 1986 riff — or you want the PDF and Guitar Pro file — I put those over on my Patreon.