Metallica – Master of Puppets – Target Exclusive Vinyl Record with Sticker Sheet

Description

Metallica – Master of Puppets – Target Exclusive Vinyl Record with Sticker Sheet

Master of Puppets is Metallica’s 1986 third studio album, an eight-song work whose precision, scale, and emotional range made it a defining heavy-metal record. It was the final Metallica studio album recorded with bassist Cliff Burton, whose musical imagination is embedded throughout its arrangements. The record combines thrash speed with acoustic passages, progressive structures, harmonized guitar lines, and lyrics about control in many forms: addiction, institutional power, violence, belief, and the loss of individual agency.

“Battery” begins with layered acoustic guitars before the full band enters at speed, turning a gradual introduction into a statement of collective force. The title track follows with one of Metallica’s most recognizable riffs and an extended structure that moves from relentless verses into a melodic instrumental center before returning to the controlling voice of addiction. Both songs demonstrate how the group could make long arrangements feel purposeful, using changes in tempo and texture to deepen the subject rather than simply display technique.

“The Thing That Should Not Be” slows the pace into a heavy, Lovecraft-inspired procession, its low movement creating dread through weight and repetition. “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” begins in isolation and grows toward revolt, matching its institutional narrative with an arrangement that becomes increasingly forceful. The first side therefore travels from communal impact to manipulation, supernatural terror, and confinement. Each track has its own sonic identity, yet the recurring concern with power gives the sequence a coherent psychological atmosphere.

“Disposable Heroes” opens the second side with a soldier treated as material by commanders far from the battlefield. “Leper Messiah” turns toward charismatic exploitation and the sale of belief. In both songs, rapid rhythm and tightly locked guitar parts create pressure beneath lyrics about people being directed by systems or figures that do not value them. Lars Ulrich’s arrangement changes, Kirk Hammett’s lead work, Burton’s bass, and Hetfield’s increasingly commanding vocal performance make the density feel controlled rather than crowded.

The instrumental “Orion” gives Burton an especially important role, moving through heavy themes, harmonized sections, and a reflective middle passage without using words. “Damage, Inc.” then closes with a brief atmospheric opening and a final burst of aggressive speed. Together they show the band’s farthest poles: patient instrumental composition and concentrated thrash attack. The album’s reputation rests not only on individual riffs but on this carefully balanced arc, in which melody, atmosphere, and velocity continually sharpen one another.

This Target-exclusive edition uses the remastered eight-track album on black vinyl and adds a Metallica x Stranger Things Hellfire Club sticker sheet, connecting “Master of Puppets” with the song’s prominent appearance in the series. Released by Blackened Recordings in October 2025, the package also advertises a digital download. The exact UPC distinguishes this retailer configuration from the standard remastered LP and other variants. The original two-side running order remains intact, with the exclusive sticker sheet supplied as a separate collectible insert.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Track Listing

1. Side A: Battery
2. Side A: Master of Puppets
3. Side A: The Thing That Should Not Be
4. Side A: Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
5. Side B: Disposable Heroes
6. Side B: Leper Messiah
7. Side B: Orion
8. Side B: Damage, Inc.