Metallica’s album covers work great as a visual summary of and introduction to their albums, but they’re also fantastic as a fashion statement: The Master Of Puppets art looks pretty fantastic on the front of a t-shirt. That’s why the band has teamed up with Spencer’s for a merch collection to accompany the upcoming rerelease of Master Of Puppets that includes exclusive t-shirts and other goodies.
Among the Spencer’s-exclusive tees are the dual-skull “Sad But True” design below, as well as another skeletal and heart-clutching shirt, and a fiery two-tone shirt. There are also some pretty neat pint glasses that include album artwork on one side and the corresponding tracklist on the other side.
As for the Master Of Puppets rerelease, it’s pretty expansive. The band announced it in August, and the various editions come with demos, rough mixes, interviews, live tracks, a 108-page hardcover book, exclusive essays, and things of that nature. It will be available on November 10th. Speaking about the album in 2016 (when it celebrated its 30th anniversary), Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone that looking back, he’s blown away by how quickly the album actually came together:
“When I listen to Master Of Puppets now, I just sit there and go, ‘What the f*ck? How do you do that? It’s very gutsy music. […]
There’s a spark or spontaneity or impulsiveness that happens when you’re in your twenties. We wrote Master Of Puppets in probably eight weeks over that summer. Nowadays, it takes me eight weeks just to drive down to the studio. It’s like, ‘What the f*ck did we do in the summer of ’85 where we could just give birth to that from the first note to the last note in eight weeks?’ Death Magnetic took us probably 18 months from when we started writing to when we started recording. On [Hardwired… To Self-Destruct], it probably took us about nine months. How the f*ck do you write a record like Master Of Puppets in eight weeks?”
Check out the merch here, learn more about the remaster here, and revisit our look at why Master Of Puppets quickly became a quintessential album for the band here.
