Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" has topped a new list of heavy metal albums. The group's 1986 release beat Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" and "Appetite For Destruction" by Guns N' Roses on the joint MusicRadar.com and Metal Hammer magazine poll.

Ironically, the results have been released on International Noise Awareness Day.

More than 6,000 heavy rock fans took part in the vote, with 20 per cent of them picking "Master of Puppets" as the top album.

Also making the top 10 were Metallica's "Ride The Lightning," AC/DC's "Back in Black," "Rust in Peace" by Megadeth and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid."

Metallica and Iron Maiden made the top 10 twice and seven of the top 10 albums were released in the 1980s.

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2010/04/29/metallicas_master_of_puppets_named_top

Even though I, as a Maiden fan, wouldn't like to put anything about 'Number Of the Beast', I would have to say that Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' deserves the title as the best metal album of all time. It was the epitome of complete, all-out heaviness. Metallica were the epitome of all that was cool.
I remember in 1986 when I saw the album at a local mall being listed on the wall charts as a hit, being a person who was not into harder metal yet, I thought, "Well--a satanic metal album has hit the Top 30." :snob: I heard my younger brother's copy of the album and thought, what is this crap my brother's listening to?" But at that time, Cliff Burton had just died, and I started thinking a little more about them. I wondered what made the band tick, I began to think of what made Metallica important. And, a year later, I was totally SOLD ON Metallica. They were awesome, and 'Master Of Puppets'
made sense to me. There will never be another album like that. It was the pinnacle of a career, the time when metal mattered more than anything, and it took a great tragedy like the death of bassist Cliff Burton to open my eyes and ears to what was really going on with metal and Metallica in particular.

I won't dispute that!!:rock:

Not to mention that this album originally went gold without any radio airplay! Still to this day, I love the song Master of Puppets, and I especially love hearing it in concert!

i personally think Ride the Lightning was better and I consider MOP the last "real" Metallica album - I would put it in the top 5, but not at #1

I would say the top 3 would be (in no particular order): Defenders of the Faith, Number of the Beast and Paranoid.

I would go for Metallica's debut Kill 'Em All as the most important metal LP of all time. That was the most important debut since the Sex Pistols first (and only) LP.

i personally think Ride the Lightning was better and I consider MOP the last "real" Metallica album - I would put it in the top 5, but not at #1

I would say the top 3 would be (in no particular order): Defenders of the Faith, Number of the Beast and Paranoid.
True, I even read in an interview that James Hetfield even thought Ride the Lightning was a better album because it really captured the rawness of the band at the time. I later read that in spite of how great 'Master' was, many fans thought the album was a little too polished.

I would go for Metallica's debut Kill 'Em All as the most important metal LP of all time. That was the most important debut since the Sex Pistols first (and only) LP.
It's interesting, when you really think of it, there was not another album so groundbreaking as 'Kill 'Em All'. It captured this raw energy and anger that no one had ever done before. Traditional metal fans were nearly put off by it.
Exodus (Kirk Hammett's original band) may have more or less invented thrash (Bonded By Blood was a classic) but there was nothing like Metallica at that time. I need to pull out my Kill 'Em All CD and crank it up. :rock: