Metallica - Master of Puppets England Audiophile 45rpm Double 2LP Vinyl ALBUM

- Metallica's Sonic Mastery: The Master of Puppets England Audiophile Edition

Flemming Rasmussen is one of those behind-the-glass names I keep spotting like a quality stamp: a Danish producer and sound engineer, and the founder of Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen. His timeline reads like a metal history syllabus I actually want to study: Rainbow (1981), then Metallica (1984–1988: Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice for All), followed by Artillery (1990), Morbid Angel (1993), Blind Guardian (1995–1998), Ensiferum (2003–2004), and Evile (2007). He even won a Grammy for producing Metallica’s "One" (1989), which is kind of hilarious when you remember that song is basically anxiety with military boots on.

George Marino is one of those behind-the-glass legends who made heavy music feel larger than the room it was playing in. Before the mastering console became his throne, he was a Bronx guitarist doing the NYC band grind in the 1960s with groups like The Chancellors and The New Sounds Ltd. Then he went pro for real: starting at Capitol Studios in New York (1967), and eventually becoming a long-running force at Sterling Sound (from 1973 onward). For a collector like me—living in that sweet spot where 1980s heavy metal, hard rock, and a dash of prog-minded ambition collide—Marino’s credits read like a stack of essential sleeves: Holy Diver (Dio), Tooth and Nail (Dokken), Stay Hard (Raven), Master of Puppets (Metallica), Somewhere in Time (Iron Maiden), Among the Living (Anthrax), Appetite for Destruction (Guns N’ Roses), Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi), and Blow Up Your Video (AC/DC). That’s the kind of resume that doesn’t just “master” records—it weaponizes them, but with taste. George Marino Wiki

Don Brautigam, I think of him as the rare visual storyteller who could bottle a band’s whole atmosphere into one frozen scene. He was an American painter/illustrator and graphic designer (active roughly 1974–2008), known for mixing acrylic painting with airbrush polish until the image felt unreal in the best way. His “periods” with bands read like a timeline of loud history: early credits include James Brown’s “The Payback” (1973) and “Reality” (1974), then Chuck Berry’s “Rockit” (1979), before the metal era hit like a brick through a stained-glass window. In 1986 he painted Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” then followed with Anthrax’s run of covers — “Among the Living” (1987), “State of Euphoria” (1988), and “Persistence of Time” (1990) — before landing the big glossy menace of Mötley Crüe’s “Dr. Feelgood” (1989) and AC/DC’s “The Razors Edge” (1990). The wild part is how his art doesn’t just decorate the music; it sets the mood before the needle even drops.

Robert Ellis is the kind of rock photographer I trust because the shots don’t pose, they confess. Seeing his work, the noise comes back in full color: sweat in the stage lights, backstage grins that last ten seconds, and that split-second where a band looks immortal before the van ride ruins everyone’s posture. Credits tell the timeline clean: he starts out in 1968, then lands at New Musical Express (1971–1975), moves through Melody Maker (1975–1976), and keeps rolling as a freelance gun-for-hire for titles like Sounds and Kerrang! (plus the occasional mainstream giant like Time). The real “band periods” here aren’t membership cards, they’re tour years: Ellis is on the road photographing bands across the rock and metal circuit from 1971–1993, then turns the archive into a home base by founding Repfoto in 1982 and later pushing his own book imprint, The Rock Library, in the 2010s. That’s the job done right: stay invisible, keep the shutter honest, and let the music leave fingerprints on the film.