“Don’t Tread on Me” was issued to rock radio promotionally but was not released as a commercial single from The Black Album.
Metallica promoted the album with five commercial singles: “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Wherever I May Roam,” and “Sad but True.” “Don’t Tread on Me” is sometimes mistakenly counted among them because it received radio exposure after the album’s release.
The song appears as the sixth track on the original album. Its title references the Gadsden flag and the phrase associated with that historical symbol, while its lyrics present a patriotic and defensive theme.
The distinction between a promotional release and a commercial single matters in discography questions. A promotional record may be distributed to radio stations for airplay without being sold to the public as a standard single, which is the status that separates “Don’t Tread on Me” from the album’s five official commercial singles.