| 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.[21] Metallica's burgeoning success was such that the band's British label Music for Nations released a limited edition "Creeping Death" single, which sold 40000 copies as an import in the United States. 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.[22] Metallica embarked on its first major European tour with Tank to an average crowd of 1300. Returning to the US marked a tour co-headlining with WASP and Armored Saint supporting. Metallica played its largest show at the Monsters of Rock festival on August 17, 1985, with Bon Jovi and Ratt at Donington Park in England, playing in front of 70000 people. A show in Oakland, California, at the Day on the Green festival saw the band play in front of a crowd of 60000.[21] Metallica's third studio album, Master of Puppets, was recorded at Sweet Silence Studios and was released in March 1986. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, and spent 72 weeks on the chart.[23] The album was the band's first to be certified gold on November 4, 1986, and was certified six times platinum in 2003.[24] Steve Huey of Allmusic considered the album "the band's ... |
