Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

In 1986, I discovered the heavy metal band Metallica. I was in seventh grade and living in Saudi Arabia, of all places, when my musical world was rocked by their album Master of Puppets. A friend who had gone to the States over Christmas break lent me the tape. Although there were several music stores in Saudi Arabia, their selection was limited to mostly mainstream pop and Top 40s rock; you couldn’t wander into a store like you can in the US and discover something new or offbeat. The fact that Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian state which employs diverse and heavy-handed methods of censorship also made it difficult to find great, fresh music…