“Sad But True” by Metallica

"Sad but True" hits like a wrecking ball swung in slow motion, one of the heaviest things on Metallica's 1991 self-titled album. Lars Ulrich has traced the idea back to 1986 and the Master of Puppets days, but it took Bob Rock to unlock it. In pre-production he noticed every song was sitting in E, pointed the band to the tuned-down D of Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood, which he'd produced, and Metallica dropped down. That's when the riff went from big to monstrous.

James Hetfield and Ulrich wrote it, Hetfield sings and plays guitar alongside Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted holds the bottom end, and Rock produced with the two of them. It became the album's fifth and last single in February 1993, reaching 15 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.