Metallica - Master Of Puppets [180g, Remaster] (LP) Vinyl

Master of Puppets is the third studio album by Metallica, first released on 3 March 1986 through Music For Nations in the UK and Elektra in the United States. It was the last record the band made with bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus crash in Sweden in September 1986 while the group were touring in support of it. This edition is the remastered 180 gram reissue on Metallica's own Blackened Recordings label, catalogue number BLCKND005R-1.

The Album

Recorded between September and December 1985 at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, the album was produced by Metallica with Flemming Rasmussen, who also engineered the sessions, and mixed by Michael Wagener at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood. Its eight tracks run from the opening "Battery" to "Orion" and the closing "Damage, Inc.", taking in the title track, "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "Disposable Heroes" along the way.

The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified six times platinum by the RIAA, six times platinum by Music Canada, and platinum by the BPI. In 2015 it became the first metal recording chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry, on the grounds that it is culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

This Pressing

This reissue carries the 2017 remaster prepared by Howie Weinberg and Gentry Studer at Howie Weinberg Mastering in Los Angeles, with the vinyl masters and lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Greg Fidelman served as executive producer for the reissue. The album is presented on a single 180 gram 12 inch disc.

Packaging

The sleeve reproduces Don Brautigam's original cover painting, a design conceived by Metallica with Peter Mensch: a cemetery field of white crosses tethered by strings to a pair of hands in a blood red sky. The rear sleeve carries the track listing and band photography. Inside is a printed inner sheet with the full lyrics, credits and photographs, together with a download card for a 320kbps MP3 copy of the album.

Track Listing

Side One
1. Battery (5:12)
2. Master Of Puppets (8:35)
3. The Thing That Should Not Be (6:36)
4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (6:27)

Side Two
1. Disposable Heroes (8:16)
2. Leper Messiah (5:40)
3. Orion (8:27)
4. Damage, Inc. (5:32)