- published: 12 Jul 2010
- views: 21008968
Master of Puppets is the third studio album by the American thrash metal band Metallica. It was released on March 3, 1986, through Vertigo Records, Music for Nations and Elektra Records, making it the group's major label debut. The album peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 chart and was the group's first record to be certified gold for sales of over 500,000 copies. This was done without any radio airplay or the release of a music video. The album was certified six times platinum by the RIAA.Master of Puppets received positive reviews. Master of Puppets marks the last Metallica album with bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus accident while touring to promote the album.
Allmusic's Steve Huey commented that Master of Puppets was "the band's greatest achievement." "Some critics have called Master of Puppets the best metal album ever recorded," Huey noted.
Master of Puppets has been featured on several "greatest albums of all time" lists. The album is present in the list "The All-TIME 100 Albums," published by TIME magazine in November 2006. In TIME critic Josh Tyrangiel's opinion, "Metallica didn't bother with hooks or pop discipline" in writing Master of Puppets.IGN ranked it #1 in a list of the "Top 25 Metal Albums" issued in January 2007. The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and Q magazine counted it among the 50 heaviest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 167 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Music critic Piero Scaruffi ranks Master of Puppets as the second best metal album of all time, just after Type O Negative's Slow, Deep and Hard and before Kyuss' Blues for the Red Sun. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #90 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980's". The album has frequently been tagged by critics as "one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time."