Leper Messiah

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"Leper Messiah"

Cover of Master of Puppets
Song by Metallica
from the album Master of Puppets
Released	February 21, 1986
Recorded	Sweet Silence Studios Copenhagen, Denmark September-December, 1985
Genre	Thrash metal
Length	5:40
Label	Elektra Records
Producer(s)	Metallica, Flemming Rasmussen
Master of Puppets track listing
"Battery" "Master of Puppets" "The Thing That Should Not Be" "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" "Disposable Heroes" "Leper Messiah" "Orion" "Damage, Inc."

"Leper Messiah" is the sixth song from Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets, dealing with televangelists who use people's guilt to con them out their money. By promising the people that they, or their loved ones, would be saved with donations, the culprits actually care about nothing but money and keep it for themselves. Another interpretation is that religion does not deliver everything it promises, and ends up controlling people instead of helping them, in keeping with the overall theme of control and manipulation of Master of Puppets. This might, like "The God That Failed", be a reference to the death of James Hetfield's mother, who died of cancer because her Christian Science beliefs went against modern medical treatment.

Dave Mustaine claimed to have written the main riff of the song (which can be heard in the Metallica song Ride the Lightning which he is given credit for) and that he was not given credit for it by Metallica. A claim Kirk Hammett refuted as false (though he has no credit for the song) in the February 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine.

The phrase "Leper Messiah" is also referenced in the David Bowie song, "Ziggy Stardust", off his 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

This song was covered by the band Fightstar for Kerrang!'s Master of Puppets: Remastered.
This song was mixed with Beatles' song "Lady Madonna" to produce the song "Leper Madonna" by Beatallica.