10 Rock Songs That Waited Years Before Being Released
2. Sad But True - Metallica
Metallica’s choice to hook up with Bob Rock as a producer remains one of the most polarizing choices in all of metal music. Even though they took their sound to new heights on the Black Album, there are many fans that argue that they sold out and made songs that were made for Top 40 rather than they’re old school thrash fans. If they hadn’t worked with Bob though, one of the heaviest tunes in their catalog probably wouldn’t sound nearly as good.
While it would be easy to say that everything on the Black Album was ghostwritten by Bob, Sad But True actually dated back to the sessions for Master of Puppets, being present on the original demos for the project. The one thing bringing it down though was the tempo, as James kept trying to give it more teeth by speeding it up and making it sound a lot thinner in the process.
When Bob heard it, he had mentioned that it sounded way too happy and suggested that they slow it down a little bit more, making for something that felt like a heavy metal answer to a song like Kashmir by Led Zeppelin. For all of the people that felt betrayed by a song like Nothing Else Matters, you can’t listen to this song and not feel like Bob didn’t have their best interests in mind.