“Enter Sandman” was the first Metallica song from The Black Album to receive an instrumental demo.
The demo was recorded on August 13, 1990, before the album's main recording sessions began. At that stage, the song had its central guitar idea but not the final lyrics that would make it one of Metallica's signature tracks.
Kirk Hammett supplied the original riff, and Lars Ulrich helped reshape its repetition and structure. James Hetfield later wrote the lyrics after Bob Rock and Ulrich pushed him to move beyond an earlier concept. The contrast between the catchy music and unsettling bedtime imagery became central to the song's identity.
The demo date is not the same as the single's release date or the album's release date. The instrumental recording predates both: the single arrived in July 1991, and Metallica followed on August 12, 1991.