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The Unforgiven II

"The Unforgiven"
Metallica - The Unforgiven cover.jpg
Single by Metallica
from the album Metallica
B-side "Killing Time", "So What?", "The Unforgiven (Demo)"
Released October 28, 1991
Format CD single, cassette, vinyl
Recorded October 6, 1990 – July 16, 1991 at One on One studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre Heavy metal
Length 6:27
Label Elektra
Writer(s) James Hetfield
Kirk Hammett
Lars Ulrich
Producer(s) Bob Rock
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Metallica singles chronology
"Enter Sandman"
(1991)
"The Unforgiven"
(1991)
"Nothing Else Matters"
(1992)
Music video
"The Unforgiven" on YouTube
Music sample
"The Unforgiven II"
Metallica - The Unforgiven II cover.jpg
Single by Metallica
from the album ReLoad
B-side Helpless (live)/The Four Horsemen (live)/Of Wolf and Man (live)
The Thing That Should Not Be (live)/The Memory Remains (live)/King Nothing (live)
No Remorse (live)/Am I Evil? (live)/The Unforgiven II (Demo)
Released February 23, 1998
Format CD single, Cassette
Recorded 1996, at The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California
Length 6:36
Label Elektra
Producer(s) Bob Rock
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Metallica singles chronology
"The Memory Remains"
(1997)
"The Unforgiven II"
(1998)
"Fuel"
(1998)
Music video
"The Unforgiven II" on YouTube
"The Unforgiven III"
Song by Metallica from the album Death Magnetic
Released September 12, 2008
Genre Heavy metal
Length 7:47
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) James Hetfield
Kirk Hammett
Lars Ulrich
Robert Trujillo
Producer(s) Rick Rubin
Death Magnetic track listing
  1. "That Was Just Your Life"
  2. "The End of the Line"
  3. "Broken, Beat & Scarred"
  4. "The Day That Never Comes"
  5. "All Nightmare Long"
  6. "Cyanide"
  7. "The Unforgiven III"
  8. "The Judas Kiss"
  9. "Suicide & Redemption"
  10. "My Apocalypse"

"The Unforgiven" is a power ballad by American metal band Metallica. It was released as the second single from their eponymous fifth album Metallica. Though one of the slower tracks on the album, its chord progression is distinctly one of the heavier. The song deals with the theme of the struggle of the individual against the efforts of those who would subjugate him.

The song has since spawned two sequels, in the form of "The Unforgiven II", from the album ReLoad, and "The Unforgiven III", from the album Death Magnetic.

Lars Ulrich explained that the band wanted to try something new with the idea of a ballad - instead of the standard melodic verse and heavy chorus (as evidenced on their previous ballads "Fade to Black", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "One"), the band opted to reverse the dynamic, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars. The opening section contains percussive instruments performed by Ulrich, and also a small amount of keyboards.

The horn intro was essentially taken from The Unforgiven (a Western movie) and then reversed so its source would be hidden, as Hetfield later explained on Classic Albums: Metallica - Metallica.

"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's "Wherever We May Roam" and Nowhere Else to Roam world tour which lasted from 1991 to 1993, in support of the Black Album. It was played again on the Madly in Anger with the World world tour in 2003 and 2004 and has been continued to be played during all of the bands' tours since.


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