10 Greatest Thrash Metal Albums Of All Time
7. Metallica: Master Of Puppets (1986)
Metallica’s 3rd album is amongst the most famous and lauded of all heavy metal albums out there, thrash or otherwise. Metallica’s final album prior to the tragic death of Cliff Burton, it continued to solidify the thrash giants as a budding mainstream phenomenon.
Boasting an eclectic range of heart pounding anthems, Master of Puppets offered everything from rhythmic, grand scale epics like Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and the titular Master of Puppets to mid-paced heavy hitters like Leper Messiah and an instrumental track, Orion, that is cinematic in its style and quality.
Coming off their first world tour, the pressure was on for Metallica to maintain and further build the following their first 2 albums had garnered them. Recording began in mid-1985 and was completed in just shy of 2 months making this masterpiece all the more impressive. Banking on album number 3 to further swell their success, Metallica pulled no punches and took no breaks to get it out into the world as soon as possible.
The exceptional song structuring and near perfect composition throughout Master of Puppets does the trick and ensured Metallica continued to dominate the growing thrash scene throughout the 80s and beyond.