Metallica, arguably the most successful metal band in history, has many discreet messages intertwined with their songs. Usually, these messages are about serious topics, such as war, death, depression, and even drugs. Two notable examples of these songs would be “Master of Puppets” off the album Master of Puppets and “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” off of ...And Justice for All. Both of these songs explain the harmful affects of drugs, and encourage their audience to not do them. Metallica wrote Master of Puppets in 1986, and was written to show and describe the negative physical affects of drugs on people. The Frayed Ends of Sanity was written in 1988 and was created to show the mental affects of doing drugs, and to use the descriptions to persuade the audience not to drugs. Although both songs use rhetorical devices such as metaphors and alliteration to persuade their audiences of the physical aspects of the audience and the mental aspect of the audience to persuade them that drugs are not good, they also differ when it comes to their uses of Ethos and tone. However, both texts do a decent job of persuading their audiences to stay away from drugs because of their harmful affects, and neither of them are more persuasive than the other, because the audience, for the most part, may not know or care about the overall message of the song.

Firstly, Master of Puppets effectively uses rhetorical devices in order to establish their argument that drugs have many negative aspects and could ruin their lives towards their audience of predominantly drug using people who liked heavy music, like Metallica. One of the rhetorical devices in this song is a metaphor, which are very common in their lyrics. “Your life burns faster” (“Master of Puppets”, Metallica) is an example of a metaphor. As Metallica uses this example of your life burning fast, they used it to describe how frantically and fast your life can switch up while on drugs, usually in a negative fashion. In order to persuade the audience not to do drugs, they would use this example to describe how their life will be lost very fast, because typically, nobody wants to truly die. “Ritual misery, Chop your breakfast on a mirror” (“Master of Puppets”, Metallica)is a consonance because it repeats the “r” sound multiple times. This helps make the song more memorable and more catchy. If a song is not catchy, usually, people are either not going to remember it, or they will not care for it. As they use this consonance and the repeated use of the “r” sound, it ensures that the audience will notice it, and perhaps, even listen to the message, and realize the deeper meaning behind it. These devices, or at least these examples, persuaded the audience to listen to the message by making the song interesting and catchy, so they would look into the lyrics more, and realize what the song is really about. There, they would know the song and listen to the message more intently when they listen to the song. The metaphor gives the audience something to compare the song to, making it, in turn, more relatable. 

Next, The Frayed Ends of Sanity effectively uses rhetorical devices in order to establish their argument of drugs being harmful to the “mental” aspects of the audience. “The candle burns at both ends” is an example of an allusion because it is a very well known phrase, or saying that means that you’re doing too many things in a short period of time. The song mentions this well known saying to help the audience get a better understanding of what’s going on in the song, and let them relate to it more. This song uses this phrase to show that the drugs are shortening the person’s life, and they’re doing too many things to make up for their use of drugs. “Hear them calling, Hear them calling me” (“The Frayed Ends of Sanity” Metallica) is an example of a syntax because it uses “hear them calling” to start the sentence twice to make the song make more sense lyrically. This also is another example of the musicians trying to make a “catchy” lyric to this song, so they could remember the song and get attached to it better. These examples made the text persuasive by making the song catchy so more people would be inclined to learn the real meaning of the song, and by using examples of metaphors and allusions to make the song understandable to them, at least to some extent. 

Both Master of Puppets and The Frayed Ends of Sanity effectively used pathos to appeal to the audience to steer them away from drugs, however, they preached to two different audiences. The Frayed Ends of sanity was the mental aspect of the audience, and master of puppets focused on the physical affects of the audience. Both of these songs use very similar rhetorical devices, such as common metaphors, but their use of pathos is very notable in these songs. “Master of Puppets” says “...dedicated to How I'm killing you” and “The Frayed Ends of Sanity”says “Myself is after me”. We, as humans care about ourselves. We truly do not want to die, at the end of the day, no matter what your mental standpoint is, but your body does not want to die. By using examples and descriptions about how the drugs are slowly killing the narrator of the song, the listener of the song will realize that they do not want this to happen to them, so they will listen to the song and will realize that they don’t want to do drugs, which could end up killing them. “Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings” ("Master of Puppets" by Metallica)

“I have fallen prey to failure” (“They Frayed Ends of Sanity” by Metallica) are both examples of metaphors. In order for the audience to understand the message, and to understand the gravity of the situation, the metaphors help the audience get a better understanding of the harmful affects. Both of these songs emphasized metaphors and other rhetorical devices in order to embellish their points. In my opinion, although these songs are both incredible works of art, most metalheads or rock fans may take the message with a grain of salt, assuming they do drugs, they likely won’t stop just because a song tells them to. But these songs DO bring more awareness to the bad affect of drugs, and teaches younger audiences to not do them. 

In conclusion, even though Master of Puppets and The Frayed Ends of Sanity each used metaphors and Pathos but embraced syntax and allusion differently, both of them succeeded in persuading their two audiences of the physical audience and the mental audience to encourage them not to do drugs. However, neither song was more persuasive than the other, as their messages were both the same, but focused on different aspects of it. Metallica’s use of incredible music and powerful rhetoric in their lyrics has persuaded their audience enough. Metallica’s established credibility as an amazing band has also encouraged people to listen to them more than a band without that credibility. 

Works Cited 

Metallica. "The Frayed Ends of Sanity." ...And Justice For All, produced by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Flemming Rasmussen, Elektra Records, 1988.

Metallica. "Master of Puppets." Master of Puppets, Metallica and Flemming Rasmussen, Elektra Records, 1986.