10 Greatest Rock Music Guitar Solos Of The 1990s
4. The Unforgiven - Metallica
If you were a thrash purist, then chances are you hated when Metallica pivoted to a more radio-friendly sound with 1991’s “Black Album”. If you were anyone else, then you were probably thrilled.
The record took the world by storm upon release and made Metallica household names, as songs like Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters entered the public sphere. Though not as popular as those two, The Unforgiven has also found a place amongst the rock faithful, and with good reason.
A tragic tale of a man whose life is spent in servitude, The Unforgiven is one of the group’s best story songs with Kirk Hammet’s solo serving as a nice break between the plot points.
The section, which Hammet basically improvised on the spot, is as grand and searching as the subject matter of the song, beginning with four plunging notes before cascading into the maestro’s usual brand of fret-based wizardry.
It sounds like it could have come straight from a gunfight scene in an old Western, which only adds to the epic nature of this tale of lifelong struggle.