Metallica Pays Tribute To Eddie Munson With Stranger Things TikTok Duet
"Stranger Things" consistently embeds the pop culture of yesteryear into its stories, and in doing so the show has continually helped introduce some absolute bangers to a new generation. Season 3's duet between former Broadway kids Gabriella Pizzolo and Gaten Matarazzo of the theme from "The NeverEnding Story" was the big hit back in 2019, and "Stranger Things" season 4 has been all about introducing the masses to the brilliance and absurdity that is Kate Bush.
With the fourth season split into two separate volumes, fans had weeks of being bombarded with audio clips of Bush's "Running Up That Hill," and TikTok is well on its way to overplaying the song into the Upside Down. However, the Duffer Brothers weren't done with killer needle drops, with Volume 2 boasting one of the sickest, most metal moments ever put to streaming.
Shortly after the final two episodes were released, volume knobs were turned to eleven with the slaying sounds of Metallica's "Master of Puppets." The song is used in a pivotal moment as Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) wails on his guitar, and according to a report in Variety with "Stranger Things" music supervisor Nora Felder, there was no other option. "It was another one of those 'it has to be this song,' moments," Felder said. "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." Felder said no other song was discussed for that moment, and obtaining clearance was one of top priority.
Metallica has joined the Hellfire Club
Metallica obviously gave the show their blessing to use the song, but have taken it one step further, recording a duet with the clip of Eddie's performance with the band sporting official Hellfire Club baseball tees.
Currently losing my mind over @Metallica duetting with Eddie Munson on Master of Puppets! pic.twitter.com/CKyhaLVRiB
— Netflix (@netflix) July 8, 2022
The band also put a clip of the scene on Instagram, expressing their gratitude for being included. Their post reads:
"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. 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! How crazy cool is that?"
To make things even cooler, Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo recorded additional guitar tracks to the scene, further proving just how down with the cause Metallica had been from the beginning.
"Stranger Things" season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.