Metallica began recording its 1991 self-titled album, commonly called The Black Album, in October 1990.
The sessions took place mainly at One on One Recording Studios in Los Angeles and lasted about eight months, with recording continuing through June 1991. The band had already written the songs during a concentrated period in mid-1990, and several ideas grew out of material developed during the Damaged Justice Tour.
Before the main sessions, Metallica recorded four demos on August 13, 1990: “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters,” and “Wherever I May Roam.” A demo of “Sad but True” followed on October 4. These dates are earlier than the formal album sessions and can cause confusion when tracing the record’s chronology.
The lengthy production reflected the band’s perfectionism and Bob Rock’s insistence on repeated takes. Rock later described the experience as difficult, but the process produced an album that changed Metallica’s commercial reach while retaining its heavy-metal identity.