Master of Puppets
Released: 1986

Master of Puppets

by Metallica

The 80th greatest album of all time

Master of Puppets (1986) is Metallica's third studio album and a landmark of thrash metal, blending aggressive, fast-paced riffs and palm-muted gallops with extended song structures and melodic guitar solos. The record pairs relentless speed and tight rhythmic precision with moments of dynamic contrast and instrumental complexity, showing progressive tendencies in longer arrangements. Lyrically it touches on themes of control and manipulation, and the production delivers a clearer, heavier sound compared with the band's earlier releases.

Appears On These Lists

500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 2023 edition

Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023 update) is the latest edition of the magazi...

100 Best Albums

Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums (2024) is an editorially curated, all-time canon built by Apple Mus...

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a long-running reference book series (first published...

NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2013) is a special issue compiled from ballots cast by...

TIME's All Time 100 Albums

TIME’s All-TIME 100 Albums (2006) is an unranked, editorial canon compiled by critics Josh Tyrang...

Entertainment Weekly's 100 All-Time Greatest Albums

Entertainment Weekly’s 100 All-Time Greatest Albums (2013) is an editorial canon—not a public bal...

Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums

A book series created by Encyclopedia of Popular Music editor Colin Larkin (1st ed. 1994; later p...

Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s

Pitchfork’s The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s (Sept. 10, 2018) is a staff-curated, ranked retrospe...

1000 Albums to Hear Before you Die

The Guardian – 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2007) is a large, cross-genre listening guide ...

100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Published in Kerrang! (Issue #682, Jan 1998), “100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” is a hard...

500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die

who voted: John Aizlewood (editor), Matt Ashare, Michael Azerrad, Greg Beato, Johnny Black, Ben B...

The 1000 Best Albums of All Time

Fnac’s Les 1000 CD des disquaires de la Fnac (Dec 2008) is a collective, staff-driven canon: Fnac...

The 100 Best Albums of All Time

In summer 2007, Dutch music magazine OOR surveyed 100 Dutch pop “tastemakers”—critics and music f...

The 1000 Best Albums of All Time (Updated 2015)

This list is basically a personal canon of albums across the modern LP era (framed on-site as “si...