Master Of Puppets

The third Metallica album transformed the band from being cult thrash heroes into a major heavy metal force, and the impact of Battery, of the majestic, four movement Master Of Puppets, of the slow-burning Welcome Home (Sanitarium), the beautifully atmospheric, classically composed Orion and the punishing Damage, Inc. has not diminished one iota with the passing of time. On an album conceived around themes of manipulation and control, Metallica’s mastery of the form is absolute and unerring, the performances a peerless harnessing of power, dynamics and mood.

It was the first Metallica album entirely written by the four musicians who would record it (though the last to feature Cliff Burton, the bassist tragically dying during the band’s subsequent tour). The songs were assembled in the garage of 3132 Carlson Boulevard in the spring and summer of 1985 and presented to producer Flemming Rasmussen perfectly arranged in demo form before the quartet decamped to Sweet Silence studios in Copenhagen in late August to record it.

‘Master Of Puppets’ is the work of men now utterly convinced of their own destiny.

“‘Master Of Puppets’ is Metallica celebrating that they’ve got a major label deal and that they no longer give a shit,” says Rasmussen. “And it worked too. There’s not one bad song on the album, not a single one. They had that youthful attitude of ‘we’re better than everybody else in the whole world’ and they were just out to kick some ass.”