| "The Unforgiven" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Metallica | ||||||||||
| from the album Metallica | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Killing Time", "So What?", "The Unforgiven (Demo)" | |||||||||
| Released | October 28, 1991 | |||||||||
| Format | CD single | |||||||||
| Recorded | October 1990 - June 1991 at One on One studios, Los Angeles, California | |||||||||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||||||||
| Length | 6:27 | |||||||||
| Label | Elektra | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett | |||||||||
| Producer | Bob Rock, Hetfield, Ulrich | |||||||||
| Metallica singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"The Unforgiven" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the second single from their eponymous fifth album Metallica. Though one of the slower tracks on the album, its chord progression is distinctly one of the heavier. The song deals with the theme of the struggle of the individual against the efforts of those who would subjugate him.
The song has since spawned two sequels (both in name proper as well as thematically), in the form of "The Unforgiven II", from the album ReLoad, and "The Unforgiven III", from the album Death Magnetic.
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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 dynamic, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars. The opening section contains percussive instruments performed by Ulrich, and also a small amount of keyboards.
The horn intro was essentially taken from a Western movie and then reversed so its source would be hidden, as Hetfield later explained on Classic Albums: Metallica - Metallica. While Metallica has never disclosed what movie the horn was taken from, it is believed to be from a piece of music called "The Showdown", which was composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1965 Clint Eastwood "Spaghetti Western" film, For a Few Dollars More.
"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's Nowhere Else 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 the World world tour in 2003–2004 and the Escape from the Studio '06 tour. It has most been played in the band's "World Magnetic" tour.
The live version of "Unforgiven" includes a second solo near the end of the song, something the original recording did not have.
An accompanying video was released for the song. The black and white video is themed around a boy who spends his life living in captivity inside a small, windowless room made entirely of stone. As the video progresses he ages into an adult and then an old man. He spends his entire life carving into the stone to create a window while occasionally grasping his one possession: a locket. It is inferred that another captive lives on the other side of the stone room. The video ends with the old man finally creating a window through which he deposits his possession and subsequently lies down to die. A 11:33, "theatrical" version of the video exists, featuring several minutes of introductory scenes which precede the timeline of the main portion of the video. This version was featured on The Videos 1989-2004, the band's 2006 music video compilation.
The song was covered by Doug Pinnick, Vernon Reid, Frankie Banali, and Tony Franklin for Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica.
"The Unforgiven" has also been covered in other styles of music, notably in bluegrass style by Iron Horse on the album Fade to Bluegrass: The Bluegrass Tribute to Metallica. A Gregorian chant cover by Gregorian also appeared on Masters of Chant Chapter V, Swiss pop singer Stefanie Heinzmann (winner of a German TV talent contest at the TV show TV Total) included a version on the delux edition of her debut album Masterplan, and a classical instrumental version by Finnish cello ensemble Apocalyptica appeared on their release Plays Metallica by Four Cellos. Tribute duo Harptallica recorded a harp version on their album Harptallica: A Tribute.
| "The Unforgiven II" | ||||
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| Single by Metallica | ||||
| from the album ReLoad | ||||
| B-side | Helpless (live)/The Four Horsemen (live)/Of Wolf and Man (live) The Thing That Should Not Be (live)/The Memory Remains (live)/King Nothing (live) No Remorse (live)/Am I Evil? (live)/The Unforgiven II (Demo) |
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| Released | February 23, 1998 | |||
| Format | CD single | |||
| Recorded | 1996, at The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, hard rock | |||
| Length | 6:36 | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Writer(s) | James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett | |||
| Producer | Bob Rock, Hetfield, Ulrich | |||
| Metallica singles chronology | ||||
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"The Unforgiven II" was written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett and appears on the album ReLoad as a sequel to "The Unforgiven" (which appears on the album Metallica). Both songs have similar musical themes. They both start with the horn which is believed to be taken from For a Few Dollars More. The chord progression during the verses is strikingly similar to the one used in the chorus on "The Unforgiven", and certain parts of the song bear a strong resemblance to Iron Maiden's 1982 song, Children of the Damned. Over a decade later, the song was followed by a second sequel, "The Unforgiven III", from the album Death Magnetic.
| "The Unforgiven III" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Metallica from the album Death Magnetic | |
| Released | September 12, 2008 |
| Genre | Heavy metal |
| Length | 7:47 |
| Label | Elektra |
| Writer | James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo |
| Producer | Rick Rubin |
| Death Magnetic track listing | |
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"The Unforgiven III" appears on the album Death Magnetic, released in 2008. It is the second continuation of the song "The Unforgiven", which appears on the album Metallica. The song is precedent for the song "The Unforgiven II" (which makes appearance on the album ReLoad), which is the first sequel. "The Unforgiven III" is structured similar to "The Unforgiven", containing a heavy verse and a soft chorus, "The Unforgiven II" had the opposite, making it different from the others. "The Unforgiven III" is also missing the opening horn note, opening instead with an acoustic piano with a horn section in the background. The chords progression during the piano intro is the same as the choruses of the previous songs. It was not released as a single, as its predecessors were. A live version was performed for the first time on April 14, 2010 in Oslo, Norway. In 2010, it was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance but lost to "War Machine" by AC/DC.
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