The final recording date listed for Metallica's 1991 album, The Black Album, is June 16, 1991.
The album’s recording period ran from October 6, 1990, to June 16, 1991, at One on One Recording Studios in Los Angeles. That eight-month span reflects the extensive work involved in shaping a record that represented a major change in Metallica’s sound and presentation.
The sessions were led by producer Bob Rock, working with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich as co-producers. The band refined songs that would become some of its best-known recordings, including “Enter Sandman,” “Sad but True,” and “Nothing Else Matters.”
The date is easy to confuse with other important milestones. “Enter Sandman” was released as a single on July 29, 1991, while the album itself arrived on August 12, 1991. The recording end date comes before both of those public-release events.