Story Behind the Cover of Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’

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As promised, we will continue to roll out deep dives into the artwork behind each classic Metallica album in order of their release. In this article, we’ll take a look at the 1986 classic “Master of Puppets” — an album that remains among the highest echelons of thrash metal. It saw the band take another step forward as far as technical ability and production quality. Tragically, it was also the final album to feature Cliff Burton.

The Artist

The artwork for “Master of Puppets” was done by a legend in the field – Don Brautigam. Brautigam is primarily an acrylic painter who had previously worked with Stephen King and several famous artists like Chuck Berry. Throughout his 35-year career, he painted over 3,000 book and record covers for bands like Anthrax, AC/DC, Mötley Crüe, Ace Frehley, and many more.

In fact, it was Brautigam who did the cover artwork for “The Stand” – the book that had inspired the title for Metallica’s previous album, “Ride The Lightning.” Brautigam was given a rough sketch that James Hetfield had done to use as a starting point. A true professional, he did the cover in only three days.

The Crosses

The white crosses in rows bear a strong resemblance to Arlington National Cemetery, which is a 639-acre cemetery, the final resting place of 400,000 departed – primarily military veterans dating all the way back to the Civil War. The cemetery is maintained by the Army. The land the cemetery rests on was, interestingly enough, the Arlington Estate, which had been confiscated from the private ownership of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee’s family following a tax dispute.

The image of thousands of white crosses (the headstones at Arlington are not all crosses, but some are), each one, presumably, someone who died in a war, is chilling and conjures many different emotions depending on your background. The album’s songs and artwork seem to exemplify how many of those in power throughout history have manipulated masses of solders to their doom with a cold indifference.

Making Puppeteering Metal

The image of strings being manipulated by a pair of hands belonging to a faceless nameless puppet master is a visual representation of the central lyrical theme of the album, which is manipulation – a pulling at the strings of human behavior.

The song “Disposable Heroes” is probably the one that can best be seen manifested in the album cover – it describes manipulation by military leaders throughout history. Along the same lines, “Sanitarium” describes manipulation of mental health issues by doctors of a (thankfully) bygone era, and “Master of Puppets” describes the ways in which drugs can pull the strings of an otherwise reasonable person.

In a 1988 interview with Thrasher Magazine, Hetfield described the title track thusly, “[the song] deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you’re taking and doing its drugs controlling you.”

What Happened to The Original Painting?

The original painting was 17×17 inches in diameter and signed by the artist – it sold at auction in 2008 for $35,000. Brautigam had signed the original and if you look very closely at the Metallica album cover, you can spot a tiny little “D.B.” (Brautigam’s initials) just above the “S” in “Puppets” among the grass.