Description

The cover of Master of Puppets is a war cemetery seen from ground level. Rows of white crosses stretch towards a blood-red sky with a fiery orange glow on the horizon, and every cross is tied to strings that rise to a pair of enormous hands hidden in the clouds. Each grave has become a puppet, and someone above is pulling the strings.

The concept came from the band and their manager Peter Mensch, and it was painted by the illustrator Don Brautigam. Lars Ulrich said the artwork "summarized the lyrical content of the album," which deals with people being manipulated without knowing it, by drugs in the title track, by war in "Disposable Heroes" and by religion in "Leper Messiah".

Metallica added a joke of their own. At the time, the Parents Music Resource Center was pushing for warning stickers on records, so the band put a mock Parental Advisory label on the cover, saying the only track you probably would not want to play was "Damage, Inc." because of its repeated use of the F word. The album was released on 3 March 1986. In 2008 Brautigam's original painting sold at auction at Rockefeller Plaza in New York for $28,000.

Credit

Cover painting by Don Brautigam; concept by Metallica and Peter Mensch