Masters of the Upside Down.
Ahead of Metallica’s highly anticipated performance at Lollapalooza, the iconic heavy metal band met “Stranger Things” star Joseph Quinn for a full jam session.
Metallica’s 1986 single “Master of Puppets” looms large in the climax of the final season’s plot, as Quinn’s character — high school maverick Eddie Munson — performs the song in the final episode to harness the psyche-corrupted power of to ward off a demon.
Since the episode aired, fans have been waiting patiently to see Quinn and Metallica work together in real life.
In the video shared to several social media accounts, the British actor, 29, revealed that the song was “everything”. [he] which I listened to for two years” before filming the hair-raising climax.
“I feel very connected to you,” he told the band backstage at the festival location.
Sentiment apparently went both ways. “I am a big fan of [the show]. I’ve been on since season 1,” vocalist James Hetfield, 58, gushed out.
“My kids and I, it’s been a close experience for us,” he added.
Metallica already publicly endorsed the show’s inclusion of “Master of Puppets” in an Instagram post earlier this month.
“The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into ‘Stranger Things’ has always been next level, so we were beyond psychic for them to not just include ‘Master of Puppets’ in the show, “Build a pivotal scene around it,” they wrote, giving a shout-out to “Stranger Things” co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer.
“We were all excited to see the end result and when we did, we were completely blown away.”
As a gesture of appreciation, the band members presented Quinn with a custom – and autographed – replica of the BC Rich electric guitar Eddie uses on screen.
Although the 40th anniversary of the song’s release is only a few years away, its prominent role in this season of ‘Stranger Things’ propelled it to the top of the charts worldwide from early July.