A snake is faintly pictured on the cover of Metallica’s 1991 album Metallica.
The nearly black cover shows the band’s logo in the upper-left area and a subtle coiled snake toward the lower-right. The restrained design gave the album its widespread nickname, The Black Album, even though Metallica is its official title.
The snake image connects to the song “Don’t Tread on Me,” whose title and lyrics reference the Gadsden flag and its rattlesnake emblem. That visual link is easy to miss because the artwork uses very low contrast rather than a bright illustration.
The cover’s simplicity contrasted with the album’s enormous cultural impact. As the record became one of the best-selling albums in music history, the dark artwork became instantly recognizable and influenced how fans referred to the album in conversation.