METALLICA is planning to reissue its third album, 1986's "Master Of Puppets", before the end of 2017 or early next year. Like the group's first two LPs, 1983's "Kill 'Em All" and 1984's "Ride The Lightning" — both of which were reissued in April 2016 — "Master" is expected to be remastered for the most advanced sound quality and will be available in several formats, including a deluxe box set.

Speaking to Quebec, Canada's Voir, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich stated about the "Master Of Puppets" reissue: "It should be coming maybe later… We'll try to see if we can get it out at the end of this year. It's coming soon. We're working on it. There's a lot of stuff associated with 'Master Of Puppets'; that's a big project. And we've spent so much time looking forward, with [the latest METALLICA album] 'Hardwired [… To Self-Destruct]' and so on, but 'Master Of Puppets' is obviously next. [It will be out] hopefully late this year. If not, soon thereafter."

"Master Of Puppets" was released on February 24, 1986 and was the first album METALLICA recorded after signing a major label deal with Elektra Records.

The set only reached No. 29 on the Billboard album chart but has sold over six million copies in the U.S. since.

It is the last record to feature bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed later that year in a tour bus crash.

Several songs from the album are still staples of METALLICA's live set, including "Battery", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and the title track.

Many fans consider it METALLICA's finest album, a fact that the band acknowledged by playing it in its entirety on a European tour in 2006.

"Metallica: Back To The Front", the definitive story of "Master Of Puppets" and the tour that followed its release, hit bookstores and online sellers last September. A very special Collector's Edition of the book was made available two weeks earlier through Metallica.com and MoonriseMedia.net.

"That album, it's interesting, because from the moment it was released, it never went away," METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett said last year while promoting the book. "It still has not and there are no signs of it going away at all."

"It was still rebellious," METALLICA frontman James Hetfield said. "Back then, it was still the four of us in a van out to conquer the world."

"I really feel that a lot of the music on 'Master Of Puppets', we pulled it out of a deep place," Hammett added. "A lot of it, it's just so emotional, from the music to the lyrics to the guitar solos to even the arrangements. It's so dramatic."