Which Metallica album song includes a child reciting a bedtime prayer?

“Enter Sandman” includes a child reciting a bedtime prayer.

The spoken prayer appears during the song’s unsettling middle section, where the imagery of sleep and childhood fear becomes part of the track’s nightmare theme. The child’s voice was provided by Bob Rock’s son, linking the recording directly to the album’s producer.

The song was written by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, with Hetfield writing the lyrics. Its subject is not a literal story about a monster alone; it uses the Sandman figure, dreams and bedtime rituals to explore the fears that can surface when a child is trying to sleep.

Because “Enter Sandman” is also the album’s opening track and lead single, listeners sometimes associate the prayer with the album as a whole. It is specifically part of this song. The track became one of Metallica’s signature recordings and reached number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100.