Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' Voted Greatest Heavy Metal Album Of All Time On This Day in Rock 2012

09-20-2025

On this Day In Rock back on September 20th, 2012 Metallica's 1986 album, "Master Of Puppets," was named the Greatest Heavy Metal Album Of All Time in a new online poll by readers of Rolling Stone magazine.

Metallica dominated the poll by taking four of the top ten spots. "Metal fans are a very passionate bunch," wrote the Rolling Stone editors. "They're also very opinionated, so when we asked them to vote for their favorite metal albums we expected a huge response.

"We also expected a big debate about the very definition of 'heavy metal.' Some metal fans say that groups like Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses are metal. Others think that's completely insane. We aren't here to settle these debates. We're merely here to count the votes."

Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and 1970 self-titled debut took second and third, respectively; Iron Maiden's 1982 album, "The Number Of The Beast" landed in fourth, with Metallica's "...And Justice For All" rounding out the top 5. Read more at our partner site hennemusic