Мастер кукол: История альбома Metallica

the album

Master of Puppets is the third studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released on March 3, 1986, by Elektra Records. Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark at Sweet Silence Studios with producer Flemming Rasmussen, it was the band's final 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. The album is the band’s most recent to date to feature a runtime of under an hour. 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. 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."

Master of Puppets has appeared in several publications' best album lists. It was ranked number 167 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and upgrading to number 97 in a 2020 revised list. The magazine would also later rank it second on its 2017 list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time", behind Black Sabbath's Paranoid. Time included the album in its list of the 100 best albums of all time. According to the magazine's Josh Tyrangiel, Master of Puppets reinforced the velocity of playing in heavy metal and diminished some of its clichés. Slant Magazine placed the album at number 90 on its list of the best albums of the 1980s, saying Master of Puppets is Metallica's best and most sincere recording. The album is featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. IGN named Master of Puppets the best heavy metal album of all time. The website stated it was Metallica's best because it "built upon and perfected everything they had experimented with prior" and that "all the pieces come together in glorious cohesion". Music journalist Martin Popoff also ranked it the best heavy metal album. Rock Hard ranked the album as the second greatest rock and metal album of all time, behind AC/DC's Black in Black. The album was voted the fourth greatest guitar album of all time by Guitar World in 2006, and the title track ranked number 61 on the magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar solos. Total Guitar ranked the main riff of the title track at number 7 among the top 20 guitar riffs. The April 2006 edition of Kerrang! was dedicated to the album and gave away to readers the cover album Master of Puppets: Remastered. Master of Puppets became thrash metal's first platinum album and by the early 1990s thrash metal successfully challenged and redefined the mainstream of heavy metal. Metallica and a few other bands headlined arena concerts and appeared regularly on MTV, although radio play remained incommensurate with their popularity. Master of Puppets is widely accepted as the genre's most accomplished album, and paved the way for subsequent development. The album, in the words of writer Christopher Knowles, "ripped Metallica away from the underground and put them atop the metal mountain". David Hayter from Guitar Planet recognized the album as one of the most influential records ever made and a benchmark by which other metal albums should be judged. MTV's Kyle Anderson had similar thoughts, saying that 25 years after its release the album remained a "stone cold classic". Carlos Ramirez from Noisecreep believes that Master of Puppets stands as one of the most representative albums of its genre. 1986 is seen as a pinnacle year for thrash metal in which the genre broke out of the underground due to albums such as Megadeth's Peace Sells but Who's Buying? and Slayer's Reign in Blood. Anthrax released Among the Living in 1987, and by the end of the year these bands, alongside Metallica, were being called the "Big Four" of thrash metal. In 2015, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Kerrang! released a tribute album titled Master of Puppets: Remastered with the April 8, 2006, edition of the magazine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets. The album featured cover versions of Metallica songs by Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine, Chimaira, Mastodon, Mendeed, and Trivium—all of which are influenced by Metallica. The title track was also featured in the fourth season finale of the Netflix series Stranger Things, as the character Eddie Munson plays the song in the Upside Down dimension to draw the dimension's monsters away from his friends. Kelly McClure of Salon compares the song's newfound popularity to Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", another song featured in the show's fourth season. The song's appearance on Stranger Things saw the song resurging on Spotify's charts, behind "Running Up That Hill", and the band stated on social media that "It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the amazing artists featured in the show."

Metallica opted for extensive touring instead of releasing a single or video to promote the album. The Damage, Inc. Tour began in March 1986, and the band spent March to August touring as the opening act for Ozzy Osbourne in the United States, the first tour Metallica played to arena sized audiences. Metallica won over Osbourne's fans and slowly began to establish a mainstream following. Hetfield broke his wrist in a mid tour skateboarding accident, and guitar technician John Marshall played rhythm guitar on several dates. The European leg of the tour commenced in September, with Anthrax as the supporting band. The morning after a performance on September 26 in Stockholm, the band's bus rolled off the road, and Burton was thrown through a window and killed instantly. The driver claimed he hit a patch of black ice, but others believed he was either drunk or fell asleep at the wheel. The driver was charged with manslaughter but was not convicted. Many of the songs that appeared on the band's next album, And Justice for All, were composed during Burton's career with the band.

In 2017, the album was remastered and reissued in a limited edition deluxe box set with an expanded track listing and bonus content. The deluxe edition set includes the original album on vinyl and CD, with two additional vinyl records containing a live recording from Chicago; nine CDs of interviews, rough mixes, demo recordings, outtakes, and live recordings recorded from 1985 to 1987; a cassette of a fan recording of Metallica's September 1986 live concert in Stockholm, which was Cliff Burton's final performance before his death; and two DVDs of interviews and live recordings recorded in 1986.