What motto appears on the Gadsden flag that inspired Metallica's album song “Don't Tread on Me”?

The motto on the Gadsden flag that inspired Metallica's song Don't Tread on Me is “Don't Tread on Me.” The same phrase became the title of a track on The Black Album.

The album cover shows a coiled snake derived from the Gadsden flag, placed in the lower-right corner against a black background. The band's logo appears in the upper-left corner. This pairing links the song title and the cover's central visual symbol.

The Gadsden flag is an American historical flag associated with a yellow rattlesnake and the warning “Don't Tread on Me.” Metallica did not reproduce the flag's original yellow design directly; instead, the cover reduced the imagery into a deliberately restrained black-on-black presentation.

The song is not one of the album's five commercial singles, although it received promotional radio exposure. Its title is therefore tied to the artwork and historical reference rather than to the album's main single campaign.