Master of Puppets

Hetfield wrote the lyrics, and the music is credited to Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton and Hammett. It was recorded in October to December 1985 at Sweet Silence. Rasmussen sped the tapes up to bring the track to standard pitch. Its riff quotes David Bowie's Andy Warhol, a nod from Burton and Hammett. Hetfield said the song deals pretty much with drugs. Mustaine says Ulrich wrote the opening riff while he was still in the band. A seven-inch single came out on 2 July 1986 with Welcome Home (Sanitarium) on the other side. It runs at about 212 beats per minute in its downpicked opening riffs and has a long, clean-toned middle section. It ends on sinister laughter. Ulrich later said he feels the album version is too tight.

Rolling Stone ranks it 256 among its 500 greatest songs (2021) and number 2 on its 2023 list of the 100 greatest heavy metal songs. VH1 ranked it the third greatest heavy metal song, Q put it 22nd on its 2005 list of the 100 greatest guitar tracks, and Metal Hammer made it number 1 on its 2020 list of the 50 best Metallica songs.

Live

The band first played it on 31 December 1985 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, to a crowd of 7,000, and it is the band's most-played live song. Full performances appear on Cliff 'Em All, S&M and S&M2. A shortened version is on Cunning Stunts. Concerts filmed in Mexico City, Nimes and Sofia on the World Magnetic Tour came out on video in November 2009 (Mexico City and Nimes) and October 2010 (Sofia). In 2022 it reached a new audience through the season four finale of Stranger Things, where the character Eddie Munson plays it. It gave the band their first chart entries in the United States and United Kingdom since 1986, peaking at number 35 on the Hot 100 and number 5 on the Hot Rock chart, and it reached number 4 in the Netherlands. It is 3x Platinum in the United States.