A coiled snake appears on the original cover of Metallica’s 1991 album, commonly known as The Black Album.
The snake is derived from the Gadsden flag, whose imagery includes a rattlesnake and the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” That motto is also the title of one of the album’s songs, linking the cover design directly to the record’s contents.
On the initial release, the snake and Metallica logo were embossed and nearly black against the black background. Their low contrast made the artwork unusually subtle and helped inspire the nickname The Black Album, even though the official title remained Metallica.
Later releases made the emblems dark gray so they were easier to see. The cover is sometimes misremembered as showing only a black field, but the faint snake and logo are central parts of its design. The image also echoes the album’s themes of danger, independence, and American symbolism.