What is the closing track on Metallica’s standard-edition The Black Album?
Answer
The Struggle Within
“The Struggle Within” is the closing track on Metallica’s standard-edition The Black Album.
It appears as track 12 and runs for 3 minutes 53 seconds. The song follows “My Friend of Misery,” “The God That Failed,” and the rest of the album’s tightly sequenced program, giving the standard edition a forceful final statement.
The distinction between standard and Japanese editions matters. The Japanese release added “So What,” a cover of a song by Anti-Nowhere League, as track 13. That bonus track does not replace “The Struggle Within” as the closer of the standard 12-track album.
The album’s vinyl configuration also preserves the 12-track structure in four groups of three: tracks 1–3 on Side A, 4–6 on Side B, 7–9 on Side C, and 10–12 on Side D. This makes “The Struggle Within” the final track on Side D as well as the standard album’s overall closer.