Hot Take: 'Enter Sandman' is Worst Song of Metallica's Heyday

by Preston Tolliver
Metallica’s eponymous 1991 release commonly known as “The Black Album” has become arguably its most popular because it simultaneously marked the end of the band’s old sound and the beginning of a new one.
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“The Black Album” was a transitory album that bridged the decade of the band’s early raw and brutal albums and the more mainstream metal albums of the ‘90s. The album itself was the last agreed-upon great Metallica album, even, before a forgettable decade in the ‘90s and a straight disappointing one in the 2000s.

No song was more recognizable off “The Black Album” than “Enter Sandman,” the opening anthem that taught metalheads the world over that eerie bedtime prayer. The song has become, by many, what the band is known for. However, through over-saturation on radio stations and in sports arenas, the song has overshadowed Metallica’s better works – works that cover, essentially, most every other song in their library to that point. It’s catchy, sure, but it shouldn’t define the band more than the preceding bangers it put out on the albums before: songs like “Master of Puppets,” “…And Justice for All” and their all-time best, “Fade to Black.”

“Enter Sandman” is certainly Metallica’s most overrated song, and I dare say the worst song overall of the band’s first era (1983-1991).