Metallica: 10 Best Hard Rock Songs
1. Sad But True
The biggest complaint that hardcore Metallica fans had with the Black Album was the band's drastic shift towards more commercial material. Even with all the negative backlash that the band had to sift through, no one could deny the heaviness behind "Sad But True."
If metalheads had had their way, the original version of this tune would have been a fast-paced mess. Once Bob Rock got his hands on the tune, the song went from a maniacal uptempo riff to a brutal hard rock stomp. The song is also one of the darkest on the lyrical front, with Hetfield speaking from the perspective of the dark side of you that you don't want to confront.
The new production also helps the song immensely, with the guitars being layered 7 times over and Lars' drums sounding like they are cannon shots every time he hits the snare.
I will conceit that the tempo is certainly a change of pace, but the hard groove is still more than worthy of getting legions of fans headbanging in succession. It's no secret that the Black Album was divisive among the thrash metal faithful, but "Sad But True" was the best of both worlds by providing a hard groove for rock fans while staying just gritty enough for the metal crowd to raise their horns.