Metallica fans have spoken, and they’ve declared “Master of Puppets” as the thrash legends’ greatest song in an official, band-endorsed poll.
The poll pit songs against one another in a March Madness style bracket, with the initial 64 tracks selected by a combination of Spotify plays and the number of times each was performed live. Metallica shared the contest round by round on their social media pages, calling it “Some Kind of Bracket”.
“Master of Puppets” beat out “One” in the championship round of the bracket. In addition to those two songs, the Final Four included “Enter Sandman” and “Fade to Black”.
The band announced the result on social media: “The people have spoken and single song stands alone above the rest. Your champion is ~ drum roll please ~ “MASTER OF PUPPETS!”… no wonder that thing is in the Library of Congress! Thanks for playing along with us!”
The end result can’t come as much surprise. The thrashterpiece from the 1986 album of the same name is one of the greatest metal songs by any band, and would probably fair well in a bracket of the entire genre. The song is an artistic touchstone of ’80s metal, seeing the band expand its compositional range to epic new heights.
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The National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress confirmed the album’s legendary status in 2016 when it honored Master of the Puppets as the first metal LP to be added to its vaults, deeming it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Meanwhile, Metallica are working on a new album, even sharing new material over Zoom and email during the COVID-19 pandemic. And every Monday, fans are treated with a new installment of #MetallicaMondays, a streaming series of the band’s classic and modern concerts — most containing a rendition of “Master of Puppets”, which is rarely absent from setlists.
See Metallica’s full post announcing the winner below.
