Master of Puppets (1986)
Master of Puppets is a 1986 hard rock album by Metallica.
Eight songs, none of them short, and not a wasted bar among them. Metallica's third album is where thrash stopped being speed for its own sake and started being composition: riffs that gallop, stop dead, and come back in a different key, with instrumental stretches long enough to count as movements.
The subject throughout is control, who holds it and who is losing it, run through addiction, war, religion and institutional madness. The title track makes the whole argument by itself, a battering verse that opens into a clean, almost mournful middle section before it comes back harder than it left. It was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen with Flemming Rasmussen producing and released on 3 March 1986 by Elektra, and it sounds heavy without sounding muddy, which is a large part of why it has aged as well as it has.
It is the last Metallica album made with bassist Cliff Burton, whose ear for arrangement is audible everywhere on it. Forty years later it is still the record handed to anyone who asks where metal keeps its ambition.
Quick answers
What is Master of Puppets about?
Eight songs, none of them short, and not a wasted bar among them. Metallica's third album is where thrash stopped being speed for its own sake and started being composition: riffs that gallop, stop dead, and come back in a different key, with instrumental stretches long enough to count as movements. The subject throughout is control, who holds it and who is losing it, run through addiction, war, religion and institutional madness. The title track makes the whole argument by itself, a battering verse that opens into a clean, almost mournful middle section before it comes back harder than it left. It was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen with Flemming Rasmussen producing and released on 3 March 1986 by Elektra, and it sounds heavy without sounding muddy, which is a large part of why it has aged as well as it has. It is the last Metallica album made with bassist Cliff Burton, whose ear for arrangement is audible everywhere on it. Forty years later it is still the record handed to anyone who asks where metal keeps its ambition.
When was Master of Puppets released?
Master of Puppets was released in 1986.
Who made Master of Puppets?
Master of Puppets is by Metallica.
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Explore Master of Puppets guides
A few thoughts on Master of Puppets
Put this next to Metallica and you hear precisely what the band gained and what they gave up, the same aggression compressed into arena-sized songs with the corners sanded off. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster shows the machinery from inside, which is uncomfortable and very hard to stop watching. Guitar Hero: Metallica is the silly route back into the riffs, and it does genuinely teach you where the parts sit against each other. For the joke version of everything this album takes seriously, Detroit Metal City is the funniest thing the genre has produced about itself.
More Metallica after Master of Puppets
Master of Puppets is the album most Metallica arguments start from, so the obvious next step is the rest of their run. These cover the raw early thrash, the multi-platinum crossover, the covers they cut their teeth on, and a later return to speed. Same band, different points on the line from garage to arena.
Heavy metal landmarks that set the stage for thrash
Before Master of Puppets could exist, bands like these built the vocabulary: the gallop, the twin guitars, the leather-and-speed attitude. These records run a little older and more traditional than Metallica, and hearing them back to back shows exactly what thrash sped up and roughed out. Foundational listening for the riff-obsessed.
Long, intricate metal that shifts and builds
The title track on Master of Puppets swings from a battering verse to a clean, mournful middle and back, and that appetite for structure is the thread here. These albums build long songs with movements, concept-driven arcs, and quiet passages that make the heavy parts land harder. For listeners who want metal that composes, not just pummels.