“Enter Sandman” was the Metallica song whose music video was directed by Wayne Isham.
The video accompanied the album's lead single and became a crucial part of Metallica's move into mainstream music television. Its imagery combines a sleeping child, unsettling dream scenes, and performance footage, echoing the song's subject of nighttime fears and nightmares.
Isham's video received substantial MTV exposure and won the 1992 MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video. The award helped cement “Enter Sandman” as the defining visual and musical introduction to The Black Album.
Metallica released several other videos connected with the album's singles, but “Enter Sandman” was the first major promotional film associated with the record. The song itself was released on July 29, 1991, two weeks before the album, and its video helped make the track recognizable well beyond the established metal audience.