Master of Puppets is Metallica’s third studio album, which debuted on March 3, 1986. It was the band’s final album to include bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a bus accident in Sweden during the album’s promotional tour.
Metallica and Peter Mensch developed the album artwork, which was painted by Don Brautigam. It portrays a cemetery field of white crosses connected to strings. Operated by a pair of hands in a cloudy, blood-red sky with a flaming orange glow on the horizon. The album is the band most recent release with a length of less than an hour. Instead of releasing a single or video prior to the album release Metallica embarked on a five-month American tour in support of Ozzy Osbourne. After Burton death in September 1986, the band came home to audition for a replacement bassist.
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