Even if you don't like Stranger Things, you're gonna want to see this scene from Netflix's two-hour-plus season 4 finale. We'll avoid any serious plot spoilers, but suffice it to say that Eddie Munson, the season's D&D-club-leading, Dio-back-patch-wearing metalhead, plays what he dubs "the most metal concert ever" as part of one group of characters' attempt to defeat the show's demonic antagonist Vecna — and that involves shredding Metallica's "Master of Puppets" on his beloved Warlock guitar in Stranger Things' hellish "Upside Down" alternate universe. Yes, it is fucking epic.
Also epic is the fact that the audio for this version of "Master of Puppets" features additional guitar playing from Tye Trujillo, son of current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and bassist of the band OTTTO. "That's my boy," the elder Trujillo wrote in an Instagram picture of his son's name in the show's credits. "Proud of ya Tye! Stranger Things finale shredding it on 'Master of Puppets' and big thanks to Kirk Hammett on helping."
"I listened to a lot of heavy metal," 29-year-old actor Joe Quinn, who plays Munson, told Entertainment Weekly of preparing for the role. "That was my ... God, it's impossible to not sound pretentious when you say it, but, yeah, that was my way in."
He also credited his lifelong love of guitar playing as a useful skill for helping him get into the mindset of an over-the-top metal weirdo. He fell in love with the iconic Gibson SG after seeing Jack Black wield it in the crucial piece of the millennial rock canon, School of Rock.
"I wouldn't consider myself a brilliant guitarist, but I can play it," Quinn said, mentioning that he's played since he was seven years old. "That was very lucky because those scripts came out, I think, at some point in the pandemic. I did start practicing pretty furiously."
