Master of Puppets (song)

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"Master of Puppets" is a thrash metal song by American metal band Metallica, released on July 2, 1986 as the sole single from the album of the same name. It was also issued as a promotional single in the US by Elektra Records.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

The song was recorded during October–December, 1985 at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark.[1][2]

The song was bassist Cliff Burton's favorite one on the album, as he said when it was released. The song is also one of the band's most famous and popular songs as well as their most played at concerts, with over 1,600 times played, ahead of other hits such as Creeping Death.

Background and composition

It is the second and title track of the album, preceded by a shorter, high-speed typical thrash metal track, "Battery", a similar sequencing heard on Metallica's second (Ride the Lightning) and fourth (...And Justice for All) albums. "Master of Puppets" is also notable for its extensive use of downpicking and long instrumental section.[3]

According to Dave Mustaine, Lars Ulrich composed the song's opening riff while Mustaine was still a member of Metallica.[4]

A riff from David Bowie's song "Andy Warhol" is quoted in "Master of Puppets". It is a homage made by Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett to whom Bowie was a huge influence.[5]

The song was recorded in a lower tempo and tuning and later sped up by Rasmussen running the tapes faster which brought the tuning up to standard 440 Hz. This allowed the instruments to be as tight as possible at a higher tempo. Ulrich later admitted he feels the album version is "too tight".[6]

Lyrical meaning

The song, as lead singer James Hetfield explained, "deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you're taking and doing, it's drugs controlling you."[7]

Live performances

The videos Cliff 'Em All, S&M, and S&M2 include live performances of "Master of Puppets" in its entirety. A shortened form appears in Cunning Stunts. Both versions can be seen in the video portions of the Live Shit: Binge & Purge box set.

"Master of Puppets" is the band's most played song live, first played on December 31, 1985, at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a crowd of 7,000.[8] As of May 2, 2025, the song has been performed 1,723 times.[9] During the band's World Magnetic Tour, additional live performances were filmed in Mexico City; Nîmes, France and Sofia, Bulgaria. These performances were released on video in November 2009 (Mexico and Nîmes) and October 2010 (Sofia).

Reception and awards

VH1 ranked the song as the third greatest heavy metal song ever.[10]

In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 22 in its 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks list.[11]

Martin Popoff's 2003 book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time ranked the song at number 2. Popoff composed the book by requesting that metal fans, musicians, and journalists nominate their favorite heavy metal songs. The author derived the final rankings from a database tallying almost 18,000 votes.[12]

The song also ranked number 1 on a 100 Greatest Riffs poll conducted by Total Guitar magazine.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

The readers of Guitar World voted the song as ranking at number 51 among the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett's solos for "Fade to Black" and "One" ranked significantly higher on the same list.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

In 2020, Metal Hammer ranked the song number 1 on its list of the 50 best Metallica songs of all time.[13]

In 2021, it was listed at No. 256 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time,"[14] and in 2023 was ranked at number 2 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list.[15]

Accolades

Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
2003 Martin Popoff United States The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time[12] 2
2005 Q Magazine United States 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks[11] 22
2006 VH1 United States 40 Greatest Metal Songs[10] 3
2012 Loudwire United States 10 Best Metallica Songs[16] 1
2014 Rolling Stone United States Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Metallica Songs[17] 2
2019 Metal Hammer United States The 50 best Metallica songs of all time[13] 1
2021 Kerrang United Kingdom The 20 greatest Metallica songs – ranked[18] 2
2021 Revolver United Kingdom Fan Poll: Top 5 Metallica Songs[19] 1
2023 The A.V. Club United States Essential Metallica: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked[20] 4
2023 Entertainment Weekly United States The 15 best Metallica songs[21] unranked

Usage in media

"Master of Puppets" is featured in a scene of the 2003 film Old School and is heard as actors Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell play characters who are busy kidnapping people off the street to join their new fraternity.[22] The song was featured in the opening credits for the film Zombieland: Double Tap.[23] The song also appears in a trailer for the game Marvel's Midnight Suns.[24] It also briefly features in the Big Short.[25] The song is also used in Fortnite as a purchasable emote and as a "jam track" playable in Fortnite Festival.

The song is featured in the fourth season finale of the Netflix series Stranger Things, where the character Eddie Munson is seen playing the track in the Upside Down to attract the Demobats. The band said they were "blown away" by the scene.[26] Like with Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", which was also featured in the season, the song regained popularity and started charting again following the release of the finale, notably entering the U.S. and UK charts for the first time since the song's original 1986 release. It then peaked at number four in the Netherlands.[27]

Track listing

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Personnel

Credits are adapted from Master of Puppets's liner notes.[28]

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Charts

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Certifications

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See also

References

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  5. ↑ To Live is to Die, the life and death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, by Joel McIver, second edition, Jawbone Press, 2016, p.265.
  6. ↑ https://www.revolvermag.com/music/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-metallicas-master-puppets/
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