Enter Sandman

When the initial riff of Enter Sandman began to take shape, it wasn't exactly as we know it today. Kirk Hammett had conceived it in two bars, but Lars Ulrich suggested a twist: repeat the first bar three times before moving on to the second, creating a cadence that would become the foundation of this piece. This idea, along with the rest of the instrumental ideas, was completed with surprising speed. However, the vocal melodies and lyrics took time to arrive. In fact, Enter Sandman was one of the last songs on the album Metallica to have lyrics. James Hetfield, the vocalist and guitarist, felt the song's sound was catchy and commercial, and to balance it, he wrote about the idea of a family with dark secrets and childhood death.

It was a collaborative process, where Ulrich and producer Bob Rock encouraged Hetfield to further refine the lyrics. Despite the initial absence of words, the song was already fundamental, serving as a guide for the rest of the record. The recording of Metallica, the album that Enter Sandman is part of, took place mainly at One on One studios in Los Angeles, extending from October 1990 to June 1991. However, there was an additional week of work between April and May 1991 in Vancouver, Canada, with Ulrich, Hetfield, and Bob Rock. Unlike previous works, Rock proposed that the band record playing together, seeking a more cohesive sound.

For Enter Sandman, Hetfield created what he described as a "wall of guitars," recording three rhythm tracks of the same riff to generate a sense of immersive sound. The drums required considerable effort; it is said that nearly 50 takes of each section of the song were recorded, as Ulrich did not perform it from beginning to end in a single take. The goal was to capture the desired intensity, combining multiple takes. The producer and sound engineer dedicated time to optimizing the room's acoustics and experimenting with microphone combinations to simulate the energy of a live performance. The bass also took on a greater prominence under Rock's production, expanding the band's sonic spectrum.

As the first single, Enter Sandman was also the first song to be mixed, a process that lasted about ten days, as the band and Bob Rock sought to define the album's overall sound through this piece. The single was released on July 29, 1991, and reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, contributing significantly to the more than 30 million copies sold by Metallica worldwide.