Fans Have Voted For The Greatest Metallica Song Ever

With their almost month-long bracket tournament for fans to have their say on Metallica's greatest song coming to an end, the results are in… and Master Of Puppets has taken the top spot.

The title-track from the metal heroes' 1986 third record faced off against Dyers Eve, Atlas, Rise!, Ride The Lightning, Sad But True, and Fade To Black as it made its way through the tournament, ultimately beating finalist One in the fan vote.

"The people have spoken and single song stands alone above the rest," announce Metallica. "Your champion is – drum roll please – Master Of Puppets!

Read this: The inside story of Metallica's Master Of Puppets

"Along the way it defeated Dyers Eve, Atlas, Rise!, Ride The Lightning, Sad But True, and Fade To Black and One in head to head match-ups… no wonder that thing is in the Library of Congress! Thanks for playing along with us! #ObeyYourMaster #SomeKindOfBracket"

Interestingly, in Kerrang!’s ranking of the band's 20 greatest songs, we put Master Of Puppets in second place behind Ride The Lightning's incredible Creeping Death, writing of our chosen winner: "…It would become a timeless chapter in their own catalogue that still echoes with the same power 36 years on, showcasing everything that makes this band great. Later tracks might’ve expanded on this epic template, but none have surpassed its primal purity."

Do you agree? Or is Master Of Puppets the worthy winner?!

As fun as it's been to throw things back to 1986, Metallica are currently also looking ahead to new music.

Earlier in the month, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band have been exchanging ideas over Zoom and email, explaining how they're in “discovery mode” in quarantine.

“We are sending ideas to each other via email and via Zoom and [trying to] make music in these unusual situations,” he said. “We have a weekly Zoom connect. We’ve been doing that basically since [the coronavirus pandemic] started 10 [or] 11 weeks [ago] – since it started in America. So we get together once a week on Zoom for a couple of hours and catch up.”

Lars continued: “…now that we’ve started exchanging some ideas, it’s great. It’s nice to be in touch, it’s nice to be part again of that group, and I look forward to the creative opportunities that lie ahead of us.”

Read this: Every Metallica album ranked from worst to best