Maps of Music

Master of Puppets (1986)

Where the lyrics of Master of Puppets take you, and where it was really made.

The album's bassist was killed in a tour bus crash in Sweden while the album was being promoted, and the European dates were canceled.

Key places

Recorded at Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen (1986)

Recording site Sweet Silence Studios — The album was recorded with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, from September 1 to December 27, 1985. The band chose Denmark after finding the acoustics of the American studios it considered unsatisfactory. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Master of Puppets: third studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica
• Released March 3, 1986 by Elektra Records
• Last Metallica album to feature bassist Cliff Burton
• Burton died September 27, 1986 after the tour bus accident in Dörarp, Sweden
• Runtime under one hour: the band's most recent album of that length
• Remastered and reissued as an expanded box set in 2017, a separate edition

Background

• Metallica's 1983 debut Kill 'Em All laid the foundation for thrash metal
• Second album Ride the Lightning extended the limits of the genre
• Elektra representative Michael Alago signed the band to an eight-album deal in fall 1984
• Writing of new material began in mid-1985; James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were the main songwriters
• First Metallica album without songwriting contributions from Dave Mustaine
• Instead of a single or video, the band toured the United States for five months as the opener for Ozzy Osbourne
• The European leg was canceled after Burton's death, and the band returned home to audition a new bassist

Recording

• The band wanted a studio with better acoustics than the American studios it considered, so it chose Denmark
• Recorded with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, September 1 to December 27, 1985
• Most songs were finished before the band arrived; "Orion" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" were the exceptions
• Rasmussen said the band brought well-prepared demos and only slight changes were made in the studio
• Multitrack recordings were sent in January 1986 to Michael Wagener, who finished the mixing

Cover

• Designed by Metallica and Peter Mensch, painted by Don Brautigam
• Shows white crosses tethered to strings, manipulated by a pair of hands in a blood-red sky
• Ulrich said the artwork summarized the album's theme of people being subconsciously manipulated

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, later based in San Francisco for most of its career.
• Founded as one of the "big four" of thrash metal alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.

Members

• Current lineup: Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.
• Former members include Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted and Dave Mustaine.

Career

• Commercial breakthrough with Master of Puppets (1986), often cited as one of the best metal albums of all time.
• The self-titled 1991 album moved the band toward a more mainstream audience and became its best-selling record.
• Returned to thrash roots with Death Magnetic (2008) and released 72 Seasons in 2023.
• Led the lawsuit against Napster in 2000.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
• Sold more than 163 million albums worldwide as of 2023.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone (Tim Holmes): the band redefined heavy metal through the technical skill and subtlety on the album
• Kerrang!: the album finally put Metallica into the big leagues
• Spin (Judge I-Rankin): production praised as exceptional, but the direction was judged inconsistent and disappointing
• Critics outside the thrash audience hailed the album as a masterpiece, and some named it the genre's greatest album

Reappraisal

• AllMusic (Steve Huey): called it Metallica's best album, more consistent musically and thematically than Ride the Lightning
• Chicago Tribune (Greg Kot): the songs were the band's most intense to that point, leaning toward Rush's progressive tendency
• PopMatters (Adrien Begrand): production compared to a metal version of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound
• BBC Music (Eamonn Stack): described as hard, fast rock with substance
• Robert Christgau: respected the energy and politics but found the music leaning on clichéd images
• Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums: number 167, rising to number 97 in the 2020 revision

Records

• Billboard 200 peak: number 29; debut at number 128 on March 29, 1986; 72 weeks on the chart
• Billboard: about 300,000 copies sold in the first three weeks
• More than 500,000 copies sold in the first year, with virtually no radio airplay and no music videos
• United States: RIAA 8× platinum in 2025, eight million shipped
• Canada: 6× platinum from Music Canada, 600,000 copies
• Finland top 5 and Germany and Switzerland top 40 in the inaugural year
• Became thrash metal's first platinum album
• 2015: selected for the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, the first metal recording to be chosen

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Metallica was noted by the media for heavy drinking on tour and earned the nickname "Alcoholica".
• The cover carried a facetious Parental Advisory label that mocked the warning stickers promoted by the PMRC.
• During sound checks the band played riffs from Black Sabbath, which Osbourne first took as mockery.
• Hetfield broke his wrist in a mid-tour skateboarding accident, and guitar technician John Marshall played rhythm guitar on several dates.
• The title track was featured in the fourth season finale of the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact