Master of Puppets is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records. Recorded in Denmark at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen, it was the band’s last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time.
About Master of Puppets in brief
Master of Puppets is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records. Recorded in Denmark at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen, it was the band’s last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. The album was certified six times platinum by the RIAA in 2003 for shipping six million copies in the United States. In 2015, it became the first metal recording to be selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” It is Metallica’s first album not to feature songwriting contributions from former lead guitarist Dave Mustaine. The band’s artwork depicts a cemetery field of white crosses tethered to strings, manipulated by a pair of hands in a blood-red sky. The group’s second album Ride the Lightning extended the limits of the genre with its more sophisticated songwriting and improved production. Metallica embarked on a five-month American tour in support of Ozzy Osbourne. The European leg of the tour was canceled after Burton’s death in September 1986, and the band returned home to audition a new bassist. Master of Puppet peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its music and political lyrics. It is credited with consolidating the American thrash metal scene, and inspired similar records by contemporaries.
The songwriting process started 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. The writing of all the songs except “Orion” and “The Thing That Should Not Be” was completed before the band arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the recording. The recording took longer than the previous album because Metallica had a sense of perfectionism and had higher ambitions. With a reputation for drinking, the group stayed sober on recording days and developed a range of influence that went beyond that of contemporary hard rock and glam metal albums. They played the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington, alongside Bon Jovi and Ratt to an audience of 70,000, during the summer of 1985. After parting with manager Jon Zazula, Metallica hired Q Prime executives Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch. They signed the group to an eight-album deal in the fall of 1984, halfway through the album’s promotional tour. The band was not satisfied with the acoustics of the American studios they considered, and decided to record in Ulrich’s native Denmark. Ulrich took drum lessons, and Hammett worked with Joe Satriani to learn how to record more efficiently. Ulrich was in talks with Rush’s bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee to produce the album, but the collaboration never materialized because of uncoordinated schedules.
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