Metallica's original 1991 album, The Black Album, contains 12 tracks.
The sequence begins with “Enter Sandman” and continues through songs including “Sad but True,” “The Unforgiven,” “Wherever I May Roam,” and “Nothing Else Matters.” It closes with “My Friend of Misery” and “The Struggle Within,” giving the standard album a total of 12 songs.
This compact track count reflected the band's desire to move away from the very long, complex song structures associated with ...And Justice for All. Metallica still delivered substantial material, but the arrangements were generally more direct and spacious. The standard running time is about an hour, making the album substantial without relying on the extended formats of some earlier releases.
Expanded editions can create confusion because later reissues add demos, live performances, and alternate material. Those bonus recordings do not change the number of tracks on the original studio album. For the 1991 release itself, the canonical answer is 12.