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Album dossier / 1986

Master of Puppets

Metallica · Thrash Metal

Recorded September 1985-January 1986 at Flemming Rasmussen's Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen -- the same room where Metallica had cut Ride the Lightning -- Master of Puppets was built on a 1976 Trident A Range console with two synced 24-track analog tape machines and no computers, with 'no reverb' as the band's mantra; Rasmussen instead captured huge natural room ambience for the drums in the studio's 45-by-60-foot warehouse space. James Hetfield tracked every rhythm-guitar part himself (Kirk Hammett played none), typically layering four to eight identical takes per song rather than duplicating one recording, a technique Rasmussen says he's 'never seen anything like since.' Bassist Cliff Burton, months before his death in a Swedish tour-bus accident that September, cut his 'Orion' interludes and other bass parts live in the vocal booth blasting through JBL 4333 monitors to recreate a live-gig feel. The album became Metallica's commercial breakthrough despite reaching only #29 on the Billboard 200, and is now widely regarded as thrash metal's technical high-water mark.