Metallica’s legendary self-titled studio effort from 1991, commonly known as The Black Album, celebrates its 30th birthday this year. As part of efforts to mark this special anniversary, the band recently decided to share a rough mix of the album’s second single, “The Unforgiven.”
According to the info included, the rough mix was completed on May 14th, 1991, at One on One Recording studio in Los Angeles. Compared to The Black Album version, it seems to have fewer effects, especially guitar-wise, and frontman James Hetfield’s vocals sound cleaner and softer. Hear it below.
“The Unforgiven” rough mix will be included in the special reissue of The Black Album. It comes on September 10th and will contain remastered original songs and loads of other goodies like alternate mixes and demo versions.
The reissue will be followed by The Metallica Blacklist cover album, which features more than 50 artists delivering their renditions of The Black Album songs in all sorts of different styles. Seven “The Unforgiven” covers will be included on the album, with three of them already being made available on streaming platforms.
You can check out the covers of “The Unforgiven” by Latin pop duo Ha*Ash, Indian music artists Vishal Dadlani, DIVINE, Shor Police, and indie rockers Diet Cig below.
