Which Metallica song began as Jason Newsted's riff and was originally intended to be an instrumental?

“My Friend of Misery” began as Jason Newsted's riff and was originally intended to be an instrumental.

Newsted was Metallica's bassist during the recording of The Black Album, and he contributed the main riff for this track. The song eventually received lyrics and became the album's eleventh track, but its instrumental origin remains an important detail in the record's creation.

Most of the album's songs were written primarily by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, with Hetfield handling the lyrics. Kirk Hammett and Newsted also supplied ideas for several pieces. The songwriting process therefore involved more than the band's principal writing partnership, even though Hetfield and Ulrich received many of the album's composition credits.

The song's original instrumental concept is sometimes confused with Metallica's earlier tradition of including an instrumental on every album. The Black Album did not ultimately contain a fully instrumental track, because “My Friend of Misery” developed into a vocal song. Its title and lyrics give the finished recording a darker, more personal character than its early conception alone suggests.