METALLICA's 'Master Of Puppets' surpasses one billion streams on SPOTIFY
04-04-2025
The title track of METALLICA‘s “Master Of Puppets” album has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
METALLICA commented: “We’re psyched to share that ‘Master Of Puppets’ has just made its way into Spotify‘s Billions Club – Thank you!”
Billions Club is a playlist first launched in 2020 which includes all of the songs on Spotify that have surpassed one billion streams on the platform. After the achievement, Spotify gifts artists the Billions Club plaque.
“Master Of Puppets” joins other tracks — including METALLICA‘s “Nothing Else Matters” and “Enter Sandman”, AEROSMITH‘s “Dream On”, SURVIVOR‘s “Eye Of The Tiger”, ABBA‘s “Dancing Queen”, PAPA ROACH‘s “Last Resort”, GUNS N’ ROSES‘ “Paradise City”, EVANESCENCE‘s “Bring Me To Life” and Whitney Houston‘s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” — to reach the achievement. The milestone has reportedly been achieved by nearly a thousand songs so far.
Three years ago, “Master Of Puppets” saw new life in the U.S. after its inclusion in season four of Netflix‘s hit series “Stranger Things”. The popularity of the 1986 song brought it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever in the band’s lengthy career.
In the season four finale of “Stranger Things”, the Eddie Munson character performs what he calls “the most metal concert ever” — including shredding “Master Of Puppets” on his beloved Warlock guitar — in “Stranger Things”‘ “Upside Down” alternate universe during an attempt to help his friends vanquish the Big Bad of the season, a demon named Vecna.
METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo later revealed that his then-17-year-old son Tye contributed “additional guitar tracks” to the version of “Master Of Puppets” which appears in “Stranger Things”.
We’re psyched to share that “Master of Puppets” has just made its way into @Spotify’s Billions Club - Thank you!
— Metallica (@Metallica) April 3, 2025
Send it on its way to two billion, and listen to every member of the Billions Club at https://t.co/vLgkFPpLIR. pic.twitter.com/pjYPF2pvTB
“Master Of Puppets” was released on February 24, 1986 and was the first album METALLICA recorded after signing a major label deal with Elektra Records.
The set only reached No. 29 on the Billboard album chart but has sold over six million copies in the U.S. since.
It is the last record to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed later that year in a tour bus crash.
Several songs from the album are still staples of METALLICA‘s live set, including “Battery”, “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” and the title track.
Many fans consider it METALLICA‘s finest album, a fact that the band acknowledged by playing it in its entirety on a European tour in 2006.
“Master Of Puppets” continues to sell several thousand copies a week in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In 2016, “Master Of Puppets” was among the albums that were selected for induction into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
Several years ago, METALLICA collaborated with an author named Matt Taylor on a book about the making of “Master Of Puppets”.
METALLICA released their last album ’72 Seasons’ 14th in April 2023.
Speaking on the concept of the album title, Hetfield says: “72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
The complete track listing for “72 Seasons” is:
- 72 Seasons
- Shadows Follow
- Screaming Suicide
- Sleepwalk My Life Away
- You Must Burn!
- Lux Æterna
- Crown Of Barbed Wire
- Chasing Light
- If Darkness Had A Son
- Too Far Gone?
- Room Of Mirrors
- Inamorata
Says METALLICA: “The album package was once again conceived and art directed by our good friend, acclaimed designer David Turner and his team. David, who won a Grammy for his work on ‘Death Magnetic’, is the man behind the look and feel of all of our recent releases, including ‘Through The Never’, ‘S&M2’, and ‘Hardwired’.”
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