Master of Puppets

For the Metallica song of the same name, see Master of Puppets (song).

Untitled

Master of Puppets is the third album by American thrash metal band Metallica. The album was recorded in 1985 and released by Elektra Records on March 26, 1986 (see 1986 in music) in North America. The album reached number twenty-nine on the U.S. Billboard 200, and has to date sold over six million copies in U.S. alone. It was the last album the band recorded with bass player Cliff Burton and is considered a landmark in the history of heavy metal.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Master of Puppets at number 167 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, while Time named it one of the 100 greatest albums of all time. Another list compiled by Metal-Rules of the top 100 metal albums placed it at number one as did IGN's list of the top 25 metal albums. The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Historical significance

When it was released, Master of Puppets provided many metal fans with an alternate image to the commercially popular glam metal bands such as Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Quiet Riot. The album sold over half a million copies at its time of release without any major video/radio airplay, making it the band's first record to be certified Gold by the RIAA. The album is often credited for innovating thrash metal, specially for the fact it included some rhythms which were written in a more progressive-like mode, and it also added acoustic features along with an ambient similar to power metal in at least some parts of the songs, all of these not credited to the thrash scene, thus being innovative. The album was influential to the later started post-thrash scene, mainly stylistically. The album has also frequently being tagged by critics as "one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time".

The band's line-up during the album's recording was James Hetfield (vocals, guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (lead guitar), and the late Cliff Burton (bass). The album is remembered in part due to the death of Burton shortly after the release of the album in a bus accident while supporting the album on tour.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release, Metallica played the album in its entirety on their Escape from the Studio '06 tour, for the first time ever at the Rock am Ring festival on June 3rd, 2006. These concerts included the first-ever complete performances of the instrumental "Orion" (though the song's lengthy middle section had been performed at various times as part of instrumental medleys and bass solos since the early 1980s). The title track was ranked Number 51 in the "The Greatest Guitar Solos" from Guitar World. In 2006, the album was voted the fourth "greatest guitar album of all time" in Guitar World. And the April 5 edition of Kerrang! was dedicated to it, providing readers with the cover album "Master of Puppets: Remastered".

In March 2007, the guitar magazine Total Guitar ranked the 100 greatest riffs of all time. The main riff in "Master of Puppets" was ranked as number one of the top 100.

Track listing

1. "Battery" – 5:13 (Hetfield, Ulrich)
2. "Master of Puppets" – 8:36 (Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton, Hammett, Volkert)
3. "The Thing That Should Not Be" – 6:37 (Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton, Hammet)
4. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" – 6:28 (Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett)
5. "Disposable Heroes" – 8:17 (Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett)
6. "Leper Messiah" – 5:41 (Hetfield, Ulrich)
7. "Orion" – 8:28 (Hetfield, Burton, Ulrich)
8. "Damage, Inc." – 5:30 (Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton, Hammett)

Personnel

• James Hetfield – rhythm guitar, lead vocals, arranger, first guitar solo on "Master of Puppets", second guitar solo on "Orion"
• Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
• Cliff Burton – bass, backing vocals, lead bass on "Orion" and "Damage, Inc."
• Lars Ulrich – drums, arranger
• George Marino – mastering (at Sterling Sound)
• Rob Ellis – photography
• Ross Halfin – photography
• Don Brautigam – illustrations
• Metallica – producer, cover art concept
• Flemming Rasmussen – producer, engineer
• Michael Wagener – mixing (at Amigo Studios)
• Mark Wilzcak – assistant mixing engineer
• Peter Mensch – cover concept

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1986	Billboard	#29
1986	UK Albums Chart	#41

Covers

A number of bands have covered songs from the album. These include:

• Dream Theater has covered the entire album in a live concert, something they have also done for other historically significant progressive or metal albums, including Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
• Several bands, including Mastodon, Machine Head and Trivium, recorded a tribute album for the twentieth anniversary of the album's release; the project was sponsored by Kerrang! and copies were distributed with the magazine.
• Cello metal band Apocalyptica also recorded a cover of many Metallica songs including "Master of Puppets" in their album Plays Metallica by Four Cellos.
• Funk metal trio Primus has covered the title track live and "The Thing That Should Not Be" on their EP Rhinoplasty
• Black Warrant, an Industial/Thrash Metal band that come from Pakistan, also covered the title track.
• Scott D. Davis recorded a tribute album Pianotarium which includes "Master of Puppets", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", and songs from other albums composed in solo grand piano.
• The Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela recorded a cover of the song Orion on their self-titled 2006 album using two acoustic guitars.