There are great television moments.
There are great rock ānā roll moments.
And then thereās Eddie bloody Munson standing on the roof of a trailer in the Upside Down, BC Rich guitar strapped around his neck, absolutely hammering Metallicaās āMaster of Puppetsā while an army of murderous flying creatures heads straight towards him.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is cinema.
That is heavy metal.
That is EDDIE MUNSON: UPSIDE DOWN GUITAR GOD. šøš„š¤
When Stranger Things 4 unleashed this now-legendary sequence in 2022, it didnāt simply give us another memorable scene from the Netflix phenomenon.
It created a genuine pop-culture moment.
And for rock and metal fans?
Ohhhh, mun.
We knew immediately.
This was special.
šø ENTER EDDIE MUNSON
Played brilliantly by Joseph Quinn, Eddie Munson arrived in Stranger Things 4 looking like someone whoād accidentally wandered out of the car park at Monsters of Rock.
Long hair? ā
Denim? ā
Leather? ā
Dio patch? ā
Guitar? ā
Absolutely no interest whatsoever in behaving like a normal human being? ā
Our kind of bloke.
Eddie was the Dungeon Master of Hawkins High Schoolās Hellfire Club, a metalhead outsider living through the ridiculous āSatanic Panicā paranoia of 1980s America.
And underneath all the swagger, sarcasm and theatrical madness was one of the showās most likeable characters.
He was funny.
He was awkward.
He was terrified.
He was loyal.
Most importantly, Eddie felt like the sort of bloke plenty of rock fans knew growing up.
Maybe you were Eddie.
The kid wearing band shirts while everyone else wondered what the hell you were listening to.
The one spending hours learning guitar riffs in your bedroom.
The outsider who found a community through music.
Thatās why Eddie connected so strongly with metal fans.
Then came the Upside Down.
š„ āCHRISSY, THIS IS FOR YOU.ā
Four words.
Thatās all it took.
Eddie picks up his guitar.
Looks towards the nightmare unfolding around him.
And says:
āChrissy, this is for you.ā
Thenā¦
DUH-DUH-DUH-DUUUUH.
You know the riff.
Everybody knows the riff.
METALLICA ā MASTER OF PUPPETS.
Suddenly Stranger Things isnāt a sci-fi horror series anymore.
Itās Download Festival: Upside Down Edition.
And apparently the headline act has decided the appropriate stage attire is denim while the crowd consists entirely of bloodthirsty demobats.
Weāve attended festivals with worse line-ups.
Probably better toilets too.
šø THE RIFF THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Choosing āMaster of Puppetsā wasnāt just a case of grabbing any old metal song from the 1980s.
This was Metallica.
This was the title track from the bandās monumental 1986 album Master of Puppets.
And importantly for the timeline of Stranger Things, the song had only recently arrived in Eddieās world.
The album was released on 3 March 1986.
The events of Stranger Things 4 take place later that same month.
Meaning Eddie hadnāt spent five years practising it.
Heād apparently heard one of the most ferocious metal tracks of the decade and gone:
āYeah, Iāll learn that.ā
Absolute weapon.
šøš„
š THE UPSIDE DOWN BECOMES A METAL FESTIVAL
Visually, the whole sequence is ridiculous in the best possible way.
Red lightning cracks across the sky.
The landscape looks like the aftermath of a festival where Satan himself booked the headliners.
Eddieās standing on top of a trailer.
Amplifiers are cranked.
Dustin is there.
An army of demobats is approaching.
And Eddie?
Heās shredding.
Thereās something wonderfully perfect about using heavy metal in that environment.
If youāre going to perform Metallica anywhere outside our dimension, the Upside Down is surely the venue.
Imagine the poster.
METALLICA
EDDIE MUNSON
DEMOBAT DEATH SQUAD
VECNA
Doors: Whenever the portal opens.
No camping chairs.
š¤ METALHEADS IMMEDIATELY CLAIMED EDDIE AS ONE OF OUR OWN
The reaction was enormous.
Long-time Metallica fans loved seeing the song given such a gigantic mainstream spotlight.
Younger viewers suddenly discovered āMaster of Puppetsā.
Streams surged.
Metallica found themselves reaching another generation of listeners.
And Eddie Munson became one of the most recognisable fictional metalheads on television.
For veteran fans, there was something brilliant about watching millions of people suddenly discover a song weād been throwing our necks out to for decades.
Welcome aboard, butt.
The riffās been waiting for you.
And rather than getting precious about a new generation finding Metallica through Stranger Things, the sensible response was obvious:
MORE METAL FANS?!
Lovely stuff.
Grab a battle jacket.
Mind the pit.
šø EVEN METALLICA LOVED IT
Metallica themselves embraced Eddie and the Stranger Things phenomenon.
And why wouldnāt they?
One of their most iconic songs had suddenly become central to one of the biggest television moments on the planet.
Better still, Metallica bassist Robert Trujilloās son Tye Trujillo contributed additional guitar tracks to the sceneās recording, adding another lovely connection between the band and Eddieās legendary performance.
Joseph Quinn would later meet Metallica too, bringing the whole thing full circle.
Imagine playing Eddie Munson, pretending to shred Metallica in another dimension and then ending up hanging out with actual Metallica.
Not a bad career development.
ā” BUT WHY DOES THE SCENE WORK SO WELL?
Because underneath all the spectacle, Eddie isnāt actually trying to look cool.
Heās scared.
Thatās important.
Eddie spends much of the season wrestling with fear and guilt.
He doesnāt suddenly become some indestructible superhero.
Heās still Eddie.
But when his friends need him, he steps forward.
And his weapon isnāt a magic sword.
It isnāt superpowers.
Itās something he understands.
Music.
His guitar.
His world.
His identity.
Everything that made him an outsider suddenly becomes his strength.
Thatās why the scene hits differently.
For anyone who ever used music as an escape, Eddieās moment means something.
Heavy metal becomes his battle cry.
š¤ EDDIE MUNSON REPRESENTED THE OUTSIDERS
Rock and metal have always given outsiders somewhere to belong.
Walk into a metal gig and youāll find thousands of people who might have absolutely nothing else in common suddenly screaming the same lyrics together.
Accountants.
Builders.
Students.
IT engineers.
Teachers.
Parents.
Blokes dressed like Vikings.
Someone whoās inexplicably brought an inflatable banana into the pit.
All united by riffs.
Eddie represents that wonderfully.
Heās mocked because heās different.
Feared because people donāt understand his interests.
Judged because of the music he loves.
But the audience knows better.
Behind the denim and theatrics is someone with a massive heart.
And when everything goes completely to hellā¦
the metalhead turns up.
šø THE POWER OF āMASTER OF PUPPETSā
Thereās another reason the sequence works.
That riff is absolutely monstrous.
You donāt need to be a Metallica obsessive to understand whatās happening when those opening notes arrive.
Thereās urgency.
Aggression.
Momentum.
Danger.
The track already feels cinematic.
Put it against Eddie shredding beneath a blood-red supernatural sky and youāve got television gold.
Itās one of those rare moments where the song and the visuals become inseparable.
Years later, plenty of people still hear āMaster of Puppetsā and immediately picture Eddie standing on that trailer.
Thatās the mark of an iconic soundtrack moment.
š„ A NEW GENERATION DISCOVERS METALLICA
Perhaps the coolest legacy of the scene was watching younger viewers go exploring.
They heard āMaster of Puppetsā.
Then maybe they found āEnter Sandmanā.
Then āFor Whom the Bell Tollsā.
Then āCreeping Deathā.
Then āOneā.
Then suddenly theyāre six hours deep into Metallicaās back catalogue wondering whether they need a battle jacket.
Yes.
The answer is yes.
This is how rock music keeps moving.
Someone hears a song in a film.
Someoneās older brother lends them an album.
Someone sees a festival clip.
Someone catches a band supporting another band.
One riff opens the door.
Then youāre doomed.
Next thing you know youāre standing in a muddy field in Wales drinking an Ā£8 pint while screaming because somebody just played your favourite song.
Beautiful.
š¤ EDDIE MUNSON: GUITAR HERO OF THE UPSIDE DOWN
Plenty of television characters play guitar.
Very few get that moment.
The setting.
The song.
The emotion.
The ridiculousness.
The danger.
The sheer amount of METAL packed into several glorious minutes.
Everything lined up perfectly.
Eddie Munson didnāt need Wembley Stadium.
He didnāt need pyro.
He didnāt need 80,000 people.
He had a trailer roof.
A BC Rich.
An amp.
Dustin.
Several thousand murderous supernatural bats.
And one of the greatest metal songs ever written.
Proper job.
š¤ āCHRISSY, THIS IS FOR YOU.ā
Ultimately, thatās what makes the scene more than just a cool Metallica cameo.
Itās personal.
Eddieās performance is connected to everything heās been through.
The chaos in Hawkins.
Chrissy.
His friendship with Dustin.
His fear.
His desire to finally stand his ground.
The massive guitar performance might be what everyone remembersā¦
ā¦but underneath it is heart.
And thatās exactly why Eddie Munson became such a beloved character.
šøš„ THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Eddie Munson playing āMaster of Puppetsā in the Upside Down isnāt merely one of Stranger Thingsā greatest scenes.
Itās one of the greatest marriages of heavy metal and mainstream television weāve ever seen.
It introduced millions of younger fans to Metallica.
It gave metalheads around the world a new fictional hero.
It transformed a supernatural nightmare dimension into the most ridiculous gig venue imaginable.
And it proved something weāve known for years:
When civilisation is collapsingā¦
When monsters are comingā¦
When the sky turns blood redā¦
When everything has gone completely and spectacularly wrongā¦
Thereās really only one sensible response.
TURN THE BLOODY AMP UP.
šøš„š¤
Eddie Munson.
Metalhead.
Dungeon Master.
Outsider.
Hero.
GUITAR GOD OF THE UPSIDE DOWN.
Proudly loud. Zero apologies.
š¤ The Riff Report
