Master of Puppets

Metallica's 1983 debut ''Kill 'Em All'' laid the foundation for thrash metal with its aggressive musicianship and vitriolic lyrics. The album revitalized the American underground scene, and inspired similar records by contemporaries. The band's second album Ride the Lightning extended the limits of the genre with its more sophisticated songwriting and improved production. The album caught the attention of Elektra Records representative Michael Alago, who signed the group to an eight-album deal in the fall of 1984. Metallica was motivated to make an album that would impress critics and fans, and began writing new material in mid-1985. Lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich were the main songwriters on the album, already titled Master of Puppets. The two developed ideas at a garage in El Cerrito, California, before inviting bassist Cliff Burton and guitarist Kirk Hammett for rehearsals. Hetfield and Ulrich described the songwriting process as starting with "guitar riffs, assembled and reassembled until they start to sound like a song". After that, the band came up with a song title and topic, and Hetfield wrote lyrics to match the title. Master of Puppets is Metallica's first album not to feature songwriting contributions from former lead guitarist Dave Mustaine. Mustaine claimed he had co-written "Leper Messiah", based on an old song called "The Hills Ran Red". The band denied this, but stated that one section incorporated Mustaine's ideas. Metallica recorded the album with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, from September 1 to December 27, 1985. The writing of all the songs except "Orion" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" was completed before the band's arrival in Copenhagen. The recording took longer than the previous album because Metallica had developed a sense of perfectionism and had higher ambitions. The band largely recorded their instrumental parts separately, starting the songs with a click track and a guide guitar part from Hetfield. Rasmussen and Metallica did not manage to complete the mixtapes as planned. Instead, the multitrack recordings were sent in January 1986 to Michael Wagener, who finished the album's mixing. The original artwork was sold at Rockefeller Plaza, New York City for $28,000 in 2008. The band mocked the warning stickers promoted by the PMRC with a facetious Parental Advisory label on the cover: "The only track you probably won't want to play is 'Damage, Inc.' due to multiple use of the infamous 'F' word. Otherwise, there aren't any 'shits', 'fucks', 'pisses', 'cunts', 'motherfuckers', or 'cocksuckers' anywhere on this record". Hetfield used a Jackson King V played through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ amplifier modified as a pre-amp; Burton played an Aria Pro II SB1000 through Mesa/Boogie amplifier heads and cabinets; ==Music and lyrics==

Master of Puppets features dynamic music and thick arrangements. Metallica delivered a more refined approach and performance compared to the previous two albums, with multilayered songs and technical dexterity. The lyrics were considered perceptive and harrowing, and were praised for being honest and socially conscious by writer Brock Helander. Referring to the epic proportions of the songs, BBC Music's Eamonn Stack stated that "at this stage in their careers Metallica weren't even doing songs, they were telling stories". A lengthy interlude follows the second chorus, beginning with a clean, arpeggiated section over which Hetfield contributes a melodic solo; the riffing becomes distorted and progressively more heavy and Hammett provides a more virtuosic solo before the song eventually returns to the main verse. The song closes with a fade-out of sinister laughter. The lyrical theme is cocaine addiction. The 136 beats per minute mid-tempo riffing of the verses culminates in a descending chromatic riff in the chorus; it increases to a galloping 184 beats per minute for the middle section that climaxes in a distorted scream of "Lie!". It starts with a series of reversed bass chords based on the chorale prelude of Bach's "Come, Sweet Death". The song then jumps into a rapid rhythm with a pedal-point riff in E that Hammett says was influenced by Deep Purple. ==Release==

Released on March 3, 1986, the album had a 72-week run on the Billboard 200 album charts and earned the band its first gold certification. and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 chart. More than 500,000 copies were sold in its first year, even with virtually no radio airplay and no music videos. In 2025, Master of Puppets was certified 8× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with eight million copies shipped in the United States. The album was less successful on an international level, despite entering the top 5 on the Finnish and the top 40 on the German and Swiss album charts in its inaugural year. In 2004, it peaked within the Top 15 in Sweden. In 2008, the album reached the top 40 on the Australian and Norwegian album charts. It received 6× platinum certification from Music Canada and a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 600,000 and 100,000 copies, respectively. ==Reception==

Master of Puppets was hailed as a masterpiece by critics outside of the thrash metal audience and cited by some as the genre's greatest album. Kerrang! wrote that Master of Puppets "finally put Metallica into the big leagues where they belong". By contrast, Spins Judge I-Rankin was disappointed with the album and said, although the production is exceptional and Metallica's experimentation is commendable, it eschews the less "intellectual" approach of ''Kill 'Em All'' for a MDC-inspired direction that is inconsistent. In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Steve Huey viewed Master of Puppets as Metallica's best album and remarked that, although it was not as unexpected as Ride the Lightning, it is a more musically and thematically consistent album. BBC Music's Eamonn Stack called the album "hard, fast, rock with substance" and likened the songs to stories of "biblical proportions". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff compared the album to Ride the Lightning and found Master of Puppets not a remake, though similar in "awesome power and effect". Accolades Master of Puppets has appeared in several publications' best album lists. It was ranked number 167 on Rolling Stone list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and upgrading to number 97 in a 2020 revised list. The magazine would also later rank it second on its 2017 list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time", behind Black Sabbath's Paranoid. Time included the album in its list of the 100 best albums of all time. According to the magazine's Josh Tyrangiel, Master of Puppets reinforced the velocity of playing in heavy metal and diminished some of its clichés. Slant Magazine placed the album at number 90 on its list of the best albums of the 1980s, saying Master of Puppets is Metallica's best and most sincere recording. The album is featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. IGN named Master of Puppets the best heavy metal album of all time. The website stated it was Metallica's best because it "built upon and perfected everything they had experimented with prior" and that "all the pieces come together in glorious cohesion". Music journalist Martin Popoff also ranked it the best heavy metal album. Rock Hard ranked the album as the second greatest rock and metal album of all time, behind AC/DC's Back in Black. The album was voted the fourth greatest guitar album of all time by Guitar World in 2006, and the title track ranked number 61 on the magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar solos. Total Guitar ranked the main riff of the title track at number 7 among the top 20 guitar riffs. The April 2006 edition of Kerrang! was dedicated to the album and included the cover album Master of Puppets: Remastered as a giveaway. ==Legacy==

Master of Puppets became thrash metal's first platinum album and by the early 1990s thrash metal successfully challenged and redefined the mainstream of heavy metal. Metallica and a few other bands headlined arena concerts and appeared regularly on MTV, although radio play remained incommensurate with their popularity. Master of Puppets is widely accepted as the genre's most accomplished album, and paved the way for subsequent development. The album, in the words of writer Christopher Knowles, "ripped Metallica away from the underground and put them atop the metal mountain". David Hayter from Guitar Planet recognized the album as one of the most influential records ever made and a benchmark by which other metal albums should be judged. MTV's Kyle Anderson had similar thoughts, saying that 25 years after its release the album remained a "stone cold classic". Carlos Ramirez from Noisecreep believes that Master of Puppets stands as one of the most representative albums of its genre. The year 1986 is seen as a pinnacle year for thrash metal in which the genre broke out of the underground due to albums such as Megadeth's ''Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?'' and Slayer's Reign in Blood. Anthrax released Among the Living in 1987, and by the end of the year these bands, alongside Metallica, were being called the "Big Four" of thrash metal. In 2015, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Kerrang! released a tribute album titled Master of Puppets: Remastered with the April 8, 2006, edition of the magazine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets. The album featured cover versions of Metallica songs by Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine, Chimaira, Mastodon, Mendeed, and Trivium—all of which are influenced by Metallica. The title track was also featured in the fourth season finale of the Netflix series Stranger Things, as the character Eddie Munson plays the song in the Upside Down dimension to draw the dimension's monsters away from his friends. Kelly McClure of Salon compares the song's newfound popularity to Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", another song featured in the show's fourth season. The song's appearance on Stranger Things saw the song resurging on Spotify's charts, behind "Running Up That Hill", and the band stated on social media that "It's an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie's journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the amazing artists featured in the show." ==Tour and Burton's death==

Metallica opted for extensive touring instead of releasing a single or video to promote the album. The Damage, Inc. Tour began in March 1986, and the band spent March to August touring as the opening act for Ozzy Osbourne in the United States, the first tour Metallica played to arena-sized audiences. Metallica won over Osbourne's fans and slowly began to establish a mainstream following. Hetfield broke his wrist in a mid-tour skateboarding accident, and guitar technician John Marshall played rhythm guitar on several dates. The European leg of the tour commenced in September, with Anthrax as the supporting band. The morning after a performance on September 26 in Stockholm, the band's bus rolled off the road, and Burton was thrown through a window and killed instantly. The driver claimed he hit a patch of black ice, but others believed he was either drunk or fell asleep at the wheel. The driver was charged with manslaughter but was not convicted. Many of the songs that appeared on the band's next album, ...And Justice for All, were composed during Burton's career with the band. Later live performances All of the songs have been performed live, and some became permanent setlist features. Four tracks were featured on the nine-song set list for the album's promotional tour: "Battery" as opener, "Master of Puppets", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", and "Damage, Inc." became a live staple and the most-played Metallica song. Loudwires Chad Childers characterized the band's performance as "furious" and the song as the set's highlight. Rolling Stone described the live performance as "a classic in all its eight-minute glory". While filming its 3D movie Metallica: Through the Never (2013) at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, crosses were rising from the stage during the song, reminiscent of the album's cover art. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is the second-most performed song from the album. The live performance is often accompanied by lasers, pyrotechnical effects and film screens. "Disposable Heroes" is featured in the video album Orgullo, Pasión, y Gloria: Tres Noches en la Ciudad de México (2009) filmed in Mexico City, in which the song was played on the second of three nights at the Foro Sol. "Orion" is the least-performed song from the album. The band performed the album in the middle of the set. "Battery", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Damage, Inc." and the full-length "Master of Puppets" were revived for the band's concerts in 1997 and 1998, after having been retired for a number of years. == 2017 deluxe box set ==

In 2017, the album was remastered and reissued in a limited-edition deluxe box set with an expanded track listing and bonus content. The deluxe edition set includes the original album on vinyl and CD, with two additional vinyl records containing a live recording from Chicago; nine CDs of interviews, rough mixes, demo recordings, outtakes, and live recordings recorded from 1985 to 1987; a cassette of a fan recording of Metallica's September 1986 live concert in Stockholm, which was Burton's final performance before his death; and two DVDs of interviews and live recordings recorded in 1986. The reissue received critical acclaim. Classic Rock magazine's Philip Wilding praised the remastered songs and cited the working mixes and demos as the box set's highlights, writing: "It's a wonderful insight into the machinations of one of the biggest bands in the world, as well as the fallibility that can only be overcome by hard graft and equal amounts of inspiration." == Track listing ==

All lyrics written by James Hetfield. The bonus tracks on the digital re-release were recorded live at the Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, Washington, on August 29 and 30, 1989, and also appeared on the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993). ==Personnel==

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Metallica • James Hetfield – rhythm guitar, vocals, acoustic guitars on "Battery", 1st guitar solo on "Master of Puppets", 2nd guitar solo on "Orion" • Lars Ulrich – drums, percussion • Cliff Burton – bass, backing vocals • Kirk Hammett – lead guitar Production • Metallica – production • Flemming Rasmussen – production, engineering • Andy Wroblewski – assistant engineer • Michael Wagener – mixing • Mark Wilzcak – assistant mixing engineer • George Marino – mastering, remastering on 1995 re-release • Howie Weinberg, Gentry Studer – 2017 remastering Artwork • Metallica, Peter Mensch – cover concept • Don Brautigam – cover illustration • Ross Halfin – inner sleeve photos • Rich Likong, Ross Halfin, Rob Ellis – back cover photos Digital reissue bonus tracks • Jason Newsted – bass and backing vocals • Mike Gillies – mixing ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==