These are the little things that show us how time passes and you get old. Metallica’s Enter Sandman is almost 3 decades old. The song is part of the mega-platinum album known as Black Album and, like all the songs in this work, divided opinions and still causes controversy among the oldest fans of the band.
Metallica emerged as a heavy band in the distant year of 1981. They released 3 albums that were truly metal in the world of heavy music and was characterized by being a band that had never released similar albums. Until the fourth album (… and justice for all), the fan never knew what to expect from Metallica. We simply knew it was an immeasurable thing. Even though it is one of the divine pillars of Thrash Metal, it still lacked a freak recognition from the media.
In 1989, the band called on producer Bob Rock, with whom they had not worked before, to help sculpt their next masterpiece. Rock had just produced ‘Dr. Feelgood ‘, by Mötley Crüe, and the members of Metallica wanted to reproduce the same low-frequency timbres obtained on that record. Rock brought engineer Randy Staub into the One on One studio in North Hollywood to begin the long and arduous process of recording what was conventionally called ‘The Black Album’ and their first single, ‘Enter Sandman’.
Below is a Live Performance of ‘Enter Sandman’ captured live at Woodstock 99 East Stage, Rome, NY.