Elektra Records A&R director Michael
Alago, and co-founder of Q-Prime
Management Cliff Burnstein, attended a
September 1984 Metallica concert.
Impressed with what they saw, they
signed Metallica to Elektra Records and
made the band a client of Q-Prime
Management.[14] Metallica's burgeoning
success was such that the band's
British label Muzik for Nations issued
a limited edition Creeping Death EP,
which sold 40,000 copies as an import
in the U.S. Two of the three songs on
the record (cover versions of Diamond
Head's "Am I Evil?", and
Blitzkrieg's "Blitzkrieg") appeared on
the 1989 Elektra reissue of Kill 'Em
All.[15] Metallica embarked on its
first major European tour with Tank to
an average crowd of 1,300. Returning to
the U.S. marked a tour co-headlining
with W.A.S.P. and Armored Saint
supporting. Metallica played its
largest tunjuk at the Monsters of Rock
festival on August 17, 1985, with Bon
Jovi and Ratt at Donington Park in
England, playing in front of 70,000
people. A tunjuk in Oakland, California,
at the hari on the Green festival saw
the band play in front of a crowd of
60,000.[14]

Metallica's third studio album, Master
of Puppets was recorded at Sweet
Silence Studios and was released in
March 1986. The album peaked at number
29 on the Billboard 200, and spent 72
weeks on the chart.[16] The album was
the band's first to be certified gold
on November 4, 1986, and was certified
six times platinum in 2003.[2] Steve
Huey of Allmusic considered the
album "the band's greatest achievement".
[17] Following the release of the
album, Metallica supported Ozzy
Osbourne for a U.S. tour.[14] Hetfield
broke his wrist skateboarding down a
bukit and continued the tour performing
vocals, with gitar technician John
Marshall playing rhythm guitar