Best Albums !: Metallica. Master of Puppets (1986)

Master of Puppets is the third album by American thrash metal band Metallica. The album was recorded in 1985 and released by Elektra Records on March 26, 1986.

The album reached number twenty-nine on the U.S. Billboard 200, and has to date sold over six million copies in U.S. alone. It was the last album the band recorded with bass player Cliff Burton and is considered a landmark in the history of heavy metal.

When it was released, M

aster of Puppets provided many metal fans with an alternate image to the commercially popular glam metal bands such as Poison, and Quiet Riot. The album sold over half a million copies at its time of release without any major video/radio airplay, making it the band's first record to be certified Gold by the RIAA. The album is often credited for innovating thrash metal, specially for the fact it included some rhythms which were written in a more progressive-like mode, and it also added acoustic features along with an ambient similar to power metal in at least some parts of the songs, all of these not credited to the thrash scene, thus being innovative. The album was influential to the later started post-thrash scene, mainly stylistically. The album has also frequently being tagged by critics as "one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time".

The band's line-up during the album's recording was James Hetfield (vocals, guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (lead guitar), and the late Cliff Burton (bass). The album is remembered in part due to the death of Burton shortly after the release of the album in a bus accident while supporting the album on tour.