For one to know how successful was Master of Puppets when it first seized the air in 1986 by a group of stars, popularly known as Metallica back in America, you will have to as a matter of fact understand how successful was Metallica, the American metal band. Were they ever at the top of their career or at the world back then in their hey days?
Metallica: The Artists Behind the Master of Puppets
The band that produced the Master of Puppets is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. They are known especially for their fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship.
They first found commercial success with the release of its third album, Master of Puppets (1986), which is cited as one of the heaviest metal albums and the band’s best work. The band’s next album, …And Justice for All (1988), gave Metallica its first Grammy Award nomination.
Its fifth album, Metallica (1991), was a turning point for the band that saw them transition from their thrash roots; it appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling more than 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era.
After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, Metallica returned to its thrash metal roots with its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band’s earlier albums. The band’s 11th and most recent album, 72 Seasons, was released in 2023.
Metallica has released eleven studio albums, four live albums (including two performances with the San Francisco Symphony), twelve video albums, one cover album, two extended plays, thirty-seven singles and thirty-nine music videos.
The band has won nine Grammy Awards from twenty-three nominations, and had six consecutive studio albums (from Metallica through Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016)) debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold more than 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018.
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Metallica has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines such as Rolling Stone, which ranked the band in 61st place on its list of 100 greatest artists of all time.
Productions, Design and Final Release of the Album
As one of the leading musical content in the 1980s, the album, Master of Puppets, was released by Metallica and it is the third studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was put out for public consumption on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records.
After it was recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen. It was also the band’s last album to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus accident in Sweden during the album’s promotional tour.
The album’s artwork, designed by Metallica and Peter Mensch and painted by Don Brautigam, depicts a cemetery field of white crosses tethered to strings, manipulated by a pair of hands in a clouded, blood-red sky, with a fiery orange glow on the horizon.
Instead of releasing a single or video in advance of the album’s release, Metallica embarked on a five-month American tour in support of Ozzy Osbourne. The European leg was canceled after Burton’s death in September 1986, and the band returned home to audition a new bassist.
Recognitions and Awards: Master of Puppets
Master of Puppets peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its music and political lyrics.
It is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential metal albums of all time, and is credited with consolidating the American thrash metal scene.
It was certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2003 for shipping six million copies in the United States, and was later certified six times platinum by Music Canada and platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
In 2015, Master of Puppets became the first metal recording to be selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
