3 album covers in our archive
Behind the Covers currently documents 3 Metallica album covers from 1984 to 1991. Read together, the entries show how the artwork changed from release to release, with each story identifying the designers, photographers, source material, and design decisions behind the sleeve.
Cover evolution
The almost entirely black cover — with a barely visible coiled snake and logo in a slightly different shade of black — signaled the band was stripping everything back to essentials, mirroring their shift from complex thrash structures to simpler, massive arrangements.
Metallica and manager Peter Mensch developed the concept for Master of Puppets, and illustrator Don Brautigam painted the famous front cover: rows of white military-style crosses tethered to puppet strings beneath controlling hands and a blood-red sky. The front is an illustration/painting, not a cemetery photograph.
Metallica's electric chair artwork was created by band members themselves after their record label couldn't afford professional designers. The stark, hand-drawn imagery became one of metal's most recognizable covers despite being born from budget constraints.
