The Unforgiven (song)

"The Unforgiven" is one of the slower songs on the self-titled album, Metallica (also known as the Black Album). Despite the song's despairing theme and powerful music, the song was considered by some to be evidence of Metallica's selling out to mainstream musical tastes, and contributed to Metallica's step away from standard heavy metal since 1991. It also has a sequel, in the form of The Unforgiven II, from the album ReLoad.

The lyrical content of "The Unforgiven" deals with a young child who is assimilated into a collective society from the moment of his birth. Never allowed to express himself or display any signs of individuality, he lives his life as a faceless, nameless number of many. In his final moments of life, he looks back on his life with nothing but bitterness and regret.

There were two videos for "The Unforgiven" - a short movie that explains the story behind the song more, and the shorter, mainstream release that features shots of the band playing, interspersed with scenes from the short movie.

Drummer 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 dichotomy, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars and James Hetfield's new-found singing voice crooning "So I dub thee unforgiven".

The drum & horn intro was essentially stolen from an un-identified Western movie and then reversed so its source would be hidden. The band has never disclosed what movie the sound was taken from, although it is strongly reminiscent of the beginning of Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which is a song often used to open Metallica concerts.

"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's Nowhere Left To Roam world tour which lasted from 1991-1993, in support of the Black Album. It was played again on the Madly In Anger With You world tour in 2003-2004 and Escape From The Studio '06 tour in 2006.