{"id":24293,"date":"2025-09-18T19:57:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/24293\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T19:57:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:57:21","slug":"metallica-almost-said-goodbye-to-the-1-song-from-their-1991-self-titled-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/24293\/","title":{"rendered":"Metallica Almost Said Goodbye to the #1 Song From Their 1991 Self-Titled Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make sure to say your prayers, because Metallica<\/a> said so. In 1981, frontman James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich teamed up to form Metallica. Together with Kirk Hammett and original bassist Ron McGovney, the quartet released their debut album Kill \u2018Em All in 1983. Although the future \u201880s releases Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets proved their worth in the world of heavy metal, it was their 1991 self-titled Metallica album (a.k.a. The Black Album) that catapulted them into global popularity. Although fans and critics consider the album one of Metallica\u2019s most influential works, the band initially had doubts about the material \u2014 particularly one song that would prove pivotal in their career.<\/p>\n

Released in 1991, Metallica\u2019s \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d became a hit, reaching number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and earning nine-times platinum for over 9 million copies shipped. Its eerie nightmare-inspired music video \u2014 a choice befitting of the song\u2019s title \u2014 won Best Hard Rock Video at the 1992 MTV VMAs and earned nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. A critically acclaimed staple among both fans and fellow musicians, the song has inspired six different covers<\/a> on The Metallica Blacklist tribute album, including those by Mac DeMarco, Rina Sawayama, and Weezer.<\/p>\n

However, Hetfield has his reservations with \u201cEnter Sandman.\u201d Luckily enough, his band members pushed him to move forward with the song<\/a>. In an episode of Metallica\u2019s Masterclass series, Hetfield gets personal about why he initially disliked \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d, and what drove him to release it anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think Enter Sandman was such a great song. I think Lars [Ulrich] and Bob Rock said, \u2018Go back. I challenge you to go back and work on it.\u2019 And I did. And that line, that catchphrase, \u2018We\u2019re off to never, neverland,\u2019 \u2014 what happens in your sleep, why do we have these certain nightmares? A lot of people could identify with that. Everyone has nightmares, and what do you do with them, and why do they show up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Although \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d has earned its praise among rock fans, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine noticed something familiar about the riff. Fans who have followed Metallica from the beginning will remember that Mustaine served as the band\u2019s original guitarist from 1981 to 1983. Unfortunately, his short-lived career with Metallica came to an end when he was fired for his alcohol-induced temper<\/a>, which would escalate into violence. Following Mustaine\u2019s departure, Hammett stepped in as Mustaine\u2019s replacement to record Kill \u2018Em All.<\/p>\n

On an episode of The Shawn Ryan Show, Mustaine not only emphasized that he was \u201cunfairly dismissed\u201d<\/a> by Metallica, but also shared his personal observation of \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d (the actual title of the song that Mustaine meant to say was \u201cTapping into the Emotional Void”).<\/p>\n

\u201dCause we [Megadeth] may not be as big as they [Metallica] are. Hell, their biggest song, \u2018Enter Sandman\u2019, go look up the band Excel right now. Look up their song \u2014 I think it\u2019s something \u2018Into The Unknown\u2019. Pretty similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Metallica\u2019s side of the story, guitarist Hammett recounted that he wrote the riff at \u201cabout 2 or 3 o\u2019clock in the morning.\u201d<\/a> At that point, Hammet was listening to the Soundgarden album Louder Than Love. In a spur of inspiration and creativity, Hammett took his guitar and the riff for \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d instantaneously came out. Hammett\u2019s original riff was further work shopped by Ulrich, suggesting Hammett to \u201crepeat that first part four times,\u201d \u2014 eventually shaping up to the catchy riff Metallica fans have grown to love.<\/p>\n

In 1991, Metallica rocked Moscow’s Tushino Airfield in front of an estimated 1 to 1.6 million people<\/a>, during a time when the Soviet Union was teetering on the edge of collapse. Just weeks earlier, a failed August Coup by hardline Communist officials attempted to overthrow Gorbachev, accelerating the USSR\u2019s disintegration. Against this backdrop, Metallica performed \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d at the Monsters of Rock Festival, making history as the first open-air Western rock festival in Soviet history.<\/p>\n

The massive crowd swelled from 300,000 to over a million, fueled by free entry and alcohol, while 11,000 troops and police struggled to maintain order. Violence broke out, dozens were injured, and over 48 arrests were made, but the chaos mirrored the social and political upheaval outside the festival grounds. Sikorsky helicopters hovered just above the crowd, adding more to the chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Make sure to say your prayers, because Metallica said so. In 1981, frontman James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-24293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}